31st July, 2015
By Olumuyiwa Wahab Jimoh
It is generally agreed that a worker is truly deserving of his wage. This is functioned on the singular fact that it is the worker’s efforts and contributions in the production process that creates the wealth which the socio-economy depends on for survival. A worker’s wage is therefore not charity but truly just a fraction of his total creation and contributions to the Gross National Product (GNP). It is his share of his contribution to the bottom-line of any organisation; be it public or private which is often infinitesimal compared to the quantum of his total contribution to the national effort.
When it is realised that workers depend on their salaries for sustenance and for taking care of their extended families and discharging their obligations to the larger society, one begins to understand the crisis which the withholding of these from the worker portends not only directly for the worker and his immediate dependants, but for the society at large. A worker’s salary is his lifeline. As a lifeline, it ought not to be treated with carelessness or any form of irresponsibility as that would amount to either suspending the lives of some people or actually destroying them outright.
I hold the opinion that when a worker is denied his salary, he becomes stripped of his humanity as he becomes castrated of the capacity to discharge his social obligations and carry out responsible and dignified activities within the society. This is traumatic and humans ought not to be allowed to go through this experience in a modern society, especially in a democracy.
We hold therefore that any organisation or employer for that matter, which includes various governments at different levels, that intentionally withholds salaries from her workers stands condemnable for subjecting fellow human beings to sub-normal conditions. The persons or group involved ought to be held in contempt of all civilised societies and ostracised from public discourses and conversations. It is truly criminal. The Holy Books say so, our laws and conventions reject it and our social morals seriously frown at it.
However, in reaching these conclusions, it becomes imperative that we make further inquiries as to why a sane employer could subject her employees to such harrowing conditions. Is it out of sheer wickedness; out of inexplicable carelessness and irresponsibility; out of a degradation of our moral values; out of a loss of focus for the central place the worker occupies in our production chain; out of greed and avarice or perhaps are there objective conditions such as the unavailability of funds or paucity of capacity to meet the salary demands?
This plank forms the basis for our intervention in this recent national conversation around the huge and accumulating salary arrears which is almost turning into an outrage amongst the citizenry and the various interest groups. Truly, most of these cases in some of the states of the federation cannot be excused under any circumstances especially when we look at the cheeky manner some of the state governors are going about trying to explain this comeuppance against Nigerian workers and Nigeria. And, when we factor in the financial buoyancy of such state governments at the backdrop of the small comparative recurrent expenditure, we cannot but question the nature of the conscience of such leaders.
The case of state of Osun under the able leadership of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola immediately comes to mind and seems to stand at a cursory look in contrast with the very well-known and publicly stated beliefs of the Governor who has always maintained that the welfare of the workers in the state remains topmost priority. When you however peel the veneer, one will objectively observe why the salary of workers in the state became unfortunately delayed over these past months.
His was truly not one of those borne out of irresponsibility, greed and utter neglect of the welfare of others based on the feeling that they are not part of the people in leadership in the state. It was not because public funds were criminally diverted or misapplied for other selfish purposes. It was purely borne out of conditions that are extraneous to his sphere of control and thus the Econometrics will call it the intrusion of the X variables or the stochastic variables which as we know cannot be easily handled no matter how clever we are in our planning effort.
State of Osun at creation had peculiar circumstances and we would therefore attribute part of the present salary overhang to a historically generated phenomenon which was unavoidably thrust unto the state at birth. Can we then call it a genealogical defect? No! But one that truly poses a deep challenge and has continued posing challenges to those who have had the opportunity of leading the state and are presently leading it.
When State of Osun was created, a very large percentage of the workforce of the old Oyo State moved with the new State of Osun to Osogbo. We would therefore say that while Osun inherited heavy recurrent expenses from the Old Oyo State, it however came away being a new state with smaller portion of the internal capacity for wealth generation. In essence, it had a heavy recurrent expenditure confronting it right at birth with inverse capacity for wealth generation needed to satisfy the inherent expenditure profile. This put the state at birth to a negative balance in its financial standings. This it has struggled with since then and which receipts from the Federation Account has helped in meeting all these while.
It was the realisation of this financial gap that propelled the present leadership into making a case for accelerated development of the state and to build internal capacities within in order to create multiple streams of revenue for the state and wean it from dependence on the Federation Account for survival. That explains the myriads of projects that dot the major cities of the state which are all geared towards solving this natal challenge.
These have however created two major challenges. While the financial imbalance makes it imperative that it has to look for externals to augment its position to fund its activities, the drop in its receipts from the Federation Account of which the state is one of the lowest in Nigeria as a result of the huge drop in international oil prices further exacerbated the situation and made its finances very precarious thus unable to meet the expectations of its major stakeholders especially the workforce.
His quest to make the state independent of the Federation Account was the second challenge. It meant that huge funds were quickly allocated to capital projects and most of these projects have not been realised when suddenly the national financial crunch struck. While the expenses persisted, the source of augmentation has dried up and the projects that was hoped would catapult the state into a commercially viable destination have not come on stream yet to contribute to the state’s effort; this seems to be the present quagmire which the state seem to have found itself.
The unpaid salaries was not therefore a creation of the state government but a product of unexpected national financial crisis as a result of not just international price adjustments in crude oil but also deep and systemic corruption that pervaded governance at the federal level under the PDP-led administration of Nigeria for the past 16 years. State of Osun’s case must therefore be seen for what it is – a historical and structural problem. It was not internal but externally induced.
Another example of this debacle is the presence in the state of two state polytechnics and two colleges of education including the state university each making humongous demands on the treasury of the state. I still do not know of how many states in Nigeria have such number of state educational institutions. I also do not think that outside Lagos state in the whole of the South West of Nigeria, there is any other state with the size of workforce which Osun state has. The import of this is dizzying within the context of the revenue capacity of all these states comparatively.
There is however, a good side to all these for despite these disadvantages, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has been able to empower the people reducing absolute poverty in the process to the minimum and making the state one of the best states in terms of poverty index in Nigeria. The recent report of the study of all the states in Nigeria as compiled under the MPI shows that while Lagos state has the lowest poverty rate, Osun stands next in rank while Anambra state follows. This is commendable and shows that it is always better to invest in the people as the Governor has been able to do in Osun. His good works in the state are beginning to show in diverse areas especially in the psyche of the average Osun citizen. This is truly commendable.
Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola therefore deserves our sympathy in these circumstances especially when we see the genuine and frantic efforts he has been making towards ensuring that the arrears are cleared. Just few days ago, he succeeded in reducing the overhang and is seriously negotiating with the workers on how best to liquidate the remaining arrears. He has shown deep concern and tremendous willingness to overcome this situation avoiding all forms of grandstanding and vain temporising that would not assist towards its resolution. I think that it is the way he has engaged the workforce and its leadership creatively and proactively despite the quantum of the overhang that has allowed the state to maintain a reasonable Industrial relations harmony. This also deserves the commendation of all Nigerians and a learning point for other governors as it shows how to relate with the workforce in the face of such difficulties.
He has continued to provide leadership in the face of this crippling challenge and everyone could easily see the effort that he is making and the results that would eventually ensue. He has denied himself from inception of his administration the luxury of the so-called security vote preferring instead to use it for the development of his state for the benefit of the people. He has one of the lowest immediate personnel cost in Nigeria as he refuses to be lured into the base and crude living at the expense of the people which has characterised leadership elsewhere in the country.
Anyone could easily see where the state’s funds have gone into. The huge road infrastructural deficits that have been seriously confronted and bridged; the schools, hospitals, airport projects linked with expected development in the agricultural sector and the various people empowerment projects and programmes that pervades the landscape of the state all bear testimony to the determination of this Governor to make a difference in the lives of the people of the state.
While we can therefore conclude that some state governments were profligate and therefore should be held responsible for the unpaid salary overhang, Ogbeni’s case ought to be dispassionately dissected and objectively discussed. This will lead any discerning observer to the conclusion that he was not complicit in creating that salary monster but mainly a combination of factors which were clearly outside of his control and which he must have to grapple with at the same time. That is the reality of the unpaid salary issue in the State of Osun.
We see the unpaid salary overhang as a tumour which the Governor, with the present mind-set we have seen at work, will confront surgically in his usual manner and candour now that it has decided to present a challenge to the people of his dear state. From here we urge the workers of the State of Osun to continue showing their Governor the understanding he needs at this time so as to encourage him to tackle this aberration successfully.
State of Osun workers truly deserve our commendations as they have shown huge resilience and understanding to the state government. This is how it should be as one good turn deserves another. They should resist every attempt by political jobbers and opportunists to hijack the situation and create crisis that would work against the interest of the state. Constantly partnering together to seek avenues for coming out of this wood as social partners should be pursued and maintained. We are sure that with the passion that he has for the state and workers, very shortly, this challenge will be conquered successfully and all stakeholders’ expectations will be fully met as workers’ dignity are restored
Olumuyiwa Wahab Jimoh is the Deputy Majority Leader of the Lagos State House Of Assembly and represents Apapa Constituency 2.