Minimum wage: Again, Dapo Abiodun blazes the trail

THE Yoruba, one of black Africa’s most prominent ethnic groups, know the value of words and actions produced at the right moment. Preaching tact in dealing with people, they say that it is calm words that spring kolanuts from the pocket. And scoffing at empty rhetoric, they say that plenty words do not fill a basket. If a person knows both how to speak and how to act appropriately, (s)he is an Omoluabi, a well behaved, culturally sound and decent person.

The Omoluabi, the cream of Yoruba personality, are uniquely identified by their fidelity to their spoken word (ka-soro-ka-ba-be), what the Yoruba call the pride of an Omoluabi. In word and deed over the last half a decade in office, the Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, has demonstrated the core features of an Omoluabi, and it is no coincidence that he has taken the lead wherever issues of people’s comfort have been concerned. There was a lot of talk over the issue of palliatives last year as the country battled the immediate pains of the removal of subsidy on petrol, but Dapo Abiodun it was who set the tone for national response when he announced the immediate implementation of a N10,000 allowance for workers and a reduction in working days pending an agreement with Labour on what would constitute the full palliative package. Other state governments soon followed suit.

In February, having surveyed the socioeconomic climate in the state, he announced a N5 billion intervention fund covering education, health, workers’ deductions and food palliatives to cushion the corollaries of the rising cost of living. That was a time state governments in the country were still talking of what to do to ease the pains in the land. The Abiodun government provided a minimum of five exercise books for all 850,000 students in Ogun public primary and secondary schools, one-time N10,000 education support grant for at least 100,000 pupils in public primary and secondary schools in the state, an education grant of N50,000 each for all the 27,600 indigent students in tertiary institutions nationwide, insurance health cover for over 70,000 beneficiaries; free pre-natal care, an additional N5,000 per birth and free post-natal care in State Hospitals and Primary Health Care centres, and food palliatives for about 300,000 households across the state.

In total disbelief, shell-shocked students in higher institutions posted details of the N50,000 credit alerts on their phones on social media. They had thought they were in for some long-drawn-out process when their school authorities asked them to submit their account details…

That was not all: the government also rolled out a gas-powered public transport system, conceived long before the Federal Government’s subsidy removal, with the state’s wifi-enabled buses converted from PMS to gas-powered vehicles. The thinking was that public buses would cost much less if they were CNG rather than PMS-powered. That was not all: the governor and his team launched electric motorbikes and tricycles all over the state. They also launched subsidized food markets to ease the pains of the populace. The internet/news space is dotted with testimonies by okada riders and other transport workers celebrating their good fortunes under Abiodun’s CNG initiative.

Given this backdrop, it came as no surprise that it was Prince Dapo Abiodun who again showed the way forward for the states when he announced N77,000 as the new minimum wage in Ogun State and ordered its immediate implementation. Because Governor Abiodun is a leader who does not like wasting people’s time, negotiations with Labour had been swift. Coming from a business and boardroom background, and as an economic realist, the governor knew that workers had to have money in their pockets to survive, and he did not play games with their emotions.

No sooner had the Federal Government announced a new minimum wage than he gave firm assurances that his government would be the first to pay it in the country. What the workers did not know was that he was going to transcend the federal benchmark in line with the core values of his ISEYA mantra and in demonstrating that his administration truly cares for the people. All of this was amply precedented, though: Abiodun had paid N33,000 as minimum wage when the Federal Government was paying N30,000 as minimum wage under ex-President Muhammadu Buhari.

The son of civil servants, Governor Abiodun certainly knows what shabby treatment of workers can do to them and their families. Before he got into office, Ogun workers received their salaries not at the end of the month but during the first or second week of the next month. It was, however, no surprise that when, upon assuming duties at the Oke Mosan Government House on May 29, 2019, he discovered that workers were yet to receive their salaries, he made arrangements with a bank for immediate payment of the wages. He then pronounced that henceforth, Ogun workers were to receive their salaries latest by the 26th of every month. A medley of worker-friendly policies that have given the Gateway State Ogun State a pride of place among states in the country followed suit. Prompt payment of salaries and pensions, promotions and training programs have all helped to increase the productivity of Ogun workers. Abiodun actually came into office fully prepared to make a real change in the lives of Ogun people, and the many battles he had faced over the years had toughened him up for the job.

Like in previous times, other states have followed Abiodun’s lead, with Lagos, and subsequently Rivers State, announcing higher figures than what the Ogun helmsman announced. But the fact cannot be disputed that it was Governor Abiodun who led the way in transcending the pay package announced for Nigerian workers by the Federal Government, and there is absolutely no doubt that Ogun workers will get even more if the state’s revenue profile spikes. Governor Abiodun’s mantra, Building our Future Together, means exactly what it says.

Akinmade is Special Adviser on Media and Strategy to Governor Dapo Abiodun.