The position of the Oyo State governor-elect, Mr Seyi Makinde, that he would have to negotiate with the labour union over the N30,000 minimum wage law, has been said to be in the interest of the state and a true reflection of the financial situation the state is currently in.
This was just as the workforce in the state and all well-meaning residents have been implored to be ready to “reason and make compromises with the new government when such need arises, until the new government finds its feet.”
Making these statements on Thursday, a socio-political group, the Oyo Kajola Group (OKG), said the governor-elect’s position was “candid, forthright and patriotic,” noting that his statement was based on the factual analysis of the financial situation of Oyo State at present.
According to the group, in a statement signed by its media coordinator, Taiwo Ogunlade, it was quite uncharitable for opposition politicians and mischief-makers to twist Makinde’s candid view about the situation in his state, saying: “the extant reality in Oyo State is such that the state’s financial capacity would not be able to bear the burden that will be occasioned by the sharp rise in wage and a good-hearted and truthful chief executive, which is what Makinde has promised to be, cannot shy away from expressing these worries.
“While the governor-elect has promised to transform the state immensely and to turn around its internally-generated revenue, which will make it less dependent on federal allocations, all these cannot be done in a hurry. The workers, who we believe, have always been partners in the progress of the state, should be ready to negotiate with the new government, so that it could find its feet and stabilise governance,” the group said.
“The financial reality and preliminary findings of the governor-elect, which showed how the state has been groaning under a heavy financial burden under the outgoing government and how the government has continued to pile more burdens with last minute attempts to ground the incoming government, led Makinde to make the statement.
“It will be uncharitable for the outgoing government, which has less than a month to leave office to rush into paying a wage that will become unsustainable. Oyo State workers should not forget in a hurry how Governor Abiola Ajimobi had, in 2011, dilly-dallied over the new minimum wage and how he had waged wars on the workers, ranging from threats to blackmail,” the statement added.
