Ogun needs N400m daily revenue to meet obligations – Amosun

Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, has said due to the dwindling allocation from the Federal Government to the states, the pensioners in the state may have the payment of their gratuities and even their pensions, delayed.

The governor, who held meeting with Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Ogun state chapter in Abeokuta on Tuesday following the pensioners claims that the governor owed them pension and gratuities running into billions of naira, explained that the present financial challenges experiencing by the country accounted for State’s failure to meet all obligations and had to go extra miles to ensure that pensioners got their monthly pensions.

“In 2011, a barrel of crude oil was selling between $100 and $112, but it has now dropped to $35. So even to pay salary and monthly pension, I had to do some financial re-engineering. We have been able to pay the pension monthly to pensioners.

“Currently, the state is owing civil servants at the state level gratuities of about N11.4bn, while that of the local government is N10.7bn. Don’t forget that there are those that we inherited, and we had offset some of them.

“We get N2.4 billion from the Federal Government as monthly allocation presently and N1.3bn is deducted from it to service the bailout we got, and the state is left with N1.1bn. Teachers salaries at the local government level alone is about N2bn. I have to pay the civil servants, and the judges.

“For the state to break even, the state must be generating N400m daily, and currently we are doing a little bit over N100m daily. If we have the money definitely I will pay gratuities.”

The governor added that no bank would lend any governor money to pay gratuities, because there “is nothing in it for them.”