In this interview, Adejuwon Soyinka, Senior Special Assistant  (Media)  and spokesman for Governor  Ibikunle Amosun,  talks about the governor’s passion for rebuilding Ogun State while clarifying that the governor never said states that  can’t  pay salaries are not worthy of existence.  Excerpts:

How is the governor running the state considering the paucity  of fund  in the  country?

Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun

It’s a  combination of  what some people have  described as financial  wizardry and foresight. I will take  the foresight part first. During his  first term of  office,  the governor, realising the great potentials of Ogun State, being  the  gateway to the  rest of the  country and even the West African sub region,  decided to ensure  that  the state is able to  attract the  brightest and the best from all over the world.  In order to achieve this, he embarked on massive  infrastructural development  projects, building roads,  bridges  and opening up  the  state  for massive  foreign  and local  investments.

Not only that, he also  instituted  processes that  ensured a  remarkable  improvement  in the  ease of doing  business in  Ogun State.  One  of  the direct  and immediate  results of such  effort  was the number of industries  that have so far opened shops in Ogun State. Today, not less  than 100 majorcompanies  that have  invested in excess of  $100m each,  have  birthed in Ogun State.

Of course,  this has a direct bearing on the economy of the  state and by extension,  it’s ability to raise Internally  Generated Revenue, IGR. So, before  the federal allocation took a nosedive  occasioned  by falling oil  prices, the Ogun State governor had  the foresight to increase IGR  by enhancing  productivity and not by imposing  unnecessary  taxes on  the people. In  addition to  that, Governor Amosun  also applied  prudence  in the management of  scarce  resources as well  as plugged  several loopholes  through which government  hitherto lost revenue.  With  this sort of background, it should therefore not come as  a surprise that Ogun State is able to pay salaries and pensions as and when due  in spite of  the current economic  challenges  facing the nation.

The governor was  recently quoted to have  said  that  any  state  that cannot pay salaries does not deserve to exist. Did he actually say so? 

The governor never said so. He  never  even said anything close to that.  Contrary to the  erroneous report  unfortunately published by your  respectable  newspaper, the Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun never said  that states that are unable  to pay salaries are  not  worthy of existence.Such a  claim is not only far  from the reality, it is simply a  figment of the imagination of  the reporter.  I make bold to say this because  I was in the audience when the governor  addressed  the 3rd  Quadrennial National Delegates Conference of  the Association of Senior  Civil Servants of Nigeria hosted  in Abeokuta.

Speaking before he declared the conference opened, Governor Amosun took time to explain how in spite of  dwindling  revenue from the federation  account, he has been able  to pay  salaries and pensions of all  public and civil  servants in Ogun State, as and when due.  Since it was a conference that  attracted attendance  of  senior civil  servants from all over the country,  the  governor also seized the  occasion to  seek the support and cooperation of  Nigerian workers,  explaining that only with  their cooperation can  governments at all  levels  succeed in  delivering  the dividends of democracy  to the people.

At  this point, the governor also assured the workers that he and his  brother  governors are all concerned about the difficulties that some states  are  currently  facing in  paying  salaries. He went to great  length to elucidate on the fact that governors are  doing everything  in their powers to  ensure that their workers are paid  as and when due adding that no  governor is happy when workers are not  paid. So  at  no point did  the  governorsay that states that are unable to pay salaries are not worthy of existence. Governor Amosun  never derided his colleagues for not being able to pay salaries but on the  contrary he spoke in their defense, explaining  why some may not  be able to pay and  canvassing  the  need for  understanding  and  cooperation on the part  of the workers in such states.

Considering the paucity of funds, what  is going to  happen to the ongoing projects  in the  state?

The  governor has said it repeatedly  that inspite of paucity of funds,  governance and  development  in  Ogun State are  not  going to be impeded. More  than  saying it, the Ogun State  governor has also been  working  his talk. Indeed, many of us are witnesses to the  fact  that  Governor Amosun has not  relented in his  Mission to Rebuild Ogun State.  This is why  even in the face  of  dwindling resources he has constructed 15  world class,  state-of-the-art  Model Schools across the  state. At least about  10 of  these  Model Schools, designed to  accommodate 1,000 students  and 200 teaching and non-teaching staff,  are billed to open  their classrooms to  students from when schools resume in September.

The governor  is moving on  with  the various road  construction projects in different parts of the state and would soon commence operation 100×100, which will see him construct 100 rural roads in 100 days. The 100  rural roads are those  that will further help to open up the state for more developments and enhance the  activities of farmers  in the  state. Not  only that, the  governor  will soon  commence the  state’s railway project, which he said, he plans to  ride on by the time he is leaving the stage on completion of his  tenure in May 2019.

What is  the plan for  civil servants  given the  current  financial situation?

Answer: The plan of the governor for civil  servants  in the  state is to  keep them  motivated  by ensuring that their welfare  is always placed on the front  burner at all times.  As we speak today, Ogun State not only pays  salaries and pensions as and when due, it has  the highest wage bill in the country. This is  because the governor  graciously implemented  the  current national minimum  wage across all cadre of civil  service in the  state. So as far as the governor is concerned, challenging times  like this  are the times that bring  out the best in people. He  believes that with a well motivated workforce, the state can aspire to greater  successes  and  be  able to further  shore up its revenue base.  This is one of  the reasons he was recently  honoured with an award  by  the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria and  he’s often  described as a labour friendly  governor by  labour  leaders.