Agency report.
As Kogi state workers rejoice over the approval of the N30,000 minimum wage approved for them by the state government, a call has gone to the state government to implement the minimum wage as promised.
The Dean, Faculty of Education, Prince Abubakar Audu University,Anyigba,Prof. Ogunbiyi Joseph, who made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN in Anyigba on Wednesday, described the approval as a “bold step in the right direction”.
He said:” I wish to call on the state government to keep to its promise and implement the minimum wage as expected,to ginger workers to be more efficient and effective in their work places.
“The only problem we are having in this country is implementation of our many beautiful policies and programmes to stimulate growth and development.”
Joseph, who is also the Head of Department (HOD), Department of Social Sciences, said the approval was part of progress by the state government, stressing that the wage, if implemented, would go a long way in cushioning the effects of some of the problems the state civil servants were facing.
It will be recalled that Governor Yahaya Bello gave approval to the implementation of the minimum, at the end of an extensive meeting between the state government officials and members of the organised labour on Tuesday in Lokoja.
On the ongoing warning strike declared by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, the dean said that lecturers at the University were not part of it because they were not members of ASUU.
He said:”As Lecturers of Prince Abubakar Audu University, we are not part of ASUU and can’t join the strike it declared on Tuesday, Feb. 15.
“Secondly, it is against the principles of the University’s Visitor, the Kogi Governor, Dr Yahaya Bello.
“But one good thing about the Governor is that, whatever the Federal Government approves for ASUU, he (Bello) will implement it for us without us being part of the fight.
“I want to categorically tell you that, it is what we are enjoying here in PAAU which also explains the reason why there is no disruption in our academic.”
The Dean recalled,”Just recently, at our 6th Convocation, Gov. Bello granted our university total financial autonomy as regards to our IGR, which is part of his good will to us as an institution.”
