By Sarafa Ibrahim
On August 8, electorates in Osun will go to the poll to decide who will steer the affairs of the state for four years. Before the electorate, there are clear two lines to choose from. One is to go with continuity while the other will be returning to a past of misery and pains.
To arrive at the ideal choice, a lot of indices will have to be weighed by the electorate and one of such is welfare. At the mention of welfare, what usually comes to the mind of many is simply workers and pensioners, but for a state like Osun, it goes beyond that. Osun economy is fragile and a wrong attitude towards the welfare of workers and pensioners easily trigger a ripple effect, most especially on the informal sector that relies on them for their trades.
This explains why Osun GDP shrank significantly under the APC as local businesses struggle to survive due to low patronage. There is no need reminding many on what the past looks like because this was a history we all witnessed together. Interestingly, Bola Oyebamiji, the All Progressives Congress (APC) was an integral part of the past that Osun people did everything to escape about four years ago and could even have influenced some of the bad decisions that seriously hurt workers and pensioners.
Some weeks ago, the content of an agreement that imposed half salary regime on helpless workers and pensioners went viral and among the signatories to that burdensome decision was Bola Oyebamiji. In a media briefing in 2018, Bola Oyebamiji tactically defended the introduction of half salary as a last resort as the other “option we (government) had then was to right-size the workforce, that is, cut our coat according to our cloth, so to speak.”
The ready excuse for the policy, as usual, was the debt binge on the state, which Bola Oyebamiji noted it’s sizeable portion “was incurred on salaries.” But that is not the whole truth, because by his own admission that “in November 2016, the state government received N11.74 billion as refunds from the Paris Club” and that “in July 2017, the government received N6.3 billion as the second tranche of Paris Club refund”, the horrible experience endured by workers and pensioners may not be justified.
Between 2015 and 2018 when the half salary was implemented, Osun revenue was not as bad as Bola Oyebamiji painted it. In 2017, for instance, the aggregated revenue was N77.038 billions, and if the N6.3 billion receipt for Paris Club refund is factored into the equation, there should be enough to cater for the salaries and wages that is estimated at N32 billion even with the N29.027 billion for servicing loan in that year.
But the issue, I presume, is compassion, which clearly preface Bola Oyebamiji and the kind of leadership he represents. In February 2025, Governor Ademola Adeleke faced a situation far more dire than the conditions that Bola Oyebamiji used as an excuse for making workers and pensioners go through excruciating pains. Outside every known law and tradition, the federal government withheld Osun local governments allocation and put the wellbeing of workers in jeopardy for nothing other than petty politics.
But Governor Adeleke showed that leadership is no just about comfort but standing up for the people when it mattered most. It is too crude and barbaric to subject innocent primary school teachers, healthcare workers and local government workers to undue pains by not receiving their salaries. This may seem fine with Bola Oyebamiji, but for a compassionate leader like Governor Adeleke, it is not acceptable, as no one should suffer unjustly to gross abuse of power that the withholding of Osun local governments fund clearly portrayed.
Since February 2025, Governor Adeleke has been shouldering the responsibility of paying the salaries of primary school teachers, healthcare and local government workers across the councils in the state. Even though he has more than excuses to dangle like Bola Oyebamiji did when half salary was slammed on the faces of workers and pensioners, Governor Adeleke refuse to allow families go hungry, not for any fault of theirs, but because some people believed they have the power to determine who survives or no.
And, Governor Adeleke is not paying just anything, but the full worth of the salary of all the affected workers in line with the new minimum wage table. Just as he is paying the state’s workforce their benefits, Governor is paying workers that should ordinarily draw their salaries from local governments allocation even though it was withheld.
To understand the scope of what Governor Adeleke is doing, take a peep into the amount that goes into paying salaries and pensions across local governments in the state in the 2024 fiscal year. In 2024, salaries and pensions for benefits at local governments in Osun state gulped N49.85 billion and this was at a period when the new minimum wage is yet to be effected. Imagine what the numbers will be now that 150% increase, which is the N75,000 minimum wage that Osun state adopted will amount to.
Yet, Governor Adeleke did not default at any moment throughout the 2025 period when the allocation to local governments were illegally withheld. What that pointedly indicated is that Governor Adeleke is a leader who prioritize the welfare of the people and that unlike the experience with the past, he will not invent excuses as an answer to genuine demands for due benefits.
The story is not any different for pensioners, who has seen significant changes in their welfare under Governor Adeleke. Just like the active workers, Governor Adeleke ensured the payment of half salary owed pensioners, with most unbonded pensioners already paid in full what was owed them by the APC administration.
In three years, Governor Adeleke has expended more than N50 billion on pension benefits, money that is far more than what was spent by the previous governments, including the one that Bola Oyebamiji was an integral part of in 12 years. For context, while a total of 2,137 pensioners received bonds in the twelve years of the successive APC administrations, a total of 2,401 pensioners has gotten their bonds under Governor Adeleke in three years.
In addition to this, Governor Adeleke provided an expansive healthcare coverage for every pensioner in Osun state, shouldering the burden of managing their health at old age. It is worthy to note that Osun is the first state in the whole of Nigeria to embark on such expansive healthcare cover for senior citizens, easing not just their worries but ensuring that they are no longer lost to avoidable death due to inability to fund their healthcare.
Clear enough, the continuity which Governor Adeleke represents is refreshing and guaranteed a better welfare condition for workers and pensioners while the past that Bola Oyebamiji is anchoring his aspiration on, promises nothing but the misery that should never be experienced again. In the past that Bola Oyebamiji was a part of, ‘audio promotion’ was all they believed workers deserve, but for Governor Adeleke, it was an aberration that cannot be allowed to persist, hence, implemented the financial benefits of those promotions and put and end to the needless wait of helpless workers.
So, workers and pensioners have their choice well cut out for them and continuity with Governor Adeleke, is by all measures, the most ideal choice for them. Doing otherwise will no doubt bring back not just the ugly experience of the past, but something even worse. The signs are clear enough.
- Sarafa Ibrahim is a Special Assistant to the Osun State Governor and writes from Iwo, Osun State.
