The inability of Osun State Government to pay its workers and pensioners’ entitlements for more than eight month has led to a humanitarian crisis as distressed workers daily besiege the office of the Trade Union Congress, TUC to beg for food, Mrs Tola Noegbe, the TUC Secretary , Osun State chapter has disclosed.
It will be recalled that the chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Osun State chapter , Rev. Elisha Ogundiya had appealed to churches to be donating food items to rescue distressed workers in the state.
Osun Pensioners yesterday also besieged the state House of Assembly complex begging legislators to intervene that many of their members are dying in dozens.
Nosegbe who made the shocking revelation this morning on a Breakfast Show on ChannelsTV, Sunrise Daily said she had personally taken up the responsible of helping some children of the affected workers in the state.
She said, ” These workers throng our (TUC) office believing that we should be able to find solution to the problem. We have been distributing Garri, Rice to distressed workers. The situation is so pathetic”.
The labour activist also discounted the explanation giving by the Government for the salary backlogs stressing that a ‘Hungry Man is an angry Man”. Nosegbe also faulted the manner the Governor of the State, Rauf Aregbesola had been responding to the crisis saying the Governor had sidelined the authentic Union leaders in his consultation.
According to her, the state chapter of the NUC could only had audience with the Governor until the National leadership of the Union came from Lagos to intervene.
She disclosed that during the meeting help with Aregbesola on 15th of May, 2015, the Governor adduced the failure to meet his obligation to the workers to crash oil price in the global market which ultimately impacted the allocation that accrues to the state. Nosegbe further disclosed that the Governor admitted that he had been servicing the loans he and his predecessors acquired with sizeable portion of the allocation.
While suggesting a short term solution to the problem, Nosegbe asked the Government to start using the little allocation accruing to the state to offset the salary backlogs insisting, ‘that this money (salary arrears) must be paid.
The Peoples Democratic Party,PDP in Osun State, in its proposal on how the plight of workers in the state can be solved, had last week advised the Governor to sell the state Helicopter which the opposition party claimed Aregbesola had converted to his personal use .
1 Comment
I think the governor and other Assembly members are receiving their salaries when due, if that is the case, then Aregbesola should be seen as a wicked and selfish person. He should sell whatever he can sell to pay the arrears. If there are plans that he has planned and cannot carry on with he should abandon such plans.