A former special adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on monitoring and evaluation, Professor Sylvester Monye, has absolved the Jonathan administration of any blames over the failures of the Osun State government to pay salaries, saying Governor Rauf Aregbesola chose not to pay.
“When the prices of crude started falling, the then minister of finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, called a meeting of commissioners of finance to advice that salaries should be made first line charge, that is, if you do not pay salaries first before you embark on any activity, you will have difficulties because revenue is coming down. That was also communicated to the governors: prioritise salary,” Monye said on a live Channels Television interview monitored in Lagos yesterday.
“Therefore, no state governor has any business talking of non payment of salaries because they have continued to receive money from the Federation Account.”
Aregbesola had often blamed his inability to pay workers salaries on the Jonathan-led administration but Monye in his reaction said: “Jonathan administration was holding his money? Or he couldn’t pay because he couldn’t prioritise salaries? It was his decision not to pay salaries.”
