Ekiti is probably one of the states with the highest workforce not only in the southwest geopolitical zone but in Nigeria .With well over 50,000 workers, no wonder Ekiti is often refers to as ‘Civil Service State’.
Interestingly ,the state is contending with a number of issues bordering on the procedure of workers recruitments ,welfare ,arbitrary disengagements and above irregular payment of salaries and gratuities.
Few days ago,the Kayode Fayemi’s administration announced the reabsorption of hundreds of workers into the civil service .The affected workers were among those who were either arbitrarily recruited or dismissed from service during the immediate past tenure of Ayo FAYOSE .
Fayemi had recalled some sacked Permanent Secretaries who were sacked by Fayose . Among them is Ayodeji Ajayi who had since been appointed as Head of Service in Ekiti .
The Ekiti State Executive Council (EXCO) has approved the full implementation of the recommendations of the Committee set up to review appointments made between 2014 and 2018.
The committee was led by the deputy governor ,Otunba Bisi Egbeyemi.
The approval covers the integration of 272 officers of various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and Local Government Service Commission who had been on manual payroll system to the biometric payroll system for payment of their salaries forthwith while their outstanding salaries are to be paid in four installments.
The approval also covers the re-engagement of 80 of the officers that were recruited in the State House of Assembly but were disengaged in 2014 by the last administration, in consonance with available vacancies in the 2019 personnel budget.
The most prominent among those reinstated is the former Ekiti State Chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) ,Comrade Kolawole Olaiya.
The embattled union leader and legal practitioner was dismissed from service in February 2016 by the Ayo Fayose administration over issues bordering on politics .
The radical unionist ran into trouble when he attempted to act as a whistle blower on the plot by the then governor Fayose to divert the bailout funds accrued to Ekiti.
Aside being axed ,Olaiya, who was a Principal Legal Officer in the Ministry of Justice, was also demoted from Grade Level 12 to Grade Level 10.
Olaiya’s recall was sequel to an earlier order of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN), Akure Division .
The court in a judgment delivered by Justice O.O. Oyewumi, on 3rd July, 2018, held that Olaiya was not given a fair hearing and his sack did not follow due process.
The Fayose administration refused to obey the court order despite being served with the copies of the judgment until the expiration of its tenure on 15th October, 2018.
The labour leader filed a suit marked NICN/8A/13/2016 at the Nigeria Industrial Court of Nigeria,where he fought a two-year battle to get his job back.
The State Civil Service Commission in a letter signed on behalf of the Permanent Secretary by one Mr. Salami A. Olusola, formally reinstated Olaiya into the civil service.
The letter reads: “Consequent upon the judgment of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Akure Judicial Division and recommendation of the State Committee on the Review of Irregular Appointments made into Ekiti State Public Service from 2014 to 2018 with the approval of the State Executive Council, I am directed to inform you that the Civil Service Commission has approved your reinstatement into the Civil Service of Ekiti State as a Principal Legal Officer, GL.12 with effect from 25th June, 2019.
“You are to report to the Solicitor General/Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice for further instructions.”
Olaiya’s case also got the blessings recommendation of the State Committee on the Review of Irregular Appointments chaired by the Deputy Governor, Otunba Bisi Egbeyemi.
Aside the issue of irregular recruitment the former administration also owed workers and pensioners several months salaries and gratuities.
Ekiti witnessed pockets of workers unrest during era of irregular payment of salaries under FAYOSE ‘s administration
For example ,Professor Olufayo Olu ,Chairman Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU),in Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti(EKSU) told journalists how four members of staff of the institution died due to unpaid six month salary arrears.
He claimed that the deceased lost their lives due to lack of funds to take care of their debilitating health statuses.
Olufayo stated that EKSU’s standard has nosedived in the last few years due to poor funding by the state government, revealing that the university can only meet the global standard with monthly subvention of about N600 million contrary to N260 million being epileptically
released to it by the government.
Olufayo lamented that the staff have been placed on half salary in the last one month, describing the scenario as appalling and disturbing in an ideal university setting .
The ASUU Chief alleged that efforts had taken time to articulate all the problems confronting the university and informed Governor Ayodele Fayose about them, alleging that the demands for increased subvention to the university and taking of the issues of welfare seriously have always been treated with disdain.
“As I speak with you, we have not received Earn Academic Allowance for six years. The management just paid some of us that of 2011 to 2014 by borrowing a sum of N200m from the bank. I don’t know how others will get theirs with this paucity of fund”, he expressed fear.
ASUU however, threatened a showdown with the university management if their gross salaries arrears of April , May and June, 2017 are not paid for Christmas celebration.
He said: “The university has a wage bill of N455m, so there is little
we can do with a paltry sum of N260m monthly subvention from the
government. Even, our university has not got any for about six months, the university has always been borrowing to pay Net salary.
“Within the last one year, the total number of additional workers has almost caught up with total number of employees since inception in 1982 without increment in budgetary allocation to the institution.
“The consequences of poor funding and unregulated employment have been
irregular payment of salaries, poor research, poor learning
environment, increased health casualties, epileptic power supplyinability to pass accreditation, staff and students’ agitations, among
others.
“Only God will know the fate of the university by the time we have full- fledged College of Medicine , Pharmacy and Dentistry.
“Not minding the above, the lecturers have been working assiduously to bring the university to an enviable world class standard by all known means, a mission seemingly impossible except by a faithless faith”.
Olufayo commended the national leadership of the union for intervening in the crisis rocking the university as well as the Tertiary Education Trust Fund(TETFUND) for executing meaningful projects in the institution.
Expressing concern over the situation Fayemi said Fayose allegedly plundered a whopping N18 billion paris
club refund accrued to the state.
Fayemi expressed worries over how Fayose, who owed between four and eight months salary and pension arrears could not defray the backlog of workers’ benefit with such humongous amount of money but rather preferred to divert for other use.
Fayemi had since commenced the defrayment ofall the outstanding salary and pension.
Commenting on the matter ,former Deputy Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly Taiwo Olatunbosun said the assembly has got approval from Fayemi for the reabsorption of workers disengaged from the commission by Fayose in 2014.
Olatunbosun, who is now the Chairman, Ekiti State House of Assembly Service Commission,said explained that “the basis for their disengagement was not stated, but was only done to make people jobless.
“How can people that were legally engaged be thrown out of service that way? It was an injustice and Governor Fayemi had directed that we must correct that”
The former legislator applauded the state governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi , for giving the state assembly reasonable financial Independence, saying this will give room for constructive engagements between the executive and legislature for optimum performance.
On the much sought autonomy for the legislature, Olatunbosun clarified that the agitation should not be misinterpreted to mean that there would be a total severing of relationships between the executive and the legislative arms of government.
Although,there had been claims and counters claims by two administrations as to which of them actually better the lots of workers in terms of policy formulation and implementation .
For instance, governor Fayemi hinted that his commitment to workers welfare was in continuation of the good work he started during his First Tenure .
Enumerating,some of the welfares packages to workers and Ekiti people ,Fayemi said 25,000 elderly persons benefited from our social security scheme, 600 people were employed into the peace corps, 10, 000 volunteers who took N10,000 per month, among others
Fayemi regretted that all these people were cut off from these safety nets by Fayose.
“More than 40,000 persons who were gainfully employed by my government have been engaged by this present government in Ekiti.
“Under my government, I increased the salary of workers from N5,000 to N7,000 and from N7,000 to N13,000 and later N19,3000. Who will the workers hate between a government that did these and one that is not paying salary for more than ten months?
“They said teachers didn’t like Fayemi, during my time, education is free up to SS3. I paid rural allowance to teachers, Core Subjects’ Allowance, paid scholarship and bursary, paid for WAEC and NECO, but all these have been stopped by a government that has no interest in social investment.
“Today, I can boldly say that there is no town I get to out of the 133 towns and villages in our dear state where I will not point to five projects. If I have not done their road, I would have built schools, or renovate their hospital, but today, nothing is happening.
“Even those projects I did not complete were abandoned by Fayose.” the governor lamented .
On his efforts to lift the spirits of the retirees,Fayemi said his administration has expended a sum of #3.9 Billion on monthly payment of pensions between October 2018 and June 2019.
He also stated that a total of N549 million has been paid till date to clear part of the pension arrears inherited from the immediate past administration of Mr Ayodele Fayose.
The governor made the disclosure in Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday while distributing cheques worth #100 Million as gratuity to 61 local government and primary schools retirees.
Dr. Fayemi said the steps taken towards clearing the backlog of gratuity is a testament to the desire of his administration to ensure that those who had spent their productive age in serving the State do not suffer after their retirement.
“It is a fact that outstanding gratuity debt profile is running to billions of naira, but it is my belief that a journey of one thousand miles starts with a step. Based on this premise, we are starting with the release of one hundred million naira (N100,000,000) for the offset of the outstanding gratuity. In spite of paucity of fund, I have mandated the quarterly release of fund for the payment of gratuity to retirees of Local Government and Primary Schools of Ekiti State”, he said.
While promising to alleviate the sufferings of the pensioners by making regular payment of their exit benefits a top priority, the governor stated that their entitlements would be paid within available resources.
Fayemi said his government is not unmindful of those who had passed on in the cause of waiting for their entitlements; saying this is regrettable.
“I urge the beneficiaries of this tranche of the payment to take advantage of the talks on financial prudence already shared with you and utilise the fund judiciously for a blissful retirement. I enjoin others to keep faith with our administration as we are poised to fulfil all our promises to the people of the State, and of utmost importance is your gratuity”, the governor said.
However Fayose at the twilight of his administration injected fresh 2000 workers into states workforce.
About the same time,Fayose ordered a sweeping promotion for 46,000 workers. He also assured that cases of workers Temporary Appointment would also be revisited.
Application Forms were offered at no cost while stipends were arranged as Transport Fare ,for prospective applicants .
The governor also gave marching order to the Head of Service and relevant officers to the distribute promotion letters of workers within a week.
“You will recall that we promoted about 46,000 workers and I have told the HOS, that all workers must get the notice of their promotion in the next one week.
“No delay, we give our word because the workers deserve to be appreciated for being the engine room of government. therefore the head of service and others should do this on time, I have been getting calls from workers on the letters. I won’t hesitate to impose sanction if this is not done, ” he warned
Fayose said: “I have a good news that this government will employ 2000 young people. We will roll this out in the next few weeks and it will follow due process and spread to all Local Government Areas (LGAs). I will personally manage the situation that every one will get the employment through due process.”
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