A former special adviser to Goodluck Jonathan on Monitoring and Evaluation, Professor Sylvester Monye, has stated that the former president has no hands in the failure of Governor Rauf Aregbesola to pay workers in the state salaries for over seven months.

He said there was money but Aregbesola had deliberately refused to pay.

Speaking on a live programme monitored on Channels TV in Lagos, Monye said anyone who blamed Jonathan for the ongoing economic crisis in the nation was ungrateful.

He said, “When the prices of crude started falling, the then minister of finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, called a meeting of commissioners of finance to advice that salaries should be made first line charge, that is, if you do not pay salaries first before you embark on any activity, you will have difficulties because revenue is coming down. That was also communicated to the governors: prioritise salary.

“Therefore, no state governor has any business talking of nonpayment of salaries because they have continued to receive money from the Federation Account.”

Aregbesola had often blamed his inability to pay workers salaries on the Jonathan-led administration but Monye in his reaction said: “Jonathan administration was holding his money? Or he couldn’t pay because he couldn’t prioritise salaries? It was his decision not to pay salaries.”