How PDP is pushing Osun Civil Servants to keep their eggs in one basket, By Samuel Adereti

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We have learnt about the plan of a class of senior civil servants in Osun State to coerce, persuade and cajole their junior colleagues to vote for all candidates of the PDP in the next Saturday’s house of assembly elections. They run on a propaganda that voting APC candidates would be unwise because they would be combative to the administration of Senator Ademola Adeleke and civil servants would be denied their privileges in the government. Whether the concerned civil servants will yield to the blackmail is yet to be seen. But it is important to accentuate some points so our aluta conscious civil servants are not rammed into taking decisions that would hurt and haunt them in future.

One, what is the guarantee that Ademola Adeleke will superintend the affairs of the state beyond May this year? As it is, Oyetola is the lawful governor of Osun State (De Jure) while Adeleke is the actual governor, the placeholder ( actual). Oyetola is the recognised winner of the July 16 election and as it is, no law in the land will upturn that recognition. I won’t give more details about this. But if our darling civil servants have been lied to that Adeleke will get one miracle, perhaps through the influence of his brother or what-have-you, at the appelate court, that will be an April-fool joke. He is gone. And he is gone for real. So the question that the APC honourables are coming back to destabilise the government of Adeleke won’t arise.

On the strength of the above argument, argument that Oyetola is close to returning to office by end of May, it is important the civil servants play their card well so they won’t be shooting themselves in the leg. Whereas Oyetola is never given to vendetta or witch-hunting, it is natural that all actions taken by humans must have consequences. If Oyetola, when he returns to Government, does not vilify the mass of civil servants for rejecting his party at the poll, can one say that of his sympathisers in the civil service who may want to take a pound of flesh from the unfriendly civil servants who put all their eggs in one basket at the poll?

If not for anything, civil servants should note that Oyetola was faithful to them for the whole of 48 months he managed the affairs of the state. He paid, as and when due, their salary. Yes, he had his shortcomings, but it is reasonable that the over N180billion his government committed to sort salary and pension obligations should atone for his sins. Given the harsh environment Oyetola worked, he does not deserve embarrassment from the civil servants. Whereas the government of Rauf Aregbesola received a yearly allocation of N55billion in his tenure; Oyetola received an actual allocation, in 2019 for example, of N24.2billion. Yet, he gave his all for the civil servants. In the first two months of Adeleke alone, the government has received N20billion in the federal allocation. This is different from other monies ( grants, FG PAYE refund, SURE-P refund) amounting to over N40billion.

The civil servants must open up their card.