DEFINITION OF KEY WORDS Juvenile: young people who are not yet adults. Delinquent:.....

Oshiomhole’s Disposition To Workers

GOVERNMENTS, world-wide, are products of the collective will of the people. This is against the backdrop of the fact that the concept connotes the activity of a particular system or the manner Controlling a court or Sate.

IN Nigeria wherein the presidential system of government is practiced, it allows for a tripartite governmental arrangement. In this, there is the federal, state and local government levels of administrating the people’s commonwealth.

This, among other reasons, explains why in the present presidential democratic dispensation, we have the three levels of government present in our circumstance and operating in a pseudo — independent status.

PRESENTLY, according to the 1999 Constitution, the three identified government are guaranteed their independence from each other.

SUCH levels of government operate and function not in isolation, but in conjunction with the civil service.
THE transient nature of the executive limb of government has among other things, exposed the guaranteed permanent status of the civil service which, due to the terms and conditions of contract in Labour Law with regards to the civil service rules, guarantees ‘stability of tenure’ for career civil servants.

TO this end, the executive arm of government comes and goes, but the civil servants remain until the 35 years of service which the law guarantees them as the retirement age.

This tenure subsists with the confirmation of a workers appointment, except there is a breach of this contract of service, which invariably would lead to such a workers termination of appointment.

WORLDWIDE, the civil servants otherwise known and called “Government workers” or “Public Servants”, constitute the main technical and professional hub of any administration, to the extent that for most times, the success or failure of such administration, be it military or civil rule, depend largely on this organ of government.

IN recent times, the civil service has been subjected to a lot of harassment and has been treated with disdain. This stems from wrongful termination of service of civil servants, intimidation, brutality, censorship of their activities, duties and expression of even their God-given fundamental human rights etc due mainly to the fact that part of their conditions of service demand absolute loyalty and dedication to every government at the helm of authority every given moment.

THIS sordid state of affairs about the civil service has held sway in Nigeria to the extent that until they have a resort to strike action or work-to-rule” government does not feel that they deserve attention.

This scenario was very noticeable during the military junta, until the birth of the present democratic dispensation.

IT is on record that backlog of workers unpaid salaries, allowances and pensions owed by the military, were cleared by the civilian administration in the country particularly in Edo State.

There also have been times when a review of workers’ take-home-pay needed upward consideration, which always led to series of agitations and seemingly pitched workers against government.

IN Edo State for example, especially under the present dispensation, workers have had cause to agitate for one thing or the other. The result had always been positive due to the Comrade Governor’s pro-workers stance.

IT must be pointed out at this juncture, that workers agitations should always be based on issues relating to their welfare rather than sentiments. The Labour law as well as contract of service, quite spells out the rights and privileges of workers.

All Edos are well aware of the exploits of the present administration in the state in all areas of human endeavour, especially in the health, education, transport, commerce, agricultural and infrastructural spheres.
IT is a known fact that the Comrade Governor sometime ago approved the new salary structure of all tertiary institutions as well as that of the health workers.

It is also a well known fact that the state government recently approved and has continued to pay the new minimum wage of N18, 000 as stipulated by the Federal Government. He has also restored the Teachers’ Salary allowance (TSA). Above all, he has further gone ahead to implement tax reduction for workers.

THE NIGERIAN OBSERVER at this point enjoins all well meaning citizens of the state especially labour, to join hands with the Comrade Governor to move Edo to the next level. This is because the administration is workers-friendly and has given workers their due.

There is no gainsaying the fact that workers will continue to benefit from the administration of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole now and thereafter.