On Tuesday, November 19th, 2024, the Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji (BAO) approved a new minimum wage of N70,000.00 for all categories of workers in the state public service. The new wage took effect from December 1, 2024.
A new salary table came out that week which, unlike before, did not only affect those in the junior category but cut across all grade levels bringing a significant change in the take-home of all workers. As at date the scale is said to be one of, if not the best among the states in the country.
Many were, however, skeptical. Can this be real? Honestly speaking, it looked too good to be true until three weeks later when the salary for the month of December, 2024 was paid. When alerts started coming, many shouted! Wow! The percentage increase graduated between 150% at the base to 70% at the top. Even the high echelon of the service including political office holders was not left out.
For the first time in more than twenty years, those on “Consolidated Salaries” had their wages adjusted in line with what applied too their workers. Hitherto, whenever salaries were adjusted upwards it would not get to commissioners, permanent secretaries, chairmen and members of boards and parastatals, general managers and such like. These categories have been on the same salary for about three decades in spite of several wage adjustments for civil servants. Ironically whenever occasions arose for sacrificial wage decrease as obtained during COVID 19 Year, it was they who bore the brunt of 50% salary “donation” to fight the pandemic.
Thus, it was jubilations galore, spontaneous dance and shouts of joy in all offices in the secretariat and the Governor’s Office when the alerts started coming in. Those within the vicinity of the Governor’s Office complex mobilized themselves to the Governor’s building singing and dancing in gratitude. Their noise filtered to the ongoing exco meeting prompting the Governor to cut short the meeting and come down to listen to their songs and addresses of gratitude.
One only needed to look at the faces of the workers to know that this was a genuine show of appreciation. A few permanent secretaries and some accounting officers were also there. The officer who spoke on behalf of those present, expressed the gratitude and appreciation of all workers and management to His Excellency for the good gesture. In his characteristic manner, Governor BAO described the wage increase, notas an achievement but a task which must be done and which he had done. He noted that no government could achieve anything without the co-operation of the workforce. He believed the staff would continue to give their best only if their welfare is assured. He reiterated that his commitment to workers’ welfare is an integral part of his government’s “Shared Prosperity” agenda. He urged the workers to reciprocate the good gesture by giving diligent and loyal service.
As usual, he used the occasion to express gratitude to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu whose economic policy enriched the state enough to pursue developmental projects as well as good welfare packages. This wage increase-cum- implementation is the culmination of what has been termed Governor BAO’s romance with the public service. Since his inauguration on October 16, 2022, the government and the Public Service had engaged in a romantic relationship. Usually, when a new government comes in, the public service would have high hopes about their welfare and their conditions of service. They would make attempts to be friendly with the new government and present their demands, most of them being issues the previous government could not(or failed to) attend to. The new government in an attempt to out-shine its predecessors would make promises, and on few occasions, make gestures towards attending to many of the requests.
But it would soon dawn on the government that it lacked the capacity (in some cases, the will) to fulfil many of its promises. Workers would start to lament and protest. This is where the honeymoon ends. The scenario just described could last between three to twelve months depending on the administration.
More often than not, disenchantment with a government always began from the public service. When the civil servants start complaining, it would soon move to the public domain. Within twelve months or so, we would have a cat and rat relationship between the government and the workforce. The work force represented by their labour unions would start shouting and take certain uncomplimentary steps to enforce their demands. In the process, the government would begin to lose face within the service and later in the eyes of the populace.
In the case of Governor BAO however, we have had a different scenario. The “honeymoon” has lasted more than two years now. Having put in more than thirty-four years in the civil service, I am yet to see a government romance with the public service last more than a year.
and labour in Ekiti State.
How come! How did Governor BAO manage a prolonged honeymoon with organised Labour and workers for over two years without a single rancour? The answer lies in the Governor’s policy of “Shared Prosperity”. At every opportunity, the governor has demonstrated his love for workers by ensuring their welfare is given priority. On assumption of office, one of the first steps he took was to direct the Ministry of Finance to ensure that salaries are paid promptly and that it should be the whole amount. The practice before was to pay net and withhold deductions (loans, cooperatives and some other statutory payments) to a later date.
But since BAO, when salaries are paid, you can be sure that it is the whole amount. The implications of this step are many: When deductions are paid, staff are able to access their cooperative societies for loans; Vehicle and Housing loans are available to workers while the labour unions would be able to access their check-off dues. At several for a, BAO had taken pains to explain that his success as a student was enhanced by his mother’s ability to access funds from her cooperative society to pay his WAEC fees.
As such, he knew the value and would not deprive workers of such a beautiful source of funding for their personal needs. The minimum wage approval and prompt payment can be described as the culmination of a rapport and commitment that characterized the first twenty-six months of Governor BAO. As already stated, the romance started with the monthly payment of gross salary. Coupled with this, the government ensured that all the arrears of deductions owed workers by the last two regimes were paid.
As at date, no cooperative society is owed any deduction. The government loans apparatus had also been rejuvenated. With prompt releases and payment of arrears owed them, workers had accessed more funds for personal needs and projects. Recently, the government approved an upward review of between 50 – 70% for loan packages and also released additional funds to boost the capital base of loan outfits. The last time we had such an increase and funds release was around 2007/2008.
To cap it all, a loan outfit was approved for primary school staff. Since the creation of the state, this is the first time that Primary School staff would enjoy loan facilities. As at time of writing, loan disbursement stood at over N3 billion. Besides this, Governor Oyebanji also reached out to retired workers. At inception, BAO inherited gratuity debt owed from July 2013 totalling N20.92billion for state and N20.7 billion for local government pensioners. To date, Governor BAO had ensured regular release of funds for gratuity payment. The arrears paid had covered up to August 2015.Payments to date stood at over N12 billion at both state and local government.
The pensioners had never had it so good. BAO also cleared the arrears of inherited pensions. Pensioners were beneficiaries of the subsidy removal wage award. There has also been harmonization of some categories of pensioners in line with current economic realities. The recent minimum wage increase also trickled down to pensioners with an increase of N20,000.00 each. This was in addition to the earlier subsidy package.
It is therefore no wonder that BAO has been dubbed pensioner’s governor! There were other interventions in the public service that affected lives and inspired loyalty while assuring better living. Governor BAO inherited two categories of promotion arrears. There were those who were promoted to the next grade level without the corresponding cash backing. The others were due but yet to be promoted. This latter category had been on the waiting list for 2022 and 2023 promotion. Governor BAO first addressed the payment of arrears of promotion benefits for 2018to 2021 before approving 2022 and 2023promotions with simultaneous financial benefits. These were done in the last year. Workers remarked that things were really getting better as their own portion of the “Shared Prosperity” agenda was getting to them. The Governor himself has stated severally that his intention had been to change the narratives among the state workforce (serving or retired) by being strong on welfare issues and using this to create rejuvenation
in the state economy. Still on the public service, we have other footprints of BAO. One major albatross inherited was the declining size of the public service. The last four or five years had seen massive retirement in the civil and teaching service. Those affected were those employed in the1988-1990 mass recruitment into the service (s) under the SAP-Relief Package of the then federal military government. Their thirty-five years of service or 60 years of age had come.
Their exit created enormous gaps that had to be filled. While his immediate predecessor had started addressing the gap, (but gradually due to limited funding), it was BAO that took the bull by the horns. In the last two years plus, more than 5,000 staff had been recruited across the board. By this, BAO was able to address the manpower needs of the Service as well as bring smiles to the faces of hitherto unemployed youth. The implications of these are obvious for all to see. One major secret of having a productive workforce is to create an enabling and suitable atmosphere to work. BAO had been able to address the issue of dilapidated offices and procurement of office equipment and furniture.
BAO inherited hundreds of broken-down vehicles which could not be replaced by his predecessors. One of the first things he did was to cart a sizable percentage of these away for refurbishment. By the time the vehicles were returned, almost new, they were allocated to MDAs for utility and official purposes. There had also been a systematic replacement of office furniture and equipment while some offices had received a face-lift all in an attempt to create a conducive working environment for the workforce. Some abandoned buildings started several regimes ago were re-awarded and completed for use.
The high transportation costs of workers also received the BAO balm of Gilead. He approved several buses to commute workers and school pupils free of charge! These continued to work even after the minimum wage had been approved and paid. At the height of the subsidy-related harsh climate, BAO approved “Work-from-Home” days for workers from the lowest to director grades. Lastly, Governor BAO also took steps to motivate the individual members of the work-force by enhancing existing policy aimed at such. At the last Teachers’ Day and Civil Service Day, the Governor approved funds awards ranging from N1million to N5 million for outstanding Public Servants of different Categories.
On the whole about a hundred workers were beneficiaries. This was an improvement on the previous policy of identifying just one senior and one junior staff as worker(s) of the year. It was an innovation that gladdened the hearts of the entire workforce. Thus, the Last Teachers’ Day and Civil Service Day were jubilation galore in Ekiti Public Service. The aforementioned issues and policies cannot but attract kudos for a Governor who had genuinely been committed to positively impact the Public Service. To date, BAO and his team had been extremely polite and civil to public servants. This was in contrast to a regime that called them “Evil Servants”.
Gone were the days of serial feud between the Government and the workforce. If a survey were to be taken, the verdict from the Public Service would be that “BAO is a worker-friendly and performing Governor”. Even the outside public agrees with this assertion, as demonstrated in the series of awards from organizations outside Ekiti State picking BAO as the Governor or/and Man of the year. For some of us who have been in government for years, BAO’s giant strides did not come as a surprise.
We expected nothing less. Among all those who had been or had aspired to be the Governor of Ekiti, BAO stands tall in terms of experience in the public service. In an interview with “The Fountain Bureaucrat” (the Journal of Ekiti State Public Service) on the eve of his departure, Governor Fayemi stated that BAO’s experience in the Public Service was unrivalled.
According to Fayemi, “BAO is well equipped to hit the ground running”. Well, we can attest that BAO has done this and made positive impacts on Ekiti Public Service. As stated earlier, his performance across the Board is not a surprise to many of us.
In an article about him just before he was sworn in on October 16, 2022,I concluded as follows: `”BAO is a man that needs no introduction to Ekiti People and especially the Public Service. He was born and bred in Ekiti. He grew up among us, had all his schooling in Ekiti and married from among us. He is imbued with what our elders call native intelligence. He has been with us in the Public Service for eleven years. We know him; and he knows us. He has traversed several MDAs in different capacities.
As the Secretary to the State Government for more than three years, he had an overview of the entire polity. He knows how the system works. He is familiar with those who make it work. We can therefore expect a partnership based on understanding from a man who has seen it all in our system and is prepared for the job. We can only pray with great expectations that God will help him to move Ekiti forward”. To a very large extent, BAO had not disappointed. He is doing well. His romance with Ekiti Public Service had proved to be a partnership that works. There is mutual contentment and joy. BAO is happy. The Public Service is happy. My prayer is that the honeymoon will continue for as long as God allows him to be at the helm of affairs in Ekiti State.
