Less than two weeks after he was sworn in as governor of Oyo State, on June 8, 2011, Sen. Abiola Ajimobi sought the intervention of traditional rulers and leaders of thought in the state on the payment of the new minimum wage, pointing out that the state would need a loan of N200million monthly to be able to pay the new salary grade for the workers.
According to stories extracted by OYO INSIGHT from the website of Action Congress Of Nigeria, ACN, under whose platform Ajimobi contested the 2011 election, the governor made the plea when receiving three leading traditional rulers on a courtesy call to his office.
There have been reactions and counter reactions over the outgoing administration’s plan to implement the N30, 000 minimum wage. Many have questioned the government’s decision to begin implementation less than a month to its exit.
Ajimobi, had in 2011, told the monarchs that he had explained to the labour leaders that while statutory allocation accruing to the state was, on the average, N2.4 billion monthly, the state’s Internally Generated Revenue nets about N1 billion, which, if added to VAT and other revenues accruable to the state government, pushes the state’s monthly income to about N4.2 billion on the average.
Ajimobi told the traditional rulers and other leaders that he was anxious to pay the May salary of workers immediately and pay whatever is agreed upon with labour after appropriation by the House of Assembly.
He told the monarchs that with the hurriedly approved new minimum wage increase by his predecessor, Adebayo Alao-Akala, the state would pay monthly salaries of N4.4 billion which, translates to mean that the state government would have to borrow the sum of N200 million monthly to be able to pay the salaries of its workers.
The governor added that the implication of the new minimum wage was that, even after borrowing N200 million monthly to pay the workers’ salaries, government would not only find it impossible to provide the needed implements for the civil servants to do their work like common office pen and typing sheets; it would be an impossibility to actualize all the lofty dreams which he swore to provide for the people of the state.
The governor acknowledged that workers in the state were among the worst-paid salary-earners in the South West and offered to bring their salaries at par with comparable states, beginning with Ekiti State.
“If the Ekiti State salary model is adopted, the new salary will increase workers’ wages by between 45 and 100 percent, pushing up the wage bill by N800million per month to N3.7billion.”
The governor also hinted the leaders about his hurriedly withdrawal of the amounts totaling about N3 billion, in an attempt to empty the treasury, five days before the exit of the past government.
Ajimobi said that he has presented all these facts to the labour leaders and informed the visiting leaders that his administration would continue to dialogue with the labour leaders towards arriving at an acceptable point where civil servants and the people he swore to provide their welfare will all beam smiles of satisfaction.
