30th May, 2016
Abiodun Onafuye/Abeokuta: Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State has disclosed his reason for withholding the salary and emolument of the teachers and staff at the Tai Solarin College of Education, TASCE, Omu-Ijebu.
The reason, according to the governor, is that he is not comfortable with the staff list submitted by the management of the school.
Amosun disclosed that the number of both staff and non teaching staff of the College doubled the total number of students in the school.
The governor made this disclosure and others during an interactive session with civil society groups to mark Democracy Day in the State.
The event which was organised by the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, CDHR, Ogun State council, held at the Cultural Centre, Kuto, Abeokuta.
Responding to a question on the non payment of salaries and emolument of staff at TASCE, Amosun said: “The issue at TASCE is that the number of staff, as submitted by the management, is times two of the total number of students in the college. It means two staff to each student.
“The total number of students of the College is around 1,600 and the staff, both academic and non academic, are about 3,000. This calls for proper checking.
“We are going to look into their matter but what happened is that things are not like when we came in. What we are collecting now is 74 percent decrease to what we were collecting in 2011 when we came into office.
“Imagine paying almost N800m to N900m monthly to our schools, and it is interesting to know that we have the largest number of institutions in the country and most of them are state-owned, so we are to attend to them.
“We pay Olabisi Onabanjo University, OOU, N85.5m every month and it was paid for four years. We have also paid backlog of 18-19 months. If you multiply this by 12 and multiply again by 48, it means that in four years, we have paid over N40 billion to them. You will agree with me that it is not easy, but we will not relent.
“TASUED with a total number of students of almost 20,000 collects between N50m to N60m monthly; MAPOLY, Abeokuta of about 25,000 students receives N40m monthly, OOUTH, Sagamu, N190m, DS Adegbenro, Itori, about N8m.
“The primary school teachers are not there. They take away nothing less than N2.1 billion monthly and if we add the secondary school staff to it, it gives you something around N3.2 billion.
“We were blacklisted before I came that all the money coming from TETFUND and others were squandered but I have not done that. I know we are not there yet, but I know we will get there”, Amosun assured.
The governor, who was answering every questions directed at him, explained to the mammoth crowd that his administration would not relax in meeting the expectations of the people and called for continuous support.
Commenting on the creation of the LCDAs, the governor admitted that the take-off would not be easy considering the present economic situation in the country, but quickly assured, “within the next one year, you will see the benefits and importance of the creation of the LCDAs.
Responding to a question on why a commissioner was not appointed for the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, thereby giving room for rumours that it had been scrapped, Governor Amosun dispelled the rumours saying: “It is not true. What happened is that the local government which the slot was alloted to was unable to present a female candidate, they said it is men they have and this caused the delay as the slot is for women.
“Thank God, all that has been resolved now and the Women Affairs Commissioner’s name will be forwarded to the State House of Assembly for screening and she will be announced soon.”
The event was attended by various civil society groups including students, NYCN, NURTW, RTEAN, ACOMORAN and TORAN.