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Why Oshiomhole is committed to workers welfare...by John Mayaki
Undoubtedly, this is the best of time for workers in Edo State. The Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as former President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) before now was on the other side of struggle but now, he is enjoying the privilege given to him by the people who asked him to occupy Osadebey Avenue as one of their own who can better their lots.
He stood firmly with workers at the NLC and now in government, he has not wavered especially when it comes to issues concerning workers welfare. He appreciates the fact that the only capital he had invested in the journey to government House was a collective struggle on the side of the great people of Nigeria. Together, workers made a statement that when the people have united and resolved, no godfather can stand on their way.
They also made a statement that this country cannot and will never be at the mercy of few individuals just as they also demonstrated that a people cannot be defeated by the brutal of generals. Today, Oshiomhole who is extremely privilege to address workers also knows he is a product of that constituency. Now, workers are being addressed by one of their own thereby opening the road so that children of the poor can be sure that afterall, there is hope.
However, one recognises the fact that it’s a season when wages are not keeping pace with the rate of inflation. In the face of this economic deficit, Governor Oshiomhole is keeping faith with workers afterall the right to belong to a trade union was not won on a platter of gold.
It’s on record that the right not only to speak but the right to be listened to have been won. In fact, only a foolish government can afford not to listen and indeed to listen very well. Before now in Edo, the police acted under a difficult political authority to unleashed terror on ordinary people who questioned legitimacy of a government they did not elect just as many were arrested and charged of frivolous charges. Today, the man who was a detainee two years ago is now the Attorney General of Edo State; Dr. Osagie Obayuwana. Power has changed for good.
The lessons are clear, the people can never be wrong; the most powerful army in the world can never defeat them.
He has assured workers of his support and urged them to sustain those traditions of the great movement, which is about truth, facts, and doggedness. Therefore, for Oshiomhole, the struggle continues even in government not minding he came in at a time of economic crisis.
He had argued as president of NLC and today as governor that we cannot accept that government cannot continue to be dedicated only to pay the police and armed forces in order to super impose fees. He had argued that in the confusion that we are in, we need an activist state, the state that lead by example, the challenge is not between market and regulation that the two only need to complement each other. Government must lead by example in areas where the market is not singing the same language that people want to hear.
The challenge for government, according to Oshiomhole is that it is not the duty of government to join the citizens to lament. That is why when he assumed office, he remained convinced that his challenge was to mobilize and challenge the people of the state to take control of finding solution and then the people will lead.
The traditional approach that every other government adopted in the face of dwindling revenue against the expectation of the people was to regard workers as a cost agent; but that is not an option for Oshiomhole. For other government, they saw workers as a burden and so thought that their solution was to reduce the workforce by downsizing the workers. This in Oshiomhole’s estimation is not a solution.
Edo state government under the stewardship of Oshiomhole will not retrench workers as solution. The Governor’s attitude is that workers are the greatest resource that we have because they are creative agents. He said, “we will advertise for the employment of doctors in our hospitals. I approved the employment of 1000 teachers. In the next three months, we will employ 3000 teachers.
“We have also decided to, in advertising for more doctors, we will employ more nurses. There is no reason why we have school of nursing and nurses graduate without jobs. Since the budget have been passed, we will roll out the drums and in my next speech, I will not tell you what we are going to do, I will be showing you what we have started doing”.
He understands that in civil service, the gap between a Director and a Permanent Secretary is so wide such that civil servants in the state can rise to grade level 16 since their counterparts at the federal level can rise to grade level 17. But, he does not recognize the sense behind this relegation and so the governor promised that “now, civil servants in the state can rise to grade level 17 and we will find out those who had been on grade level 16 and promote them to grade level 17; that is the only we can remove the glamour that everybody want to become a Permanent Secretary”.
The Governor said, “because we see workers as responsible people, we are lifting the embargo on promotion and employment. I have said that we will employ 10,000 workers. We have done what we need to do; procure all the uniforms before we ran into some issues raised by the House of Assembly who said we need an enabling law to create the employment of 10,000 jobs. We are in a hurry to move on and while we continue to put pressure on the House of Assembly to pass the bill into law, we are looking at exploring other avenues available to us to create these jobs. I had wished today, these workers are here”, Oshiomhole who spoke on Workers Day regretted.
The Governor, conversant with his challenges said the idea of cutting cost even where we need to increase public spending is not an option and that the only option was to find the money to do what he must do as a governor. “If I do not lead by example, I cannot challenge other sectors to pay their taxes”.
He simply wants to serve the people and render public service by using the instrument of governance to touch the greatest good to the greatest number. Obviously, the people in a democracy are the master because they hire the president, the senator, the governor and only they in a genuine democracy can fire by voting you out when they are not satisfied.
“It is clear therefore that he who hires is the master, he who is hired is the servant, and that at the heart of democracy the people are the masters. The man elected is the servant and he must consider public preference first. I am looking at policies that will impact positively on the lives of those who hired us, we will recognize that when we exercise power, we must account to the master how we exercise that power”, these are the standards of Governor Oshiomhole.
To assess Oshiomhole is the easiest among the governors in the country. The style in Edo is completely different from others. He has succeeded in demystifying governance. For Oshiomhole, “the higher the Berlin walls separating the master from the servant, the more the problems get compounded. Our capacity to demystify the whole process to remind citizens that because I am a governor does not make my hands so special. I am just the same old Adams that I have always been even as a governor nothing has changed. We must still be able to reach out to these people to engage them in conversation, to visit them where they reside, to meet them in their place of work and to engage them on all sorts of issues.
“I think for us to recognize that for every kobo that we spend, the people get value for it because they are entitled to know by opening up the system. The message we are putting across is that the governor cannot be too big to see and talk to the people over whose affairs he is presiding; that we think is extremely important”.
In Edo State, before now, successive governments spent about 70% of the budget on recurrent and about 30% on capital but this year, Governor Oshiomhole budgeted 62% for capital and 38% for recurrent; this is in a bid to eliminate all the wastages that government had noticed in the system.
What has happened is that Oshiomhole as a union leader have always been on the side of the people in terms of both advocacy and articulating all sorts of issues that concerns their welfare and now that he is in government, he is taking measures to extricate those policies that are injurious to public welfare. His responsibility as governor is to provide leadership that can attain the welfare of everybody or at least a majority.
The only difference I think is that whereas, before now, Oshiomhole at the NLC had to do a petition to try to argue a case by persuading government to listen now, he has a responsibility to execute rather than writing petition. Over the years, Oshiomhole worked for the good of the people, arguing policies in their favour and insisting that the social purpose of government must not be denied and that the essence of governance is the welfare of the people; he is still committed to doing that.
Mayaki is the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Adams Oshiomhole on Media.
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