Subsidy palliative: Workers, pensioners shut Oyo secretariat
BY STEPHEN GBADAMOSI
Barely 24 hours after thousands of apparently hungry youths looted grain warehouses and stores in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, workers in Oyo State, yesterday, locked the state secretariat in Ibadan to demand for fuel subsidy palliatives, upward review of pensioners’ allowances and payment of salary deductions.
In a swift response, the state government has called labour leaders in the state to a dialogue.
As early as about 7:30 a.m., the workers and some members of state branch of Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) laid siege to the secretariat gate, preventing inflow and outflow of traffic.
Participating in the protest were members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), NUP, Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) and other affiliates of the two major labour centres.
Led by their union leaders, some of the workers said they were demanding for payment of leave bonuses, payment of gratuities to retirees who had been stagnated on the same payment since 2021 as well as release of promotion letters for 2021 and 2022.
Others expressed grief that, given the current economic situation occasioned by the removal of fuel subsidy, they had been left in the lurch virtually unattended to even as transportation costs, food prices and other welfare indices had skyrocketed.
Some of the labour leaders said they had written many letters to the state government over their plight, allegedly without any response.
NUP state secretary, Comrade Olusegun Abatan, said there had been communication gaps between them and Governor Seyi Makinde; hence, the protest held to insist on seeing the governor over solutions to their grievances.
But in a statement later issued by the state Commissioner of Information and Orientation, Prince Dotun Oyelade, the state government said only three months “and not six months’” deductions were owed the workers.
The statement added that every state in the country owes workers’ salary deductions and the three months owed by Oyo State was the least.
According to the commissioner, the NLC had shown “over the years that they are in support of the present administration, because of good governance,” but the government asked the body to reflect on the disposition of government to workers’ welfare.
He said: “While the July salaries have been paid in Oyo State, not less than 20 states, including Ondo, Plateau, Benue and Bayelsa, are owing several months of salaries in arrears, while several more, including neighboring states, are owing months of deduction arrears.
“The Oyo State government started the implementation of the N30,000 minimum wage three years ago; yet, up till now, many states are still struggling to pay the old wage.
“While it is the right and entitlement of our workers to access their wages, especially at this tough time, government implores them to reflect on the sincerity of purpose of this administration.”
The statement added that despite the challenges of paying wages, over 2,000 civil servants had been promoted while almost 1,000 others had been converted to regular service.
“For the records, Oyo State pays N7.3 billion monthly as salaries; yet collects average of N5 billion as federal allocation. Because of this, all the N2.8 billion raked in as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) is ploughed back literally to service salaries,” he explained.
READ ALSO: BB-HARRIS-releases-Single-jeje
Prince Oyelade said government deserved a pat on the back, “if, in spite of this tightrope, government still embarks on such magnitude of infrastructural projects that even the NLC has applauded numerously. Eminent pundits, including the current Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, have predicted that no state would be able to pay salaries by the end of June this year, because of the worsening shape of the economy; but Oyo State, due to the deft husbanding of the state resources by Governor Seyi Makinde, has defied the doomsday prediction.
“This is why the state government is confident that the NLC will come to the negotiating table; and together with the government, chart a realistic path in balancing the welfare of the workers, to which the government is obviously committed, and the unpleasant economic indices that stare all of us in the face.
“Meanwhile, the Oyo State government urges workers to resume at their duty posts and continue the good work they are known for.”
