Former Secretary to the Oyo State Government, Barrister Sarafadeen Abiodun Alli has implored Governor Abiola Ajimobi of the state to find a lasting solution to the incessant strike embarked upon by workers in the six tertiary institutions in the state over non-payment of salaries and other entitlements.
DAILY POST recalls that workers of Ibarapa Polytechnic Eruwa had on Wednesday declared an indefinite strike over the non-payment of their salaries running to 28 months.
But Alli, while reacting in a statement signed by his media aide, Comrade Taiwo Ibrahim and made available to DAILY POST on Friday, claimed that education has taken a back seat in APC administration under Senator Ajimobi, and urged the governor to stop toying with the future of students in the state.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial aspirant said, “The other time, it was a marathon strike at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology LAUTECH, now it is all the tertiary institutions, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education, and the grouse has always been default in the payment of salaries to workers.
“What exactly is happening in Oyo State tertiary institutions,why should we continue to neglect the ivory tower,and why do we toy with the future of tomorrow leaders?”
He added that, “these are some of the questions agitating my mind to the latest spate of strike that has just been announced by workers and lecturers in the tertiary institutions belonging to Oyo State.
“Strikes from that echelon of education has become a phenomenon in the administration of Sen Abiola Ajimobi in the last three years.
“Presently, workers in those institutions are claiming they are owed between sixteen and twenty four months salaries, for God’s sake, how do we expect a worker with such a challenge to offer any serious service?
“No wonder, education has taken a back seat in APC administration, our students cannot really say when to enter and when convocation takes place neither can they legitimately demand for their rights.”
Alli wondered if the present government was really interested in the future of Oyo state judging from the position of the state in the results of students who sat for the school certificate exams vis-a-vis those of the other states of the federation.
He lamented that if education could be paralyzed at secondary and tertiary levels, then Ajimobi was toying with the future of the state.
Alli concluded by requesting Ajimobi to explain what he did with the enormous debt he has allegedly sunk Oyo state into, and the various bailout funds he has received from the federal government since he failed to pay workers’ salaries over the years.
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