Fayose
Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has embarked on indefinite strike in solidarity with workers of the state civil service, who have been on strike for about 12 days.
Fayose stated the solidarity strike became expedient to show concerns with the workers, who have not received salaries in the last five months.
The governor made the declaration in Ado Ekiti at the weekend in a
televised broadcast.
However, to calm frayed nerves, Fayose stated he had paid the January salaries of local council workers, primary school teachers and subventions to tertiary institutions in the state.
The workers, under the auspices of Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Joint Negotiation Council (JNC), had last week Wednesday called out workers for indefinite strike, alleging that the governor wasn’t responding positively to their yearnings.
But Fayose in the broadcast declared solidarity with the workers to confirm that he shared their pains and anguish caused by inability to pay salary.
The governor was explicit that what he has been declaring as amount accruing to the state as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and the N2.6b workers’ wage bill were true positions of the state finances.
“I want to tell workers that I have placed myself on indefinite strike in solidarity with you. I share your pains, but it was rather unfortunate that a man can’t give what he doesn’t have,” he stated.
Guardian