Ekiti 2026: Why Labour unions speak with one voice for Oyebanji

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As NLC, NUT, NULGE, others roll out drums for Governor’s Second Term

By Wole Olujobi

His engagement with the Ekiti State workforce in 2022 was not different from other parleys between politicians and workers during electoral contests over the years during which promises and pledges were made in reckless abandon. What could be considered different, however, is the level of fidelity with the pacts on the part of politicians after sealing victories at polls.

In every election cycle, politicians are wont to engaging workers in a relationship of give and take. Short of haggling, negotiations rule the roost, as workers make a long list of demands as conditions for supporting politicians to emerge victorious, which in most cases, in the past, were observed in the breach on the part of government.

Here, Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji stands out as a trusted ally in government/workers relationship.

In the run up to the 2022 governorship election in Ekiti State, Ekiti workers met with the APC governorship candidate, Mr Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji (BAO), to present a list of demands, making it plain that agreement on and implementation of their demands was the only condition for their support. They said that based on Oyebanji’s friendly disposition to the Ekiti public while he was Secretary to the State Government, they were sure he would improve on his friendly rapport after taking the reins of power.

That was the position of the Ekiti State workers in their charter of demands during campaigns. Three years after, superior reasoning anchored on evidence-based facts has sustained the positive narrative for the hitherto beleaguered workers through Oyebanji’s breather after fulfilment of his campaign promises to the workers who over the years had been victims of lies, unfulfilled promises, frauds, harsh policies and deprivations, including neglect by the government.

But today, the labour leadership’s initiative has yielded bountiful harvests, as workers, who constitute the largest voting bloc in Ekiti State during elections, now wear smiles on their faces to their offices and back home after work to the warm embrace of their family members.

So far, the score cards are heart-warming, as workers brace for a repeat of what has turned out to be a relationship built on trust and fidelity from which they have so far reaped bountifully.

Recently, members of Ekiti State Union of Teachers (NUT) led by their President, Lawrence Egbeyemi, paid a courtesy visit on Oyebanji in his office where they poured out their hearts in praises for the governor for fulfilling his campaign promises to Ekiti teachers.
Among others, Egbeyemi listed various goodies that teachers are enjoying under Oyebanji’s leadership and pledged they would continue to support the governor, including voting enmasse for him in the 2026 governorship election, having demonstrated faith and trust in the relationship between the government and teachers, both in primary and secondary schools.

Egbeyemi had said: “Your Excellency, teachers’ welfare has never been this prioritised. Without any fear of contradiction, we can boldly say that you have fulfilled about 85% of our requests in the education sector. More power to your elbow, sir.”

Listing great leaps in education sector, including defrayment of arrears of unpaid allowances, the NUT President said:
“Let me enumerate some of your contributions in the education sector, which include the sustenance of free and compulsory education in Ekiti State for both primary and secondary schools, which started during the last regime.

“Appointment of retired teachers as political office holders in Ekiti State and public teachers protection against molestation and child abuse.

“Prompt payment of salaries, allowances, and deductions as and when due and payment of arrears of bonuses up to 2019 for primary school teachers and up to 2018 for secondary school teachers.

“Employment of 1,500 primary school teachers and over 500 secondary school teachers.

“Payment of running grants for both primary and secondary schools, along with massive renovations at both levels.

“Increase in the appointment of headmasters to cater for the three senatorial districts.

“Provision of infrastructure in schools to aid teaching and learning.

“Provision of free bus service for workers, including teachers and students within the state capital and improvements in pupils and students performances.

“Approval and disbursement of car loans to both secondary and primary school teachers.

“Appointment of serving teachers as education secretaries in the 16 local government areas with provision of official cars.

“Approval of career progression for graduate teachers of primary schools up to level 16 and upward review of gratuities paid to our senior teachers.”

Others, according to Egbeyemi, include assuring teachers of improved welfare packages, in addition to approval of 65-year retirement age, upward review of science teachers’ allowances and plans to defray outstanding gratuities before the end of Oyebanji’s first term in office.

Also, the state civil servants expressed their pleasure with the governor when they stormed APC National Secretariat in Abuja to solidarise with Oyebanji recently while submitting his governorship nomination form to party’s national leadership.

Led by NLC State Chairman, Kolapo Olatunde, the workers amid drumming and dancing said they never had it so good under the leadership of Oyebanji who the union described as workers-friendly governor.

Speaking at the event in company of state workers, Olatunde said he led members to Abuja to support the governor because “God manufactured Oyebanji for Ekiti workers” to live decently as responsible citizens unlike before when workers suffered under heavy debts, hunger and unpaid school fees caused by unpaid salaries and allowances.

Separately in a statement in Ado-Ekiti, the NLC leader praised the governor for his proactiveness to the welfare of workers and listed the reasons for civil servants’ support for Oyebanji’s second term election bid, to include:

the governor’s good nature and disposition to human resource development and all-round infrastructure and breakthroughs in Ekiti State;
prompt payment of salaries, pensions, defrayment of all salary arrears, payment of gratuities to pensioners, “which is second to none in recent times”;
building of cordial relationship with pensioners and approval for the payment of primary school workers’ car and housing loans; and,
providing luxurious buses to convey workers to their workplaces and students to schools, free of charge, to ease the burden of high transportation costs.

Others, according to him, are increment of subventions to all higher institutions in Ekiti State on two occasions and payment of leave bonus arrears to local government workers from 2018 to 2020 while state public servants received theirs up to 2018.

According to him, others include approval for the employment of teachers into the public secondary schools, provision of infrastructure through road constructions and completion of cargo airport, among others.

Other gains, according to him, include positive disposition towards the sponsorship of all the International Workers’ Day celebrations and renovations of primary and secondary schools, including primary health care facilities, among others.

Praising Oyebanji for running an inclusive government, Olatunde expressed gratitude to the governor for the appointment of Comrade Kayode Fatomiluyi as his Senior Special Assistant on Labour Matters, noting that the gesture reflected the governor’s support for the organised labour in the state, which, he said, reinforced the governor’s foresight and inclusive governance style, which, according to him, has brought “hope and progress to the people of Ekiti State”.

Explaining that it is on the strength of all these that the Nigeria Labour Congress will give “unflinching support and collaboration in promoting initiatives that will further uplift the people”, he said Ekiti workers looked forward “to a continued stride in development, unity and prosperity under Oyebanji’s able leadership”, even as he vowed workers’ support for the governor in the 2026 governorship election to make it realisable.

The local government workers are not left out, as the State President of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Olatunde Babatunde, had at several fora said that even though local government workers are not politicians, it is within their constitutional right to support and vote for a leader who has the welfare of workers uppermost in his mind.

He listed local government’s gains in Oyebanji’s administration consequent upon fulfilment of campaign promises to workers in the third tier of government. He explained that the concrete gains for workers were enough evidence of his pro-workers stance and vowed that workers would support him again as a trustworthy governor in whom they could entrust their lives and future.

For the local government workers, Oyebanji will have their support for fulfilling his promises to them during campaigns in 2022, Olatunde vowed.

According to NULGE, the reasons Ekiti workers will vote for Oyebanji include signing and implementation of the Local Government Administration Law 2023, which they noted has brought dynamism into local government administration since the Ekiti State Local Government Administration Law was promulgated in 1999.

The new law termed “Ekiti State Local Government Administration Law, 2023,” gave birth to three new departments, which they had been yearning for over the years.

They are Information and Civic Orientation Department; Legal Services and Internal Audit Department and Central Internal Audit in the Local Government Service Commission, which has opened spaces for career development and progression for local government workers.

Other reasons for workers’ support include the appointment of three Permanent Secretaries in the local government system the first time in the history of Ekiti State Local Government Service;

appointment of six Executive Secretaries in the Local Government Service to enhance career prospect in the local government service;
recapitalisation of the Local Government Staff Loans Board with the sum of N300,000,000.00 revolving fund;
Appointments of heads of local government administration (HLAs) in all local governments and local council development areas, thereby opening spaces for career progression for workers;
procurement of 46 official vehicles for all Heads of Local Government Administration, including procurement of official vehicles for the Permanent Secretary, Local Government Service Commission, and two official vehicles for Permanent Secretary and HLA, Local Government Staff Loans Board;
strengthening procurement standards in line with the procurement best practices;
promotion of over four thousand, nine hundred and ninety one (4,991) eligible officers for 2022 and 2023 promotion years;
increase in the running grant, which has enabled the Commission to meet its day-to-day expenditures and also fulfill its mandates;
full restoration of the commission’s training fund to improve its training and human capital development towards enhancing the productivity and performances of officers;
restoration of Local Government Studies programme
at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, for senior and junior staff for Masters and Diploma certificates with 120 workers on their way to OAU in October to begin their studies. (The last time local government workers had that opportunity was in 1994); and,
completion of Local Government Service Commission’s Secretariat Complex with state-of-the-art furniture and fittings and perimeter fencing, including total defrayment of all arrears of salaries and deductions owed workers.

Others are payment of 2017, 2018 and 2019 leave bonuses and regular capacity development programmes for workers.
All these prompted Ekiti workers in the three labour unions to accompany Oyebanji to Abuja in a show of solidarity last week to submit his governorship nomination form to the party leadership.

Now that Oyebanji’s performance had recorded a
major milestone as confirmed by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that Ekiti State has the lowest Food Index in the entire Southwest, meaning that food is more affordable for families, and farmers are producing more food while businesses in food value chain are thriving as a result of the hard work of the farmers, supportive communities and the effective agricultural policies of the governor, the workers said they had good reasons to work with the governor that makes production economy an essential element of his government for the welfare needs of the people.

For years, according to the workers, they have been in the shipwreck of government/labour relations until Oyebanji emerged like David under whose leadership the Ark of the Covenant was delivered to Jerusalem, even as workers themselves wear the ark and toga of Cicero, the ancient Roman philosopher, who considered gratitude the “parent of all other virtues” and a fundamental good.

The workers also, like Rumi, the ancient 13th-century Sufi poet, are today wearing gratitude like a cloak, suggesting it would invariably enrich and transform one’s life, even as the workers sing the song of the renowned poet and activist, Maya Angelou, who emphasised that gratitude fosters compassion, making individuals more open to giving and benefiting everyone involved.

As it has turned out, “rub my back and I rub your back” relationship has turned to years of harvest for workers under Oyebanji’s hands in Ekiti State, even as the workers have vowed that the relationship will translate to votes for the governor in the 2026 state governorship election.

Surely, the good that men do stays with them everywhere they go and live with them forever. For the workers, they insist that “promise-keeper Oyebanji” will profit from evidence-based campaign promises as seen in the last three years, even as Olatunde quipped: “Ekiti workers will only work with the man they can trust because of evidence-based facts of his services to workers. Ekiti workers will never gamble with their lives again.”

*Olujobi, a journalist, writes from Ado-Ekiti

Oyebanji, Ekiti Workers Pact: A Relationship Founded On Trust

As NLC, NUT, NULGE List Reasons For Supporting Governor’s Second Term