Bill: Increasing Salary Of Political Appointee Insensitive, Group Tackle Osun Assembly

A Coalition of Civil Society Organisations in Osun State, The Osun Masterminds, (TOM) has called on the state governor, Ademola Adeleke, not to approve a bill aimed at raising the salaries of political office holders in the state.

Giving this call during the May 2024 State of the State address in Osogbo on Monday, TOM’s Executive Director, Professor Wasiu Oyedokun-Alli, also described the bill from the Osun State House of Assembly as insensitive and illogical.

Oyedokun-Alli stated that the bill would add unnecessary burden to Osun, which is still struggling to recover from a significant debt accumulated a couple of years ago..

Recalls that Osun State House of Assembly had on Monday passed a bill increasing the stipends for political office holders and others in the state.

The Osun State Public /Political Office Holders Revised Remuneration Package Amendment No 2, Bill 2024 scaled through its third Reading, on the floor the State House of Assembly.

At the sitting of the House, the Deputy Majority Leader of the House, Adekunle Oladimeji moved the motion for the final passage of the Bill and was seconded by the Chief Whip of the House, Mr. Olawale Akerele.

The Speaker, Adewale Egbedun disclosed that a clean copy of the Bill would be forwarded to the Governor, Ademola Adeleke to sign.

According to the Speaker, Osun State Public Political Office Holders Revised Renumeration Package Amendment No 2, Bill 2024, is aimed to improve the standard of living of the Public and few political office holders in tandem with the five points agenda of Governor Ademola Adeleke.

“Public Officers, Part Time Board Members and thier Chairmen members would benefit more from the Renumeration while the Legislators are exempted from the package.”

The bill which was last amended in 2008, was presented to the House on 30th April by The Majority Leader, Kofoworola Adewunmi, the lawmaker representing Ede North State Constituency, as a private member bill which increased stipends for the affected office holders.

Condemning the bill, Oyedokun-Alli said the Assembly planned to further “increase the pressure on our scarce resources at a time it should be condemning the needlessly large population of political appointments already made by the state governor.”

He said, “This is not only disappointing, as we would ordinarily expect more productive actions from a youth-dominated Assembly, it is also irresponsible.

“We call on Governor Adeleke to decline assent to this obnoxious bill as it seeks to over-burden the already over-stretched resources of our ailing State. We cannot continue to add dead weight to the shoulders of a State that is just struggling to get out of the mountain of indebtedness that it was buried under a couple of years ago.

“The Governor must say no to this bill in the interest of the people and deploy whatever resources the State has, to the welfare of workers, whose salaries have already become seriously inadequate, and the common man on the streets, who is currently struggling to survive.

“We call on Governor Adeleke to decline assent to this obnoxious bill as it seeks to over-burden the already over-stretched resources of our ailing State.”