{"id":55548,"date":"2017-01-18T20:08:56","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T19:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=55548"},"modified":"2017-01-19T06:33:26","modified_gmt":"2017-01-19T05:33:26","slug":"magic-osun-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/magic-osun-state\/","title":{"rendered":"MAGIC IN OSUN STATE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>By Michael Egbejumi-David<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Recession and hard times have hit Nigeria like you won\u2019t believe.\u00a0 Things have become tighter than a pair of polyester boxers.\u00a0 These days, it is everyman for himself.\u00a0 Some Christians have taken to fasting earlier and longer than usual.\u00a0 Those of us that relocated from the Diaspora are now left fingering our designer beards.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">However, in the midst of all of this gloom came exciting news \u2013 magic, really \u2013 from nowhere else but beautiful Osun State.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Just a couple of days or so ago, news filtered in that the much maligned governor of that state, Rauf Aregbesola has paid pensioners the arrears of their long denied pension.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">By the last count, Osun State was owing pensioners full pension arrears of eight months and half-pension for eighteen months.\u00a0 Early 2015, Osun received N34.9 billion credit.\u00a0 In 2016, the same state got N13 billion in relief grants.\u00a0 Then last month, it got N11.7 billion as its share from the Federal government\u2019s N522.7 billion refund from the Paris Club loans.\u00a0 The Federal government has disbursed the money to all State governments specifically for the payment of salaries and pensions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It was from this latest tranche that the Osun State governor paid some outstanding salaries and pensions. \u00a0In other words, Ogbeni did not generate the funds himself through hard graft or any other clever internal means.\u00a0 And even at that, the governor only paid three months worth of arrears.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">But that is not even the exciting news!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The incredible thing is that those long-suffering pensioners that got some of their pension money promptly threw their governor, a thank-you street party complete with marching and dancing procession.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">First, the freshly paid pensioners got together and strategized.\u00a0 In short order, they put resources together and hired a few things: a dilapidated bus, some canopies and a public address system.\u00a0 Then they set up a twitter account.\u00a0 After this, they commissioned the printing of a huge PVC banner and blazoned across it their message, #Pensioners With Ogbeni#.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The pensioners weren\u2019t done.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It wouldn\u2019t be a proper Nigerian throwdown without As\u1ecd \u1eb8bi of course. So the pensioners got brand new dazzling and sparkling brownish-red attires complete with bright yellow geles and caps.\u00a0 Their slippers, well polished.\u00a0 (By the way, what are the State colours of Osun?)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">They also got two boxes of biscuit and a cartoon of bottled water.\u00a0 Finally, the pensioners invited the governor, some Party officials and the local media to come partake in their celebration.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Man, you\u2019ve got to love it.\u00a0 If that\u2019s not some kind of magic, I don\u2019t know what else is.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">For those who might not know, Osun was the first and only state to unfurl something called \u201cInternally Displaced Pensioners camp.\u201d\u00a0 Apparently, it was a kind of makeshift siddon-look outpost for long suffering and destitute pensioners.\u00a0 Furthermore, it has been reported that since this non payment of pensions imbroglio took hold, 236 pensioners have died due to hunger and ill-health.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">So, these are the same Osun pensioners, some of whom have not had a decent meal in a long, long time; people that have not paid house rent, have not paid children\u2019s school fees in a while; people that could not put down dowry on a second wife; pauperised old folks that have probably got a short line of debtors to settle; people that have not gone to sort out their dental problems.\u00a0 But, somehow, these people thought the best way to spend their meagre pension is to hold a party and street procession honouring their governor.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hmm&#8230;Sometimes, even as a public commentator, words fail you.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Scarce resource that is obviously needed elsewhere and sorely needed by the (poor) people is being incompetently wasted again to massage one man\u2019s ego.\u00a0 Orisha have mercy!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The only thing left to look out for now is the students of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, LAUTECH, who have been locked out of their school indefinitely since June 2016 to also throw the Ogbeni governor another street party with their saved up, unspent tuition fees and induct the governor into one of their more famous confraternity.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"mailto:demdem@hotmail.co.uk\">demdem@hotmail.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Twitter: demdemdem1<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Michael Egbejumi-David Recession and hard times have hit Nigeria like you won\u2019t believe.\u00a0 Things have become tighter than a pair of polyester boxers.\u00a0 These days, it is everyman for&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - 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