by Favour Afolabi
Those that begged for Governor Rauf Aregbesola to get a bailout; claiming “Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the one that ‘chopped’ the monies that he should have used to pay the workers” have all chosen to go quiet even after he received the bailout while still refusing to pay the workers and pensioners thereafter!
These people – self-styled intellectuals – as they always like to position themselves to be spent about 2 weeks within this polity – defending “Why President Buhari must help the States to pay these Salaries so as not to let the Workers suffer” – they came up with all manners of logic like “The US would have bailed out the states” – and “The Workers should not be allowed to pay for the sins of the Politicians.”
They went on to suggest that folks like me that opposed their position were “being bitter because we lost the elections; and that we were willing to carry our bitterness to the point that these workers should die of hunger.”
Well, it is now close to two weeks since the so-called bailouts were released to the States; and the Governor of my own State – “the funky Ogbeni” is yet to pay the FULL 7 Months Salaries and 8 Months Pension arrears he owes in the State – for which he cried “he needed the help of the FGN to settle” – all of a sudden, he is no longer even giving promises with dates of when he intends to pay up these monies – he has moved further than that – he is now sending his BOYS to beat up workers and pensioners that protest being owed – and he has gotten Legislators to set up “a panel made up of ONLY APC Members” in response to the petition made to the House by a respectable judge in the state.
You and I already know this would end – a #SalamiGate would occur – Aregbesola would be said to have done nothing wrong; he would be cleared of all infractions; the owed workers/pensioners would now be perpetually at his mercy with nowhere else to seek Justice; EFCC won’t intervene; DSS won’t invade his House; and President Buhari that “dashed him the Bail Out” would pretend as though “Boko Haram is what is currently occupying him at this time.”
Then it gets more interesting – our “self-styled intellectuals” – what I like to describe as “His 40 Thieves” – would move the conversation from “He needs bailout to Pay the Workers” to “He also needed to pay other obligations like contractors aside from the workers” – they will tell you “Do you know any company that uses all its incomes to pay workers” – and then to “Who even told you the money is a bailout? It is the legit monies due to the state from NLNG; the Governor has the right to do what he chooses with the monies as the CEO of the state!”
I like to profile critical times in the nation’s history as this one – to always remind Nigerians that “majority of those you respect within this polity as public commentators are really men with very low principles – usually worse in such regards to what you would get from the average politician within this polity” – they are largely more interested in being politically accurate at all times than in sticking by the very truth they claim to defend.
You would notice that a few weeks ago, their conversation was “Is Osun the only state owing its workers? What of the PDP states?” Interestingly – none of these people were able to adequately show us how the of agitations in those PDP states was anything remotely comparable to what was going on in OSUN – where the Workers have now officially become beggars seeking handouts.
Even the Fayose that they always love to deride was, at the last time I checked not owing up to one month’s salary; so my fellow Nigerians – I congratulate you all on these band of intellectuals this polity is afflicted with – folks like Femi Falana, Pat Utomi, Festus Keyamo, etc – who have all gone mum as these Osun Crisis have dragged on – even as my Dear Egbon – Dele Momodu penned an article about 2 weeks ago suggesting “Aregbesola should be praised; not victimized” – Lobatan!
Well, I shall be pushing #Ogbeni419 on Social Media in the coming days to shed light on this matter – I welcome you to join me in this regard.
Favour Afolabi is founder and principal consultant at Online Republic Media and president and CEO, Viva Realty. He tweets from @FavourAfolabi and is on Facebook HERE.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
