He appears to be a dangerous snake with many heads, such that when you cut one off, another carries it on. One would have expected that with the humiliation suffered by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last state House of Assembly elections in Edo, Dan Osi Orbih ought to have relocated from Benin, particularly as his Abuja oxygen has been cut off.
It is clear that he is up from the anaestasia inflicted on him by the outcome of the election as he sprang up last week to commence his pollution of political environment of Edo state as his preoccupation. Bereft of the facts in government actions to sanitise the Internally Generated Revenue system in the state, Orbih went on air to say the Comrade Governor has disbanded Akugbe Ventures headed by Comrade Tony Kaba after using and dumping the youths who worked for him, a claim the chair of Akugbe Ventures, Comrade Tony Kabaka Adun has refuted in the media.
Also, Dan Orbih dabbled into the issue of Youth Employment scheme which was established by the Oshiomhole’s administration from inception. When Edo YES was established, government meant well for the youths to take them out of the streets . Almost six years down the road, government decided to apply their breaks with the scheme and review the status of those engaged with a view to absorbing those who would scale through the State Civil Service Commission screening into the main stream of the State Civil Service. This is the best that any government can do for the unemployed. As a matter of fact, not all of them are qualified to be absorbed as some are afro dodgers only getting salaries at end of the month. Report from across the Edo YES employees have it that while some are very good in their duty posts others are just horrible, not applying themselves to work. The only way government can sanitise the system is to absorb those who are good and throw away the chaffs.
Instead of exercising patience with government, Dan orbih, crying more than the bereaved, opened his oozing bucal cavity and said Oshiomhole has used the youths and dumped them. Unfortunately, some disgruntled elements among the Edo YES employees ran to Dan Orbih to play politics and begin to call their benefactor names. The Edo Yes beneficiaries should be grateful to the Edo State Comrade Governor for keeping them in employment this past six years where millions of their co-unemployed are at home without jobs. Today, they all have skills and can have good Curriculum vitae to seek employment elsewhere that there are openings if they do not want to work in the State Civil Service when the screening is done. This places them far ahead of their peers who have been in the unemployment market since graduation. So, for some Edo YES employees to form an amalgam with Dan Orbih to overheat the polity in Edo State is most unfortunate and smacks of ingratitude.
Then came the issue of National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Edo State. The local Government workers are claiming that they have not been paid salaries for eight months or seven months in some cases and others, for three or two months as the case may be. The variation of indebtedness to the local government workers shows that it is an issue which has to be dealt with on a case by case basis. Why is this so? This is because the Local Governments are statutorily responsible for the payment of their workers’ salaries. Even though the State Governments have joint accounts with the Local Government as provided for by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, the Edo State Government has explained severally that it does not tamper with Local Government allocation save for joint projects agreed together and Teachers salaries.
The Local Government Chairmen on their own have come out to tell Edo people that they are solely responsible for the salaries and not the Edo State Comrade Governor. Why then are NULGE Officials on the streets of Benin every Tuesdays and Thursdays claiming that the Comrade Governor is owing them salaries and even calling him names that are really not his? Why is Dan Orbih’s PDP making a mountain out of a mole hill? Why are NULGE officials hobnobbing with the PDP in Edo State in order to cause disaffection and bad blood in the state?
Why is JUSUN Edo State insisting on grinding the State judiciary because a former NLC president is the Governor and why would they not hearken to the voice of reasoning to suspend their strike as their representatives agreed to doing at a peace meeting called by an NGO in Benin which has mandated some eminent citizens of the State to meet with the Governor and resolve the logjam for them? Why are they so hardened after endorsing such a good initiative from concerned citizens of the state?
Why do workers, even the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Edo State wake up to begin to issue ultimatum to the State Government to declare strike and shut down the state over salaries of workers when in truth and in facts, the Edo State is really not owing any worker and is the only one of the few states in the federation today that is not owing workers salaries. Oshiomhole must be congratulated and encouraged and not vilified by workers in the state.
The truth must be told. Some labour leaders in the State are definitely romancing with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party to distabilise the State. We are aware that some Labour leaders are on the secrete pay roll of the opposition party and this is a shame and the ordinary worker in Edo State must now be prepared to hold their leaders accountable to them before they trade off their future.
We are aware that across Nigeria today, almost all State Governments are broke and unable to pay salaries. This has triggered several meetings lately by the state governors, and are already calling on President Buhari to approve a bail out for them to swim over the tide. This situation was caused by the PDP federal government that emptied the national treasury before they left office. Even most state governors left empty treasuries for the new governors. But Edo Comrade Governor has ensured that his workers get their pay as at when due, yet the pay back and gratitude the NLC has for him is to threaten to ground the entire state with strike due to the same salaries that has been paid. Apart from JUSUN workers that chose to remain on strike when they know that when you do not work you don’t get paid, NLC should show Edo people, the Edo State Government worker that the Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole-led government is owing. This is a puzzle that the Edo NLC is duty bound to answer before it embarks on any action.
Edo people must understand that what seems to be the labour unrest in Edo is the pollution of the Labour environment by Dan Orbih and his cohorts in Edo PDP. Since they lost election woefully, their next game plan is to penetrate the Labour movement and use them to destabilize the state. Those close to Orbih and the Labour leaders should advise them to have a rethink or be prepared to pay for the consequences of their action as government would not fold its arms and watch a few disgruntled citizens hold others to ransom at any time. Government of Oshiomhole has a duty to safeguard all citizens of the state.
• Mr. Dan Owegie is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Edo State.
Dan Orbih. Edo State PDP Chairman
