RE: Cleared Ministers with Unsettled Questions

Yemi Adebowale has goofed and made an ignorant notion about Aregbesola with an article titled Cleared Ministers with Unsettled Questions on the back page of Thisday Newspaper of 10th August 2019 by using information that emanated from a retired judge of the Osun State Judiciary, Justice Folahanmi Oloyede. Yemi Adebowale is ignorant and has a poor knowledge of Osun State. Former Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s administration in Osun has been vindicated on Osun modulated salary. How can Yemi Adebowale relied on information from Oloyede that was eased out of the bench following her eventual recommendation for a compulsory retirement by the National Judicial Council over the petition?

Yemi Adebowale has poor understanding of Osun modulated salary and he should direct issues concerning Rauf Aregbesola to relevant government agency rather than co-opting the instrumentality of the media to conduct a media trial that relies on pedestrian, half-baked and inaccurate allegations devoid of factual evidence on Osun modulated salary under the former governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola. I trust that in this era of fake news, our media houses like Thisday Newspaper and others would continue to uphold the standards of their profession by verifying publications at all times with authentic and reliable sources on Rauf Aregbesola before publication.

I have observed with concern the negative statements from Yemi Adebowale who wrote a piece ignorantly on Rauf Aregbesola based on information from dismissed Justice Oloyede that wrote an illegal petition for the impeachment of former governor Aregbesola. Adebowale was quoting an ignorant judge who joined some pensioners to erect IDP CAMP IN Osogbo, a judge that has perpetually granted interview blindly on Aregbesola and out of frustration she joined Osun 2018 governorship race.

According to Yemi Adebowale: Aregbesola’s tenure was all about “half salary and half pension.” His eight years as governor brought unprecedented pain on the people of Osun State. This is a man that could not pay salaries to civil servants while basic infrastructures also degenerated. Under him, Osun people wallowed in hunger, poverty and disease, while public schools, hospital and roads deteriorated greatly.

A judge of the Osun State High Court, Justice Folahanmi Oloyede, wrote a petition against Aregbesola in 2015, detailing the failure of the government in many areas, including non-payment of workers’ salaries and pensions. Oloyede said: “The primary duties of any responsible government are welfare of the citizens and their security. Any government that fails in the two areas has failed woefully in the discharge of its primary duties. Labourers deserve their wages and it is covetousness to spend what belongs to other people. It is a crime to spend pensions and gratuities of the people and deny them their rights. We are not beggars, we worked for the entitlements.” Today Aregbesola is smiling, having been cleared to work as a minister. This is a reward for his glaring ineptitude. What a country!- Yemi Adebowale

Yemi Adebowale lacks credibility and morality to discuss about Rauf Aregbesola in all ramifications because he based his report on Justice Olamide Falahanmi Oloyede who was indicted and convicted by National Judicial Council. She lacks morality and credibility because NJC dismissed her but later converted it to compulsory retirement to save her from public disgrace. By blackmailing the governor in 2015 she was sanctioned for her impeachment petition that sacked her as a judge. Under Justice Oloyede, personal agenda seem to have outplayed the constitutional scheme. Constructive criticism took a back seat to criticism with an agenda. The judiciary, which is armed with the power of judicial review of the actions of the Legislature and Executive, was under tremendous stress. And this stress was drastically affecting the independence of the judiciary in Osun.

The report by Yemi Adebowale is a clear attempt to malign and blackmail former Governor Rauf Aregbesola and paint his government as deliberately paying Half Salary. It is only a section of workers on grade level 13 and above that received painfully 50 per cent of their salaries based on agreement between the government and the labour unions. Outside that category of workers on grade level 13 and above, no other receives half of his or her salaries and the workers in this category are just about 20 per cent of the state’s workforce. Workers on levels 8-12 receive 75 percent of their salaries while officers on levels 7 and below receive their full pay.

Yemi Adebowale is ignorant that within the eight years of the government of Rauf Aregbesola, a whopping N200 billion was spent on payments of salaries, allowances and pensions while a relatively paltry sum of N60billion naira went into infrastructure, or what we call capital projects. This translates to 77 per cent to 23 per cent respectively. The reverse should have been the case. No nation develops this way and it is so sad. So, when people falsely declare that Osun government is building infrastructures to the detriment of workers’ welfare, it is laughable.

The modulated salary structure adopted by the State of Osun became a child of necessity in July 2015. It is a survival strategy for a State that had been long neglected in infrastructure development but recently took a deliberate decision to rapidly develop the State. Well, soon the reality of the bad economic situation and some not well thought through policies crept in on everyone in the second half of 2015. Prior to this period however, the administration of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola had introduced and paid the 13th month bonus to workers for the first time in the history of the State as a gesture to motivate the public service workers and make them partners in the development of the State.

Yemi Adebowale today has a documented history of writing hypocritical piece and he is intellectually dishonest against the rule of law when he wrote his piece on Aregbesola based on information from retired Justice Olamide Falahanmi Oloyede impeachment petition against former Governor Rauf Aregbesola. She wrote a petition out of ignorance and hatred for the governor and Yemi Adebowale is quoting her blindly. She has used the judiciary to censor the opposition while she was a judge. As a judge she lost sight of her judicial obligations and used her position to promote the hatred of the governor among the people of Osun State. The former High Court Judge wanted to use backdoor plan to insult the personality of the former governor. The petition to impeach Governor Aregbesola reflected how  Justice Oloyede had become tools to serve opposition interests, It is difficult to see how any proceedings can be seen as independent of vested interests. The atmosphere of intimidation by Osun High Court judge  had already sparked national and international alarm, How will Justice Oloyede comments objectively on Osun salary since she was disgraced out of office?

Yemi Adebowale is ignorant of the fact that on the heels of concluding two terms as the governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola got accolades not from Nigerian institutions or from social media, but from reputable international organizations which includes the World Bank, UNDP, UNICEF and African Development Bank.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) hailed the Aregbesola administration in Osun State for economically developing the state through the implementation of its people-oriented policies and programmes and scored the state high on its social investment programmes.

He was said to have shown creativity, flexibility in human-centric vision of the future of work that recognises people’s knowledge, talents, creativity and skills as key drivers of a prosperous and inclusive economy. UNICEF had led top government officials drawn from 17 states in the six geo-political zones of Nigeria to Osun for a four-day learning tour of its various social investment programmes and building human capital. Consequently, Osun developmental programmes have also impacted on the socio-economic profile of the state as reported by reputable institutions. In 2015, The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) rated Osun second highest in Human Development Index among the 36 states in the country.

Policies by the government of the State of Osun to revamp the economy and banish poverty, in line with its six point integral action plan, is yielding fruits with the latest report of the United Nations Development Programme. UNDP, with verifiable facts from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), placing  Osun as the state with lowest poverty rate.

The World Bank also commended his government over the execution of projects of Osun Rural Access & Mobility Project which are World Bank and French Development Agency assisted Projects.

It is therefore a cause for great embarrassment and shame that Yemi Adebowale could based his information from  a retired Judge of the High Court who is ignorant of the fact that she cannot initiate impeachment proceedings against the Governor. This raises a question whether she is competent to comment on Osun State. From what has been stated above, it is quite obvious that the Osun State House of Assembly acted in gross error in entertaining Justice Oloyede;s petition. That petition was an illegal document which should have been disregarded with contempt by the House. Even more fundamental is the question whether a judicial officer should be publicly engaged in a bitter public confrontation with any other Arm of Government, particularly the Executive Arm of Government headed by the target of her tirade, the Governor, who appointed her into office. Specifically, is a Judge permitted to make public political comments and engage in public diatribes against the Government and the Governor of the State in which he or she is serving? The code of conduct for Judicial Officers is replete with provisions requiring a Judicial Officer to act with dignity, decorum and a high standard of conduct. The preamble of the code, for example, provides that a Judicial Officer should actively participate in establishing, maintaining, enforcing and himself observing a high standard of conduct so that the integrity and respect for the independence of the Judiciary may be preserved.