Lucida Sans Unicode]Oyo workers ’ll enjoy N18,000 minimum wage from May 1 - Alao-Akala •Says governance remains potent until last admissible date •It is morally wrong - Governor-elect

OYO State governor, Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala, has insisted that he will not renege on his promise to pay the N18,000 minimum wage to public workers in the state, saying that its implementation is a covenant between him and the workers.

The governor had, during an inter-denominational service organised by the state Head of Service, Alhaja Iyabo Adeleke, at the Governor’s Office last March, promised to effect the payment of the new wage, saying that it was a legal entitlement of public workers in the state.

The Governor-elect of the state, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, had, on Sunday, warned the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led government in the state against approving a new minimum wage for workers in the state at the twilight of the administration.

He had also said that it would be morally wrong for the governor to embark on such venture after he had been voted out of office, adding that it would be proper for him (Alao-Akala) to allow the in-coming administration to take such a decision.

However, Governor Alao-Akala, in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Public Communications, Prince Dotun Oyelade, and made available to Nigerian Tribune on Monday, turned down Ajimobi’s request to stop the implementation of the new salary, declaring that public workers in the state would start enjoying the minimum wage from May 1, 2011.

Expressing his regrets for his inability to accede to the request made by Ajimobi, the governor said that the promise to pay the minimum wage, which he said he voluntarily made on Tuesday, March 29, 2011, had become a covenant between him and the workers.

Taking an exception to Ajimobi’s description of his action as suspicious and controversial, Alao-Akala said that he gave the promise then out of the conviction that he would be the one to implement it, asking: “What kind of leader will I be if I have to acquiesce to reneging on a promise I made to my people? I wish to leave behind a legacy of policy consistency”, he said.

He also disagreed with Senator Ajimobi that it was morally wrong for him (Alao-Akala) to initiate a project that he would not implement, saying that, “while it is morally and legally correct for him to effect minimum wage, governance is a continuum and its entity remains potent until the last admissible date.

“In any case, former Governor Lam Adesina sealed a whopping N1.8 billion contract for an international market and water projects in the dying days of his administration, while Senator Rashidi Ladoja increased workers’ salaries and allowances a few days before his departure”, he said.

Expressing his determination to go ahead with the payment of the minimum wage, Governor Alao-Akala, in the statement, declared: “The workers in Oyo State will enjoy minimum wage of N18,000 from May 1, 2011 and it is their right to reject the offer.”

Furthermore, Senator Ajimobi, has said that the payment of the new minimum wage could not be implemented with just a statement, adding that, though the law had been passed but it had not been ratified.

The governor-elect who spoke through his Director for Media and Publicity, Mr Yanju Adegbite, in Ibadan, said that the issue was more sensitive than just issuing a statement.

While noting that the governor was yet to ratify the new law, he said it could not be paid without ratification by the governor.

“As of this morning, the law is yet to be ratified as the governor was not around,” he said.