The outgoing governor of Oyo State, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala, yesterday approved the release of N4.2billion from the state coffers to pay the new wage bill for workers in the state. The new wage bill is based on the new N18, 000 new minimum wage which the governor vowed to pay before leaving office in another three days. The average wage bill of the state before the new one was N2.3billion.
The governor had insisted on paying the new minimum wage despite pleadings from the newly elected governor of the state, Sen. Abiola Ajimobi, who expressed the wish that the out-going governor should leave such decisions to his government.
The new N4.2billion wage bill is N600 million more than the monthly revenue accruing to the state. The state receives an average federally allocated monthly revenue of N 2.5billion.
Last week when he opened the new office of the state internal revenue agency, Governor Alao-Akala disclosed that his administration had increased the monthly internally generated revenue from N850m to N1.1 billion.
This puts the state total monthly revenue to an average of N3.6 billion. With the new wage bill approved by the PDP government, Oyo State will need to borrow N600 Million monthly to pay the new wage bill.
The approval for the payment of new wage bill came on the heels of the appointment of a new Accountant General by Governor Alao-Akala. There were different accounts for the replacement of the Accountant General three working days to the end of Governor Alao-Akala’s tenure.
An account claims that the former Accountant General, Alhaji Olaitan, was removed because of his reluctance to keep pace with the government over the disbursement of funds in the last few weeks. Another account however, claims that the Accountant General was due for retirement in February this year and had been persuaded by the Governor to wait for the end of his first term this month.
The appointment is the second major appointment by Otunba Akala in a fortnight. Two weeks ago, he replaced the former Head of Service, Alhaja Nike Adeleke with Alhaji Tunde Aremu, igniting a controversy over the propriety of a departing governor appointing a Head of Service in the twilight of his administration.
The outgoing governor had also taken some administrative decisions that had tested his relationship with the in-coming governor. Among this was the removal of the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi as the Permanent Chairman of the Oyo State Council of Obas and Chiefs and the enactment of a law that now makes the office rotational between the Alaafin, the Olubadan of Ibadanland and the Soun of Ogbomosholand. Akala has also coroneted a couple of obas in the state whose appointments by his government are being challenged in court.
Also, Otunba Akala gazetted the sole ownership of the Ladoke Akintola University, Ogbomosho by Oyo State even when the state has been embroiled in ownership tussle with sister Osun State over the institution.
The decision of Otunba Akala to gazette the sole ownership has been interpreted as a ploy to forestall the exploitation of ACN fraternity by Ajimobi and Governor Aregbesola of Osun State to upturn the decision of Akala on the institution.
Tade Famakinwa
•Famakinwa writes from Kudeti, Ibadan.
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