Bankole Taiwo, Abeokuta
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogun State, Omooba Adekunle Adebayo Ayoola has called on the leadership of both the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) to plead with the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to end the dichotomy between salaries earned by workers at the state and federal level.
Omooba Adekunle Ayoola, former students’ leader and equally founder of Obaruwa Foundation made this appeal in a statement made available to journalists in Abeokuta on Tuesday.
The Odogbolu Local Government born international trade expert said that the biting effects of the subsidy removal which had led to skyrocketing increment in prices of commodities and which affect both FG and state workers is one strong reason that this age long unfair disparity should be abolished.
Ayoola said that the dichotomy has never been part of the country’s remuneration plan until it was introduced during the military administration of Gen Ibrahim Babangida (rtd.) saying that the obvious injustice and anomaly deserved to be corrected now.
While urging President Tinubu as a well known progressive democrat and welfarist to passionately look into reviewing of workers’ salaries while also rolling out other plans to mitigate the consequences of the subsidy removal, Ayoola said that the President in consultation with the labour leaderships should also help to end regime of salaries dichotomy.
He said “I urge both labour unions to persuade the Federal Government to review the current salary dichotomy law and ensure that all state governments comply with the new arrangement.
“Previously, both federal and state workers are on the same salary structure until the dichotomy was created by General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd) during the military rule.
“Currently, all workers purchase their necessities from the same market, and there is no disparity in prices of commodities, such as house rent, hospital bills, transport fare, and fuel.
“Therefore, I urge NLC/TUC to work together to push for an amendment by the Federal Government. Workers are counting on our leaders to stand up for them in this difficult time”, the statement concluded.