The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has insisted that his government will not reduce workers’ N18,000 minimum wage.
Fayose advised the labour movement to resist further attempt by governments at all levels to impoverish workers.
Speaking through his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, in Ado Ekiti on Wednesday, Fayose added that “the N18,000 minimum wage under the present economic crunch has become grossly inadequate for the workers not to now talk about reducing it”.
Fayose said he would not be part of any plan or meeting to slash workers salary under whatever guise, adding that governors should rather come to the level of the people they govern and explain to them the economic situation on ground.
He said: “In my state, I have transferred power back to the people and the labour movement cannot claim not to know what comes to the state monthly as allocation and how it is appropriated.
“I don’t play to the gallery.
“I don’t deceive people.
“Ekiti people understand me quite well because I make my administration very transparent.
“Therefore, let me reiterate, notwithstanding the economic situation starring us in the face, I will neither retrench nor slash workers salary in my state.”
Fayose said his statements over time had guided the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government, pledging not to shy away from saying the truth.
The governor recalled that when he said Nigeria’s economy was in a mess and that Buhari should explain to Nigerians the true state of the economy, he was castigated and called names by the All Progressives Congress and the Presidency, only for the President himself to admit few days later that Nigeria was broke.
“When I said the judiciary was corrupt, the APC came hard on me only for President Buhari to admit later that the judiciary has become a haven of corruption,” he said.