The face-off between the Oyo State Government and the state workforce over ‘ideal minimum’ wage, last night took a fresh dimension as the workers insisted that the state government has no power to sack the 34,000 strong workforce.
The state government had last week declared the positions of the workers vacant and called for applications from interested members of the public to fill the vacancies with a payment of N1,000 application fee.
But addressing newsmen in Ibadan , Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC) Alhaji Bashir Apapa, said labour was undaunted by the action of the government. He added that the reported sack of the workers has strengthened their resolve to fight on. Apapa said the workers would not fill any form as directed by the government, as they deemed the position of the government as “unserious.”
Having been employed through an instrument, he said the workers believed that their purported sack was a mere ruse since it had not followed the laid down procedure.
He confirmed alleged threats of attack by thugs which he said officials of government have denied. He said, “But in order not to take chances, we have told the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Dr. Saka Balogun, and we said the government will be held responsible if anything happens to any of us. It’s one of their gimmicks to say that jobless people had started collecting their employment forms.
You can’t sack workers in such a crooked manner on the pages of newspaper.
There must be letters of disengagement. “We can only advise such people not to part with their hard-earned N1000, because it might be another means to rake in money for the government. There is no vacancy in the public service for now. Already, he said, the labour leaders had sent detailed copies of the government sources of income to the Olubadan, Oba Samuel Odulana; Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi and other stakeholders who had earlier waded into the matter.
This, he said was to show to the stakeholders that they were fighting a just cause.
However, Governor of the state, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala has restated that there was no going back on the sack of the striking workers, pointing out that he was pushed to the wall on the decision.
The governor said that his administration has made enough concession to make the workers call-off the strike but regretted that some forces are pushing the workers to dare the government, "and we have to show them", he said.
Akala maintained that the workers, being lazy people, who are not ready to work, allowed themselves to be used by some opposition forces, who wanted to destabilize his administration. While maintaining that he will not allow the workers to slow down his planned actions for the people of the state, Akala added that he was not ready to take dictation from any person in the governance of the state, especially on the payment of the new salary scale.
Akala stated further that: “how can workers say they are not ready to come for work when there are thousands of people looking for jobs in the state. “We are all politicians, and we know what is happening.
We know how to deal with the situation, but because we want peace in the state, that is the reason it has taken us this long to act. "I think we should be seen to be in control and I am in control.
What is their interest? Is it because of power shift? This state belongs to all of us and no part should be seen to be superior or inferior to another. Akala alleged that both the chairman of the NLC, Alhaji Bashir Apapa and his Joint Negotiating Council (JNC) counterpart, Alhaji Nurudeen Arowolo, were sponsored into their positions by his former boss, Alhaji Rashidi Ladoja.
"If I were in government, I won't allow Apapa to be the NLC chairman or to allow Arowolo as the JNC chairman. I will definitely have a say in who becomes the chairman of the NLC and I doubt if somebody that I put there would have the guts to contradict my interest.
From Tunde Sanni in Ibadan
This Day
Sunday, September 23, 2007
