Modulated Salary: Why Osun APC Past Administration Cannot Be Crucified For Necessity, By Adeboye Adebayo

As the political atmosphere ahead of the Osun 2026 governorship election gradually intensifies, one issue that opponents of the All Progressives Congress (APC) constantly weaponize is the painful era of modulated salary, mischievously tagged “Half Salary,” popularly called Afusa, during the administration of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.

Without doubt, it was one of the most difficult economic moments in the history of Osun State. Workers suffered, families adjusted painfully, the economy became strained.

Yet, while emotions are understandable, history must never be distorted for political convenience.

The truth is simple, the APC administration under Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola did not wake up one morning and decide to punish workers.

The Modulated Salary miscellaneously tagged Half Salary policy was a financial necessity forced upon the state by a national economic crisis and a collapse in revenues accruing to states at that period.

More importantly, it was not an arbitrary decision taken by politicians alone. It was a painful consensus arrangement reached after engagements with labour leaders, senior civil servants, financial experts, and key government officials in order to avoid something far worse; mass retrenchment and total collapse of government obligations.

At that period, the leadership of labour in Osun, NLC, TUC met & agreed under the chairmanship of a veteran labour leader, Baba Hassan Sunmonu, in the presence of the Accountant General of the state; who himself was a senior civil servant.

Labour leaders, NLC, TUC, in the state and alongside other stakeholders who understood the fiscal realities confronting the state cooperated with government because they recognized that the alternative could have been catastrophic.

People must remember that between 2015 and 2017, Nigeria experienced one of its worst economic downturns in modern history. Crude oil prices crashed globally. Federal allocations reduced drastically. Many states across Nigeria could barely survive. Several states owed salaries for months without any structured arrangement or roadmap and Osun was not isolated from that crisis.

The state had an enormous wage burden, ambitious infrastructure commitments, expanding educational reforms, and developmental obligations at a time when revenues were shrinking dangerously.

The administration then had two difficult choices; sack thousands of workers or devise a survival mechanism to keep government functioning while preserving jobs and the government in its wisdom or chose the lesser evil.

Today, political actors conveniently narrate the Modulated Salary structure to safe the workers tagged it Half Salary episode without honestly discussing the economic context surrounding it. That is intellectually dishonest and politically deceptive.

One critical question must therefore be asked; if the current administration had governed Osun between 2018 and 2022 under the same economic realities and revenue limitations of that period, would it have magically escaped the same fiscal difficulties? The answer is obvious.

The present administration is proudly paying salary arrears and backlogs today largely because the financial environment has significantly improved. Federal allocations to states have increased tremendously following fuel subsidy removal and other fiscal adjustments at the national level. States are receiving far more resources now than during the peak of the economic crisis that produced the Modulated Salary arrangement. This is why the conversation must be balanced and honest.

If former Governor Rauf Aregbesola had governed Osun during this current era of improved allocations and fiscal boom, there is every possibility that his administration too would have paid salaries more comfortably and executed projects more aggressively.

Governance must therefore not be reduced to simplistic propaganda that “APC hates workers” while another party “loves labour.” Governments do not manufacture money emotionally. Fiscal strength is largely tied to revenue availability, economic productivity, prudent management, and strategic planning.

Now the real issue, unfortunately is where the present danger lies for Osun State.

Rather than utilizing this rare period of financial boom to aggressively build economic buffers, industrialize the state, improve internally generated revenue (IGR), attract manufacturing, create sustainable jobs, and invest in long-term productive infrastructure, there are growing concerns that Osun is drifting toward consumption-driven governance.

A government that depends excessively on federal allocations without building a productive local economy is merely postponing future financial pain.

A government that neglects industrialisation cannot sustainably employ its youths.

A government that fails to expand its tax net through economic productivity will eventually run into fiscal stress.

A government that spends heavily on populism without corresponding investments in wealth creation is laying dangerous economic traps for the future.

The truth many refuse to confront is that another fiscal downturn can come at any time.

Oil prices can fall again. National revenues can shrink again. Economic shocks can emerge again. If such happens while a state has failed to build reserves, productive assets, viable industries and sustainable internally generated revenue mechanisms, the ghost of Half Salary may unfortunately return.

That is why Osun people must stop approaching governance discussions emotionally and begin to interrogate economic fundamentals.

What are the long-term investments currently being made?

Where are the industrial clusters?

Where are the major agro-processing zones?

What deliberate policies are expanding private sector participation?

How much progress has been made in building export-oriented industries?

What strategic infrastructure is being developed to stimulate wealth creation?

How sustainable is the present financial model of the state?

These are the questions serious societies ask during boom periods.

History has shown repeatedly across the world that societies which waste periods of abundance often suffer severely during economic contractions.
Osun is making that mistake again.

This is not an attempt to deny the pains workers experienced during the Modulated Salary era. Their sacrifices were real and history will remember them.

However, fairness also demands acknowledging that the decision was taken under extraordinary fiscal pressure and with stakeholder cooperation to prevent a total breakdown of the system.

The issue before Osun today is not merely to continue weaponizing the past for politics. The bigger issue is whether the state is currently preparing adequately for the future.

Because this current boom period as it is being squandered through frivolous spending, weak economic planning, absence of savings culture and failure to invest in productive sectors, the next economic downturn may produce consequences even worse than what happened during the Afusa era.

Osun 2026 therefore must not only be about emotions, propaganda, or political sentiments.

It must be about economic competence, fiscal sustainability, strategic development, wealth creation, industrialisation, and the future survival of the state.

_Comrade Adeboye Adebayo, who is an APC Chieftain, is an Executive Member of Asiwaju Grassroots Foundation, AGF, Member of APC Professional Forum, Abuja. He also served as Spokesman, 2023 Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council._

Disclaimer: This piece represents the opinion of the writer not that of CityMirrorNews