Read Why Ogun, Osun, Ekiti Residents Are Groaning Pains (PHOTOS)

Residents in Ogun, Osun and Ekiti states are facing a severe downturn right now as civil servants in the states continue to go without pay.

READ ALSO: Drama In Ekiti As PDP Sweeps LG Polls, APC Boycotts

In Ekiti, state workers are owed for one to three months and workers in Osun have been getting paid very poorly throughout the year.

One public school teacher in Oshogbo, who spoke to Naij.com said: “Aregbesola has been paying us haphazardly. For instance, he’ll pay half for one month, skip the next month and pay half again for the following month. Right now the government owes me for many months and I’ve no hope Aregbesola is going to ever finish paying us. Yet he expects us to keep working. This is just unfair. How do we continue to survive like this?”

A teacher in one of the public schools in Osun state who refused to give his name.

Aishat runs a small business in Abeokuta. She says: “Things have gone very badly since the elections in March. Before then, things were quite okay and sales were moving well. But now things are so bad. Most people keep saying they haven’t been paid and they have to cut down on spending, and when people aren’t spending, we can’t make money. I’m not happy with the sales I’m making lately.”

Aishat, a trader who runs a small business in Abeokuta, says she has been experiencing poor sales lately and expressed sadness.

It’s the same story in Ekiti state, where Taiwo, a local government employee says: “Fayose has just paid us for October, and some people haven’t even paid for that month. Things are very tight over here these days. Everybody is complaining about having no money. My son just got into university, and I can barely raise the money to pay his fees because my salary is not coming. I don’t know when all this will end.”

Mr Taiwo, a local government employee in Ekiti state says his son just got into university, and he can barely raise the money to pay his fees because salary is not coming as at when due.

Osun, Ekiti, Ogun and some other states are badly hit by this downturn because most people in the states work for the state government. Private industries almost don’t exist. So the economy in those states depends on the civil servants, and the state governments haven’t been paying their civil servants.

A few months ago the state governments received bailout money from the federal government, and every month they get some federal allocation money. Yet they haven’t been paying their workers regularly.

READ ALSO: Fayose, Aregbesola Introduce New Taxes In Desperation

“They keep saying there’s no money,” says Taiwo, “and yet they pay themselves and make us suffer. Things are getting harder and harder for ordinary people like me in this state. There’s no money. There’s no jobs. This is not how government should be.”

Meanwhile, parents in the Osun state have criticised Governor Rauf Aregbesola concerning the increasing spate of cultism in the state secondary schools. The criticism followed the shutting down of St Mark’s Commercial High School after cultists within the school clashed.

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