AJIMOBI AND THE NEW LOVE FOR WORKERS
Suddenly,Sen. Isiaq Abiola Ajimobi, the out-going governor of Oyo state has become a friend of the workers, just thirty days to the end of his tenure.
Contrary to the practice in the last eight years, when workers, through their leaders, the NLC and the TUC, would issue out ultimatums to the governor, and they would need to proceed on indefinite strikes before they could be granted audience at all, Governor Ajimobi is inviting them for talks.
He is inviting them to discuss the newly negotiated minimum wage of thirty thousand naira by the Nigerian workers with the federal government. This discussion, with all intents and purposes is no doubt a vindictive exercise,it is aimed to create a booby-trap for the in-coming government of Engr Seyi Makinde and set an agenda of chaos.
Ajimobi,we can vividly recall, boasted during the electioneering in 2015, that eighteen thousand was just too small for an average Nigerian worker as take home pay, considering the rate of inflation but in a bizarre twist after assuming power, he said it was a mere political talk!
Workers in the state went through hell to have a partry sum of about thirteen thousand naira negotiated for themselves.
Pensioners were said to be embarrassed with caustic words like “se eyin o laje seku ni……se eyin o fowo tomo ni…? And the government continued singing the same song of “awon kan ni won ko owo yin na..”for eight solid years, condemning the senior citizens of our state to absolute penury.
As we write,local government workers are battling with a backlog of salary arrears, lecturers in the tertiary institutions are looking forward to how sixteen months arrears of salary will be paid them and life has become meaningless to many workers who were retroactively retrenched.
But Ajimobi believes he can hurriedly redeem this image as he is preparing his hand-over note to Seyi Makinde. The administration is issuing out promotion letters that had been due for well over five years,bio metric data are being hurriedly conducted and the government that could not pay eighteen thousand minimum wage for eight years is now asking workers to come and discuss thirty thousand.
Workers in Oyo state are so wise and would not want to be used to abort a pregnancy that is just in the embryonic stage. To hell with a gift from the Greek. Gone are those days when people could be so gullible that you use your selfish desire to set them against a new government.
Dotun Oyelade.
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