As a means to ensure development of Osun State, Governor Rauf Aregbesola has said that he stopped receiving salaries since August, 2010.
He said this while hosting journalist on special Iftaar at the Government House, Osogbo, late Tuesday night.
The governor noted that, though that was a tough decision for him, he had to take the decision for the state to develop.
He subsequently noted that the state government would ensure the payment of salaries to workers before Eid-fitri.
Aregbesola said that he only enjoyed free accommodation, fuelling of his vehicles and the provision of security aides by the state government since emergence of office as a governor.
While urging Nigerians to bear with the current government over economic challenges, Aregbesola said the economic condition of the country during the civil war was not as biting as what Nigeria experienced now.
He said, "I used to say it, you people do not believe it. The state provides accommodation for me; the state fuels my vehicle, takes care of the security for me but I have not taken salary from the day I became the governor and I don't intend to take it.
"Nobody has ever asked us how we are managing to pay salaries since we started getting less than N200million as allocation since September 2015. N1.7 billion is spent on workers' salaries every month. By God's grace, I am going to pay my workers' salaries before Sallah."
Aregbesola also assured that his administration would complete all the projects it had embarked upon before the end of his tenure in 2018.
While berating the critics of his administration's policies, the governor said, "Instead of supporting a man that is turning around the state, you are stabbing us. No amount of attacks will dissuade us from achieving our plans. We will not leave our plans without actualizing them. We shall complete all our projects. When the going gets tough, the tough gets going."
On how he was able to mobilise contractors back to the sites of the ongoing road projects in the state, he said, "I will tell Nigerians how I got money to mobilise contractors to site and how I was able to solve some financial problems in the state when I would be marking the second anniversary of my second tenure in November 27, 2016.
"Some insinuated that I used local government allocations. The truth is that, there is no tier or arm of government that is getting anything that could pay salaries.
"Even the civil war was not as biting as what we are facing in Nigeria now; because they did not declare economic state of emergency in Nigeria does not mean that Nigeria is not near to that."
http://dailytimes.ng/ive-not-received-salary-since-august-2010-aregbesola/
Written by NEWSTRAWL ONLINE UPDATE
Sodiq Oyeleke is a Media, Human Resources, Project Management and Public Relations Practitioner
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