Still on the Pain in Osun State

As I pen this piece, the Forum of 2011/2012 retirees of Osun State Government has a list of over 1400 retirees that have died of penury in the last eight years, due to the non-payment of their pensions and gratuities. The Secretary of the Forum, Mr. Sola Olojede, remarked: “They (Osun State Government) have embarrassed us and our families. We have lost 1,468 pensioners to hunger and sickness while waiting for their statutory emoluments.”

This is the inglorious level Osun State degenerated to, under the leadership of Rauf Aregbesola. Today, I have decided to concentrate on the plight of these retirees. For over seven years, these seniors are persistently pummeled and humiliated by Aregbesola.

In January last year, the aggrieved pensioners added a twist to their protest when they erected an Internally Displaced Pensioners camp at a strategic location in Osogbo, the first of its kind in the entire South-west. It was a sorry scene. Chairman of the Forum, Mr. Omoniyi Ilesanmi, said: “Some of our members Who are unable to pay house rent Now reside in uncompleted buildings across the state. The policy of half salary and pension by the Osun State Government has worsened humanitarian crisis in the state.”

Olojede added: “Our record also shows that about 500 pensioners are sick and have no money to buy drugs let alone go to the hospital. Are these factors not enough reasons to expose the insensitivity of the governor to the whole world? If hunger and sickness killed 1,468 people and we are protesting, in what way are we wrong?”

This is the tragedy that has befallen Osun State retirees under the Aregbesola administration. This monumental tragedy has caused irreparable physically and psychological damages to the seniors and their families.