Except he has a change of heart, Oyo State governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde, is set to withhold the monthly subvention to state-owned tertiary institutions whose staff members are currently on strike, sources within government have told OYOINSIGHT.COM.
This newspaper recalls that workers in the Oyo State College of Education, Lanlate, Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo, The Oke-Ogun Polytechnic, Saki, Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology, Igboora and a section of staff in the Adeseun Ogundoyin Polytechnic, Eruwa, under the aegis of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Senior Staff Union in Colleges of Education, Nigeria (SSUCOEN) and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics (SSANIP), have since mid-May commenced an industrial action bodering on a number of issues such as incomplete salaries, non-payment of minimum wage arrears, discontinuation in the defrayment of the 2018/2019 salary arrears, amongst other welfare-related concerns.
To worsen matters, the governor had on Friday, 11 February, 2022 paid a working visit to the Oyo State College of Education, Lanlate, apparently the state’s most impoverished and indigent institution, owing to years of neglect and poor funding by successive governments, promising members of staff, who were then on strike, that he would see to the settlement of their indebtedness within four weeks, and that the sum of N136M would be released to the College to turn around its infrastructural fortunes.
Surprisingly, none of the promises, which workers in the institution took to heart, and upon which they called off their strike, has been fulfilled, 16 weeks after, and sources said, aren’t likely to be, for a very long time to come.
This is similar to what played out in the Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology, Igboora, when the governor promised the sum of N50M, which hasn’t been released, till date!
“This no work, no pay threat, if eventually effected, will only add salt to injury, and will show that indeed, this governor doesn’t like us at all” a distressed worker in the Lanlate College told OYO INSIGHT on condition of anonymity.
Workers in the state-owned tertiary institutions have since the beginning of the year been lamenting government’s inability to pay them complete monthly salaries like other categories of civil servants, as well as the lateness in the release of same, weeks after the much trumpeted 25th of every month.
Should this no work, no pay threat subsist, Governor Makinde would have added 5 state-owned tertiary institutions to Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, whose subvention had been stopped since last month for the same reason of embarking on industrial action to press home welfare-related issues, which Government believes to be “unnecessary”.
This newspaper further learnt that to show its apparent disinterestedness, the Oyo State Government hasn’t held any meeting with JAC, nor constituted any Committee to look into their demands. Even the State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mr. Abdulrahman Abdulraheem who met JAC once, was unable to put anything concrete on the table.
Except fate intervenes, workers in these institutions appear set for hard times.
