By Nofisat Adeoye
A Chieftain of the Peoples Democracy Party, PDP, Mr Bayo Faforiji has admitted that the road infrastructure of the state Government of Osun led by Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is indeed laudable.
Faforiji who is the factional leader of Omisore’s PDP in the state said this while answering questions on a radio programme monitored by OSUN DEFENDER on Monday.
The PDP Chieftain, however, stated that the state government should not just have invested so much on road infrastructure alone as well as other laudable projects when the workers are being owed.
He said the Governor should consider paying the outstanding salaries and pensions instead of embarking on what he termed “white elephant projects”.
“Why borrow to build roads when people are suffering, workers are being owed salaries. When everybody eventually dies from hunger, who would ply these roads?”
The Media Adviser to the Governor, Mr Sola Fasure, who was also on the radio programme, however urged Faforiji not to exaggerate the condition of the state.
Fasure said, it is only a fraction of the workers that are being owed salaries which was as a result of the nation’s economy adding that the State government embarked on those projects to boost its economy.
“As we speak, workers on grade levels 1 to 7 are paid up to date in full, while those between grade levels 8 to 10 received 75% of their salaries and grade level 12 and above were being paid half of their monthly salary based on agreement between the government and the labour union.
He said the state government under the leadership of Governor Aregbesola prioritized the workers’ welfare and has been making several sacrifices to ensure the prompt payment of workers’ salaries.
He also berated Faforiji for referring to Osun as civil service state describing his assertion as an insult to the people of Osun.
“A state with over 4 million population cannot be said to be a civil service state but rather it is a agrarian state with a lot of potentials.
“Civil service is just one percent of the Osun populace and it is unwise for any government to concentrate all its resources on one percent of the entire population.
