The hope of Oyo State Government to get its own share from the refunded money from the Paris Club last year was dashed due to the assumption by the Federal Government that the state had gotten its own portion of the refunded money in 2008.
This was revealed on Wednesday by the State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi while addressing workers at the 2017 annual Inter-Religious Service held at the Governor’s Office Car park, organized to herald a new working year in the state.
While addressing workers and heads of the various ministries, parastatals and departments, clerics and others who grace the occasion, Ajimobi maintained that very soon, the prayer of the state to get its own share of the money would be answered.
He said three reasons propelled the government to organize the yearly ritual.
The first reason according to him was to thank God for the opportunity for seeing another year, saying the second reason is “to talk, speak to ourselves so that we can encourage ourselves,” as he posited that the third reason was for interaction.
The governor on behalf of the state government felicitated with the workers and the people for the new working year.
Ajimobi while appealing to the Federal Government to release the money for the state, noted that Oyo State is one of the six states excluded from the refunded money last year, as he assured the workers and the people that the money would be used to clear all the outstanding salary arrears, pensions and other entitlements.
“It is on behalf of the government that I welcome you to this annual event to celebrate the beginning of another year, for all of us in the public and civil service of Oyo State, it is worthy to celebrate and thank God for sparing our lives despite the social and economic challenges facing us.
“If you know why God created all of us, it is for us to be appreciative, in appreciating, we are to face challenges, there is nothing that is not challenging. It is part of the challenges of life. There is nothing you can do that does not have its own challenges.
“So distinguish ladies and gentlemen, it is appropriate to look back at the previous years and look forward for the future. Our collective voice is awaited, in a similar vein, last years activities and actions belong to the last year.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we must not jettison yesterday, we must learn from yesterday’s mistakes.
“We are looking for ways of reducing our cost and every attempt to do so, it is a denial of a certain quarter of people. Indeed the execution of capital projects is increasingly difficult due to the dwindling oil revenue and activities of the pipeline vanders.
“We must look for ways of sourcing for money, poor internally generated revenue is also another major problem. N1.5 billion IGR is too small with what we get from the monthly allocation.
“What we are saying is that there is need to look at ways of making money, government cannot function without money. So government as an enterprise requires sufficient fund to be able to be efficient in service delivery, let me reiterate at this juncture that civil service is the engine room of every government.
Ajimobi while ending his speech appealed to labor leaders to be more proactive, engaging and innovative instead of confrontations.
“So I am pleading to the civil service that the government will continue to take care of the civil servants and the people of the state.
The governor then appealed to the people, corporate bodies, groups and workers in the state to continue in their unflinching support for the government.
Earlier in their sermons, clerics from both the Islamic and Christian faiths enjoined workers to be faithful and do their best to take the state to an enviable higher.
Present at the occasion were the Deputy Governor Chief Moses Alake Adeyemo, Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Hon. Micheal Adeyemo and his colleagues, members of the state executive council, members of the National Assembly from the state, clerics, leaders of thoughst and security agents, among others.
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