My regime has performed excellently well, says Aregbesola

Firstclass newsline gathtered that the Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf
Aregbesola, said on Tuesday that his administration had performed
creditably well despite its inability to pay its workers in the state
for the past seven months.
According to a statement made available to our correspondent in
Osogbo on Tuesday by his media aide, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, governor
scored himself high. He spoke during a courtesy visit to him by the
Osun Action Strategy and Development Group.
He, however, said he was pained by the inability of his government to
pay workers but also sympathised with workers while assuring them that
the hardship would soon come to an end.
The statement read, "Despite the financial shortage, even the most
virulent critics of this government cannot deny that the
administration has performed creditably well.
"This government built roads, schools, supplied students withOpon
Imo(Tablets of Knowledge), distributed uniforms to all public students
in the state, created welfare programmes for the old and vulnerable
people as well as supporting farmers.
"No state has done what Osun did in the area of security, which today
has totally checked crimes and other anti-social activities in the
state. Huge amount of money was committed to purchasing armoured
personnel carrier and ambulances which are strategically located in
the state and responding to distress calls round the clock.
"If all the programmes, with huge cost involved, are factored into the
accruable revenue of the state, it will be crystal clear why the state
is where it is today."
Describing the situation as an economic tragedy, he said the current
misfortune of the nation's economy remains a gross mishandling by the
last administration of the Peoples Democratic Party.
He stated that the unchecked oil theft under the PDP, in which the
nation was losing 400, 000 barrels per day, culminated in the drastic
reduction of oil price in the international market.
"This price fall has created for the country a tragedy of huge
proportion that translated into economic disaster, pains and agony for
the workers across the country," he said.
Aregbesola said the state collected N5bn as monthly allocation in
February 2013 but the allocation drastically reduced to a mere N540m
in April 2015.
He said further, "As we are trying to find solution to these
challenges, we must not also run away from what brought us to this
situation.
"For those who think this is an opportunity to pillory us in this
economic condition, I pity them. Only God does not fail. We shall
overcome; we shall recover from this challenge. I sympathise and feel
for the workers. I appeal to them to bear with us as we work
assiduously to end this problem. I assure them that the period of
agony will soon be over.
"It is disheartening for people to work and such work fails to
translate into wages. It is a harrowing experience for both workers
and the government."
Firstclassnewsline.net