Banks have stopped lending money to Osun state government after it accumulated a loan of N24 billion to pay salaries, Governor Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola said yesterday.
“The challenge I face today was not my making, it is a national problem. I borrowed N24 billion to pay salaries, but when the banks say I cannot borrow again, there is nothing I can do in the face of dwindling revenue accruing to the state,” Aregbesola said regarding a backlog of huge salary arrears dating back to November last year.
“I am not shifting blame and I bear responsibility, but it was a responsibility the Nigerian state forced on me. I am still labouring physically and spiritually to pay the workers’ salary,” he added.
He said despite raising the internally generated revenues (IGR) from N900 million annually to N3.6 billion he was yet to pay workers’ salary because the banks were not forthcoming on further loans.
He spoke yesterday in Abuja at the annual Ramadan Lecture of the Al-Habibiyyah Islamic Society of Nigeria with the theme “Ramadan: Changing Positively”.
He however said that contrary to reports, local governments and other categories of workers were being paid and not owed except workers under the state’s civil service commission.
“How can anyone accuse me of mismanaging the resources of the state when my campaign promises was based on populace welfare and infrastructural development?
“By God’s Grace I have delivered on most of the promises. Initially it was thought that only Osun owed workers salary, but it can be seen that it is a national issue and that 23 of the 36 states of the federation owed their workers” he said.
He however assured his people that he was working tirelessly to ensure that those being owed are paid.
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