Osun APC says N20,000 palliative is vote buying, and the timing is damning

The Osun State APC has accused Governor Ademola Adeleke's administration of using the N20,000 palliative payments to workers and residents as a vote-buying scheme ahead of the August 15 governorship election. In a statement signed by Oluremi Omowaiye, the APC Campaign Council's media head, the party claims thousands received the money directly into their bank accounts just days before the poll. The timing is everything here, and the opposition is not hiding its anger.

Omowaiye said, and I quote: "The government is attempting to sway public support with public funds in the build-up to the election." He also pointed out that even NYSC members, who normally get N5,000 monthly support from the state, received N20,000 in this latest round. But here is the part that should make every worker in Osun sit up: the APC alleges that contributory pension remittances and cooperative deductions have been unpaid for two years, and that a N6bn gratuity provision in the 2025 budget remains unfulfilled. So the government can find money for this, but not for what it already owes?

The state government, through spokesperson Olawale Rasheed, defends the payments as part of its commitment to civil servants, saying "We have once again disbursed palliatives to augment salaries as part of our commitment to civil servants, who remain the backbone of our administration." Fine. But when a government pays out public funds weeks before an election, while leaving statutory deductions unpaid, the optics are terrible. I have seen this pattern in Ibadan and across the South-West for decades. The question is not whether the palliative helps, but whether it is meant to buy silence or votes. Which one is it, Governor Adeleke?