• Salaries Remain Incomplete 9 Months Running
Workers in the six Oyo State-owned tertiary institutions have begun lamenting the nonpayment of their October salary, more than three weeks after their counterparts in the state civil service were paid, with hopes of the salary returning to 100%, even when eventually released, in the negative, OYOINSIGHT.COM has reliably gathered.
While the salary status of those in The Polytechnic, Ibadan cannot be ascertained as at press time, this newspaper understands that those in the other five, which includes Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo; Oyo State College of Education, Lanlate; Adeseun Ogundoyin Polytechnic, Eruwa; Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology, Igboora as well as The Oke-Ogun Polytechnic, Saki have been singing tales of woe over this issue, which has become lingering, since last year September.
According to sources in one of these institutions, the Oyo State Government begun paying their salaries two weeks or more into the next month in September, 2021, deflating the workers’ initial joy of receiving alerts on the 25th of every month like their colleagues in the state civil service, and eventually putting paid to government’s advert of paying all category of workers on the 25th of every month. Despite assurances from the governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde, while meeting the institutions’ Joint Action Committee (JAC) sometimes in August, the salaries remained incomplete.
To add salt to injury, OYOINSIGHT.COM reliably gathered that the attitude of Platinum, the government’s appointed consultant to the six tertiary institutions, to the management of these institutions, has been nothing short of terrible. For instance, the consultant has been unavailable for the past three weeks, putting on hold approval for the payment of the wages of adhoc and contract staff, as well as defrayment of other maintenance bills already incurred, on credit, by these institutions.
Unfortunately, if the clean bill of health passed on Platinum by his employer, the Oyo State governor is anything to go by, then officials of these institutions may be done for, at least for the duration of the Makinde government. This newspaper recalls that despite allegations of retaining 10% in the already meagre funds of these institutions, before approving, most times unwillingly, and many times after stressing these officials who have to travel distances down to Ibadan for approvals as low as N5000, Governor Makinde had promised to retain the consultant, should he secure a second term, while appearing on an interview on an Ibadan-based radio station last week.
Worst hit in this late payment of salaries is the Oyo State College of Education, Lanlate, whose staff have had to put up with poor working conditions and students, with deplorable facilities and terrible physical environment. In fact, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, the College is yet to receive a kobo from both the N100M Special Intervention Grant and the N36M Capital Expenditure captured in the state’s 2022 Budget, which were both promised within four weeks of the governor’s visit on Friday, 11 February, 2022!
As if that wasn’t enough, the College’s link bridge in its permanent site which broke down more than three years ago, and which the governor promised to fix, remains in its pitiable state, eight months after, not forgetting the College’s accreditation exercise, which had been due for over two years, and for which the state government hadn’t released a penny, despite series of appeals from the Governing Council and the College Management.
This late receipt of salary by workers in the state’s tertiary institution, OYOINSIGHT.COM learnt, is part of the agitations captured in the strike notice presented on Thursday, 3 November, 2022 by the Public Service Joint Negotiating Council (PSJNC), consisting affiliates of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), wherein they contented under Subvention that: “the Council-in-Session notes with dismay that the subvention to tertiary institutions are not released on the 25th of every month as being done for other workers, and this is affecting the workers in the institutions because their salary is not paid as and when due. We urge Your Excellency to look into it and resolve this recurring issue,” failure which the Council noted, there may not be a guarantee of industrial peace commencing from Thursday, 10 November, 2022.
For workers in these institutions, there appears, for now, no light at the end of the tunnel, as the governor, apparently consumed by his re-election bid and other intraparty squabbles, may not have the time to attend to their demands, as prompt as they would’ve wished.
