Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun on Monday assured that his administration would not renege on its promises or any understanding reached with workers in the state, stating that he recognized their role in the “Building our Future Together” agenda of his administration
Governor Abiodun gave the assurance in his address at this year’s International Workers Day held at the M.K.O Abiola Stadium, Kuto, Abeokuta.
He said his government was on the verge of implementing policies and programmes to enhance the health welfare package of the work force, while regular training and retraining to enhance productivity and improve service delivery in all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, would be intensified.
The governor also disclosed that he has paid N13b out of the N19b Global Deductions owed to the public servants in the state.
Governor Abiodun, who equally disclosed that his administration has paid N88.92b as pension for the state and local government retirees till date, assured that the outstanding of N6bn global deductions would be paid in the coming months.
Emphasizing on the theme of this year’s celebration, “Workers’ Rights and Social Economic Rights”, Governor Abiodun noted that his administration understood workers’ plight and was working towards addressing them.
He said, his government has paid the sum of N4.1b as gratuities for both state and local government retirees, just as the quarterly release for pensioners has been increased from N500m to N1b.
He further disclosed that the minimum monthly pay for pensioners in the state had been increased from N5,000 to N10,000.
“The additional N700m wage bill initially affected our plan which was to settle all outstanding commitments with our work force. Let me reassure you that our administration will continue to explore various financial options rather than imposing additional taxes on the people”.
“Amongst other initiatives, we have put in place an improved working environment for our Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), Commencement of the year 2021 and 2022 promotion exercise of Civil Servants, provision of housing scheme for our workers: construction and allocation of Prince Court at Kemta Idi-Aba, Abeokuta and Kobape Estate, and newly constructed quarters for the Permanent Secretary at Laderin Estate”, the governor pointed out.
Parts of the welfare package for the workers, the governor added, include the review upward by 100 percent car and motorcycle refurbishing loans, appointment of new Permanent Secretaries; Accountant-General, Solicitor-General, Principals-General and Tutor-General for seamless administration.
While intimating the workers with the plans of his administration in the next four years, Governor Abiodun said: “The second phase of our administration, will ensure the completion of infrastructural projects encompassing transportation infrastructure, be it road, be it our airport, education infrastructure, be it renovation of public schools,health infrastructure, including the provision and construction of primary health care centers till we have at least one PHC per ward”.
“We will focus on the provision of public utilities which would be the supply of portable water and uninterrupted power supply to our major towns and villages to make life more abundant for our people.
“We will embark on our energy transition implementation through our E-mobility scheme, a plan to convert all our motorcycles to electric powered and also our mass transit buses to being gas powered”.
In his remarks, the Federal Controller of Ministry of Labour, Mr.Itemoagbo Eshomounu, who represented the Minister of Labour and Employment, said workers as wealth creators have over the years, contributed to the socio-economic development of the country, emphasizing that the Federal Government has taken steps to address challenges facing workers in their places of work.
