The chairman of Oyo State council of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Kayode Martins, has described Governor Seyi Makinde as a God-sent man not just to Oyo State workers but to the people of the state as a whole.
Martins, who stated this during an interview with The People’s Verdict, premised his submission on the governor’s deliberate efforts to improve the lot of everyone in the state.
He said, “To us as workers, we call him a God-sent man. He has not failed. He has really helped the people of the state. He has a mind for the people in everything he does. He is a man who has a mind for the people he governs.”
Describing Makinde as a fair leader who abhors injustice, Martins said, “Immediately he came on board, the first thing he did was to reinstate all workers who were wrongfully dismissed by the past administrations. Initially, he wanted to bring back only those who were dismissed about five or six years before his administration, but he later changed it and pushed it back to about 15 years and said whoever had been wrongly dismissed should be compensated or brought back to the system. This shows he has a large heart, not only for workers but for the people of Oyo State. I see that in him all the time.”
Martins added that it was Makinde who resolved the long-standing issue of outstanding promotion of the state civil servants.
His words: “I had the privilege of working with the past council members dating back to about two decades. We beckoned on the past administrations to address the issue of outstanding promotions of workers, we begged them, but they did not. It was Makinde who corrected that.”
He stated further, “The excuse governors usually give is that they cannot be paying workers’ salaries while embarking on projects. So, governors usually face projects at the expense of salaries. But with Makinde, the story is different; he is taking the two together; he is executing projects and paying workers’ salaries. We appreciate his Midas touch.”
Buttressing his point, Comrade Martins said, “During the first term of Governor Makinde, he recruited 5,200 teaching and non-teaching staff at a go. What we normally experience during the second term of governors is that they bark at you, they won’t listen to the people. But Makinde promised that that would not be the situation. He came on board and he employed 15,000 teachers and 5,000 health workers during the second term. He has also embarked on many projects.”
The labour leader, who noted that Makinde is a peace-loving governor, stated that “Many times we witness brouhaha here and there when employers or the government fails to give audience to labour unions, but Governor Makinde is a governor with listening ears. He tries all the time to make sure there is no problem. He cherishes the peaceful atmosphere between the workers and the government. That goes a long way. He is a listening governor.”
On Makinde’s leadership style, Comrade Martins said, “Makinde doesn’t want problems. Many times when you see us on the streets protesting, it is because we are being blocked from reaching him. That is our experience. Whenever we have the opportunity to have a tête-à-tête with him he always listens to us. There was a time we had an issue, at the end of it all, he apologized to us and we also apologized to him. That was quite encouraging. He is a man of peace and he loves the people of Oyo State and he always wants to have a cordial relationship with the workers and the citizens as well.”
Speaking on Governor Makinde’s impact on the state as a whole, the NLC chairman said, “I think he has given the state a new face. We are indeed the pacesetter. Take for instance the issue of new minimum wage, we were rated 32nd out of the 36 states in the federation initially. But immediately the N70,000 was pronounced by the Federal Government, we approached him and he said he knew that the N70,000 would not be adequate and he approved N80,000. At the end of the day, Oyo State was ranked the fourth highest paying state in Nigeria, notwithstanding the fact that Oyo State has the largest number of workers. States with minute number of workers find it difficult to pay the new minimum wage. But that is not the case with Governor Makinde. We appreciate that as well.”
For the NLC chairman, the most outstanding of the Governor’s projects is road construction.
His words: “Talking about roads, he has been able to link the cities to the hinterlands. With that, the farmers now have the opportunity to take their produce across the state. That goes a long way in giving the state a new face in the entire globe, which has really attracted investors into the state. These are legacies that our children will be enjoying.”
Comrade Kayode Martin’s verdict: “Makinde loves the people he leads.”
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