Virtually all services rendered by government to the people of Oyo State are presently on hold. Civil service, local government service, teaching service, medical services, and so forth. Even offices that engineer the limited internally generated revenues of the state, if operating, are doing so at sub-optimal levels.
It appears that it is only the Governor’s Office, the courts and the Legislature and some senior members of the services that are available to render such businesses they can in the circumstances, with other parts of the services in limbo.
By far though, it is the parts of the services that remain out of function that affect the largest portion of the population of our state.
Great Angers are at play in the Pace Setter State: the great anger of an Executive Governor, who, like many other Governors of states, are unable, and have not met the salary obligations they have to their services. It also appears that our Governor is miffed that these people can’t figure- out that the figures are not just adding up. How do they expect me to pay in the face of abysmally low accruals from the Federal allocation to Oyo State, month after month? Then, they decided to embark on a state-wide strike. School children were even mobilised to scandalise a government, whose quality of leadership, in the government’s narrative, the state had never known since its creation.
The workers claim that they have moved from confidence in the government to anxiety, then patience, expectation to endurance, perseverance to hope, believing that things will look up. The salaries will be paid. Then, anxiety started to give way to frustration, helplessness, hunger and then to anger…anger that led to abandonment of the work that, in labour’s narrative, attracts no remuneration, and leaves workers and their families hungry, deprived and impoverished.
Yet, if we were to live-out our true cognomen as a Pace Setter State, life, and all services in our State should not be gnawed away, and driven to the ground by the anger of these two great mandibles. Life’s inevitable clock is ticking away for all of us, governor, workers, the citizens and our children. Our children will yet have to face life with those other children, who are in school elsewhere, and improving their preparation for life.
The Office of the Governor is enormously influential and powerful under our laws, and given the way state-craft is practised in these climes, governors can do, undo, refuse to do, overdo between themselves and the governed. Of the more than seven million citizens of the State, one, only one person is governor. That is truly a great spot to occupy in a life time, for any individual, and for many years.
Labour is also very strong, and can make a whole difference between a successful government and an unsuccessful one. It is the services, in significant parts that make a government, it can also unmake it. If the governor is the directing mind of government, the hearts, limbs and other vital parts that create functionalities are all to be found in labour. Minds, no matter how versatile, vibrant, and brilliant, need these parts to carry out its purposes, for the good, and benefit of the body. This has to be clear to both sides.
It is also true, very true, more true than many people understand and realise that the people, the larger number of the populace, most of whom are neither in government, in civil service, nor in labour unions, and who bear the real power, are the ones to be most prejudiced, punished, by the consequences of any possible fight to finish posture that these powers, get into, no matter how they get there.
The entire purpose and reason for leadership in human society, is for the leader(s) to use their vision, mandates and resources at their disposal to do all such things that will advance the good of the larger members of the society that they lead. No one should claim to be in leadership, whose followers end up in a cul de sac over matters on which they look up to the leaders for answers. Leadership is about thinking-up the novel, the creative, the unusual, thinking out of the box, even the incredible: if only to ensure that the better purposes of the led are served. Leadership is about not fighting it to finish with anyone, if the effect would be to prolong the discomfort and detriment of the led, and the larger society. Leadership is about humility, and about capacity to see every action, omission, inaction in the context of the impact on the led, and in the context of the legacy to be created. The Labour has its leaders, and the Government has its leaders, and both have the same obligations to those that they lead, and the larger society in the state.
Labour must realise that there is a limit to what aluta can achieve in this kind of situations. Labour should be dispassionate in the approach it would adopt in a problem scenario which is clearly not peculiar to Oyo State; and which is in fact, virtually national: affecting almost all states in the Federation. The leadership of labour should always deal with the Chief Executive of the State with an eye to getting him to act in the best interest of its members (in the circumstances), no matter how disagreeable they perceive him to be. The Governor and the governor’s office is worthy of respect, discretion, being a position and office that is created by the Constitution, and one that have the electoral votes of more people than make up the population of Labour in the State behind it. Labour is answerable to its membership; the governor is answerable to the entire state. In addition to fulfilling its labour wage obligations, the governor’s office has very many other obligations to other citizens of the state that do not draw salaries from the State, and who pay taxes to the State. Labour should recognise that the present governor is acutely aware of the need to drive the State in the direction of viability. Oyo State presently only has a potential to be viable, it is not viable yet; it is not above the waters yet. It cannot pay its bills. This is the reason salaries have been in arrears for six months. States that are viable do not owe salaries, and still render other services. States that pay their bills are able to, in significant part because some changes have taken place in the States that has reformed the direction and architecture of governance there. Oyo State cannot continue to do business as usual, and not expect to go deeper into the hole. All of us must understand and come to terms with this reality.
His Excellency, the Governor, no doubt, is one of the best the State has ever had, also no doubt, (by whatever parameters), will also rank among the best among his peers in the country. He must however understand from his heart, why he is addressed “Your Excellency”. The governor cannot insist running the state only with a hard, relentless commercial logic of a multinational corporation manger. Not all his constituents, including his Labour have his vision for the State, or understand the logic, strategy and the tactics of achieving a better Oyo State. Yet, they it was, in part, who voted and made him to be in the office that he occupies. He is Excellent that has power that comes with being governor, but is able also to communicate with his constituents in a manner that they can understand and relate to, and no matter how lowly they may seem to be. As the saying goes among our people, Agba ti ko binu ni omo re npo- “it is the leader/statesman that is never provoked that will have many followers”.
Why not, a governor may be called names, and insulted; but he must not be provoked. It is because he is presumed to be able to deal with issues, behaviour, and misunderstanding of the populace that he is excellent. He cannot return railing for railing, anger for anger and not blur-out the difference between him and the rest, the very many rest of us. A tiger, in the words of the great griot, does not need to proclaim its tigritude. There is only ONE governor in Oyo State, and all the rest, (about seven million, minus one) of us others already know who he is. Who else should brick bats of abuses, and attacks be aimed? Who else should the people that are affected by the new policies of government aim their venom? It is always against His Excellency, who is perceived to be the cause of all problems, or the magician with a magic wand that can solve all of them with a whiff.
The business of the governor is to dream his dream, take tough, sometimes unpopular decisions to realise them; understanding and expecting that he may be criticised, misunderstood, or called names. If his vision is well thought-out, and pursued with commitment, he will end up, the hero of the same critical, abusive crowd. Governors Tinubu, and Fashola both of Lagos State endured abuses, criticism, curses and vilifications that were enough in acidity and volume, to kill the courage of Lions when the BRT lanes were being put in place in Lagos. No one seemed to understand what they were up to, and the cost and discomfort were enormous. Now, many of these critics have forgotten. They take buses on BRT lanes and sleep-off in the rides on the smooth lanes, whose construction they criticised; some sleep off in the smooth rides on the lanes, until they pass the bus-stop of their destinations. Yet, the governors that dreamt the dream and actualised it are not allowed by law to drive through the BRT lanes, unless they chose to ride buses that run on them! The vision of the BRT lanes was not for the governors, but for the regular citizens.
More disturbing, perhaps is that public perception of why public service in Oyo State has gone into abeyance is that there is a money problem. Government does not have enough money to operate optimally; labour wants to be paid its arrears of legitimate salaries (money). No doubt, money problem exists. Workers have contracts of service with the State, and are entitled to be paid. Labourers deserve their wages. In my professional practice, I demand to be paid for my services too. I have pursued a client/bank that refused to pay for services to the Court, which ordered payment of our fees. But in some instances, we also have had to negotiate fees down, and in some instances acted pro-bono- (without fees) at all.
The money problem is only the half part of the cup that is presently empty for Oyo State. If we all, as citizens, government and Labour are willing to look at the cup very well, willing to discuss, and engage responsibly, we can see the half-full part of that same cup. None of us can now afford to remain fixated with our own perspectives alone. There is a real problem to be solved that requires the humility of all of us to listen to alternative views, and solutions, other than those that each of us presently holds. Oyo
Oyo State yet possesses enormous capital on which it can survive and thrive. The peace in Oyo State is a capital. There are states in this country, which for no fault of their citizens, have been subject of insurgent attacks and war, and have been significantly dislocated, functionally, and demographically. The environmental soundness of our space is a capital; there are States that are labouring under the weight of degraded environments, oil spills, erosion, etc., due to no fault of citizens, labour or government. States with these burdens still have to run schools in addition to paying huge costs to resolve security and environmental challenges. An informed government, and the virile labour, both of which exist in Oyo state is a capital. Viable States are built on the vision of government, and a productive, satisfied and motivated labour. The list can continue. However, these and other capital possessions must be harnessed by both parties to create a new space of viability for the State. This is only possible in an environment of respect and openness between all the parties.
In addition to Government and Labour, this state has other great human capital and assets. Apart from these two at war and in this great angst that is haemorrhaging and subjecting the state to these daily pains, there are other stakeholders in the future and the collective destiny of Oyo State. The state also has citizens in different positions of leadership. This State have recipients of national honours, merit awards winners, poets, and thinkers, great Christian and Islamic clerics, traditional rulers, vibrant youth leaders and leaders in every other spheres of life.
It is the saying of our people again that: agba kii wa loja, ki ori omo titun ki o wo- “elders make sure that wrongs in society are corrected quickly”. It is not only in government and Labour that we have elders and leaders in Oyo State. The head of the proverbial baby on display in our market place is certainly not in the right, the best, and most admirable or comfortable position. The baby may be disabled, if we all walk pass as though all is well.
Leaders at other levels in Oyo State must show courage, and patriotism, take steps without any more delays, to douse these great angers, get Labour and Government to resume conversation on how to get our state running again, and to prepare the foundation for a future of a sustainable, viable Oyo State, where workers will never again be owed salaries, and where everyone in the State, Labour and others will be best served by our government.
. Dr. Onigbinde (SAN) was the Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly from 1991 to 1992.
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