Senator Isiaka Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo state, right from when he was a Senator and his subsequent election to the number one seat in Oyo state, has passed through conflict many times. To gain a seat in the Senate in 1999 was no mean a feat. He also decamped from the then Action Congress (AC) to the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and back to the Action Congress of Nigeria to actualize his gubernatorial ambition. Above all, the scramble to snatch power from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was herculean.
His first official duty in the Pacesetter state was on conflict resolution. The students of The Polytechnic Ibadan had stormed the governor’s office at the state secretariat shortly on assumption of office by the government. Their mission was to demand for the reduction of their school fees, which were hiked by the immediate past administration. The issue was resolved without bloodshed, despite the overzealousness of the security agents.
The notorious National Union of Transport Workers (NURTW), which has constituted itself to a nuisance and a threat to peace and stability in the state, was also checkmated by the governor. Observers had said that no peace lover would tolerate the problems created for the past administration headed by Adebayo Alao-Akala, which glaringly favoured one faction of the union against the other. Some innocent residents of the state and travelers were killed and injured by the NURTW touts in their battle of supremacy. Like the biblical King Solomon, Governor Ajimobi sought counsel and consequently proscribed the deadly union. He later set up Justice John Olagoke Ige-led panel to investigate the cause of the crisis in the union and proffer solution.
The most recent issue he has had to contend with was the strike embarked upon by workers in the state. The bone of contention between the government and the workers is not the non-payment of the N18, 000 minimum wages, but its full implementation.
Earlier, the workers had threatened their leaders, whom they accused of selling out to the government. They eventually sacked their leaders whom they alleged to have taken a bribe of N25 million from Governor Ajimobi. Interestingly, during a meeting with the governor, Ajimobi laughed the workers consisting of the old and new executives to scorn. The governors, insiders revealed, described himself as miserly to such an extent that his family so much dislike him for that shortcoming. That is to dispel the rumour that he bribed the workers’ executives with N25 million to do his bidding.
Governor Ajimobi painstakingly had referred the workers to the explanation of his commissioner of finance, Mr. Adedeji Adelabu, on the accounts of the government. He said that the wage table agreed to by the real labour leaders would require the deployment of about 92 percent of the total income of the state to pay salary adding that the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state could only cover about 25 percent of the wage bill. After his meticulous analysis of the state of finances of the state, he blamed the interim chairman of the workers, who was arrested by the police for breaching public peace and disrupting teaching in some schools. On a humorous note, Governor Ajimobi who has got security report on the arrested union leader also exposed him. The governor told the leader to his face that he is enjoying some privileges from the government. Though some people regarded the exposure as propaganda, anything could be used to achieve a notable cause. The governor ordered that they should be unconditionally released from detention. People are praying that these ‘leaders’ should not be secretly retired abruptly in view of the fact that the ring leader has about three more years in service.
However, the patience and tolerance of Governor Ajimobi was put to test penultimate recently, when he invited the workers to an interactive session to present the financial position of the state. The meeting was aimed at convincing the workers that he (Ajimobi) meant well for them. The seemingly angry and hungry workers were charged, demanding that the governor should go straight to the point without bordering on observing any protocols.
Tension was temporarily doused when he announced the approval of N19, 987 as a minimum wage for workers adding that with that payment, the government would be left with a paltry eight percent of its total budget for other programmes.
The workers refused to be carried away by the sentiment to suspend the strike as they promised to critically study the table and send a feedback to the governor through their leaders. Ironically, the workers detected what they believed was a deceit on the table and stood their ground on the strike.
Despite the threat of no work no pay, the workers insisted that the government must rectify the anomaly in the table before they would call off the strike. In the spirit of no victor, no vanquished, Ajimobi still assured that no worker would be sacked and continued his plea with them to go back to work in the interest of development of the state. His troubleshooting effort in the state has, however, not yielded much with public servants in the state still on strike.
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