Veteran Labour Leader Commends The People-Oriented Initiatives of Oredo Local Government.
By Isaac Eranga
Benin City: A frontline campaigner for workers’ rights and press freedom during Nigeria’s military era, Comrade Dele Ailemen, has expressed appreciation for what he described as’’ the unflinching commitment and conscientious priority of Oredo Local Government to timely payment of salaries and clearance of pension arrears from previous administrations.” The Veteran labour leader remarked in a media interview in City, that the Chairman of Oredo Local Government Area, Hon. Jenkins Osunde , has displayed a profound respect for the values and the dignity of the Nigerian working class.
Comrade Ailemen who was both a two-term Chairman and Secretary of the defunct Bendel State Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists said that it was disgraceful and unconscionable to find some units of governments across the country vagrantly defaulting in their obligations to duly pay the wages’’ for which their workers have toiled and sweated’’. According to the labour leader, the timely payment of employees is not just a moral responsibility, but a sacred social contract with consequences for workers’ human rights.
The life-long activist expressed pride in Hon. Osunde, who is also the Chairman of the Edo State chapter of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) , for the organization’s enviable projection of the humane policy of Governor Obaseki regarding due payment of workers’ salaries and offsetting arrears of pensions.
‘’ I must remark that it is a healthy relief for me to see the end of constant demonstrations by Edo State local government workers agitating for their wages as the situation was some years ago. That period was a humiliating and shameful era of labour history in our state’’, Dele Ailemen remarked.
The labour leader also described the recent decision of the state’s Joint Account Allocation Committee (JAAC) to set aside substantial percentage of their monthly revenue to settling all financial obligations owed to workers by any local government as a commendable pro-labor action.
Continuing, Comrade Ailemen said ‘’ that those of us who embraced existential risks fighting for labour rights as members of the Strategy Committee of the Nigeria Labour Congress and simultaneously agitating for press freedom ,despite intimidation and constant threats by the military , were doing so with the hope that the citizenry would ultimately reap the fruits of economic justice.’’
Benin City: A frontline campaigner for workers’ rights and press freedom during Nigeria’s military era, Comrade Dele Ailemen, has expressed appreciation for what he described as’’ the unflinching commitment and conscientious priority of Oredo Local Government to timely payment of salaries and clearance of pension arrears from previous administrations.” The Veteran labour leader remarked in a media interview in City, that the Chairman of Oredo Local Government Area, Hon. Jenkins Osunde , has displayed a profound respect for the values and the dignity of the Nigerian working class.
‘’ Any government that abandons its pensioners after the employees have dedicatedly sacrificed their energetic years for public service, is a soulless administration".
"Any government that abandons its pensioners ,after they have dedicatedly sacrificed their productive energetic years for public service , is a soulless administration", Ailemen declared. According to Ailemen who served as an adviser to various workers’ associations in Los Angeles, California (USA) ,’’ the regular payment of workers’ wages and pensions is not a negotiable issue in any civilized country, at least, since the last 100 years.’’The life-long activist expressed pride in Hon. Osunde, who is also the Chairman of the Edo State chapter of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) , for the organization’s enviable projection of the humane policy of Governor Obaseki regarding due payment of workers’ salaries and offsetting arrears of pensions.
‘’ I must remark that it is a healthy relief for me to see the end of constant demonstrations by Edo State local government workers agitating for their wages as the situation was some years ago. That period was a humiliating and shameful era of labour history in our state’’, Dele Ailemen remarked.
The labour leader also described the recent decision of the state’s Joint Account Allocation Committee (JAAC) to set aside substantial percentage of their monthly revenue to settling all financial obligations owed to workers by any local government as a commendable pro-labor action.
Continuing, Comrade Ailemen said ‘’ that those of us who embraced existential risks fighting for labour rights as members of the Strategy Committee of the Nigeria Labour Congress and simultaneously agitating for press freedom ,despite intimidation and constant threats by the military , were doing so with the hope that the citizenry would ultimately reap the fruits of economic justice.’’
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