Comrade Bola Taiwo is the Special Adviser to the Ondo State Governor on Union Matters and Special Duties. In this exclusive interview with Weekend Hope, he speaks on the present administration’s positive disposition to labour unions in the state, government’s efforts at ensuring that the Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) are vibrant, among other issues. Excerpts:

As Special Adviser to the Governor on Union Matters and Special Duties, what are the responsibilities we should be expecting from you?

I am Comrade Bola Taiwo, Special Adviser to the Governor on Union Matters and Special Duties.  I believe in one thing. I believe in peace. As a former President of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), in Ondo State, I served the state very well. And I brought peace to the system. Before I became the NULGE President, you heard when we were conducting our elections, just like when the driver’s union are conducting their elections. But now, when we came on board, we believe that what are we fighting for? There must be peace.

There must be integrity. And the most controversial thing in unionism is when you decide to stay too much in power. I told them when I was campaigning that I am not going to stay long in power. That I will only spend one term. And when my tenure was about to expire, they said nobody can do it. And I left when the ovation was loudest. And I said, I am not contesting again, support my vice. And that was how I left. My work now is that I must bring peace to the unions in this state. There must be peace. There must be development. The welfare of staff must be taken care of. You know our Governor is a worker-friendly Governor. He pays our salaries as at when due. He has paid a lot of salary arrears. He satisfied the interest of workers and the pensioners. He pays gratuities as at when due. My duty now is to support Mr. Governor to perform more. We usually pay our salaries on the 25, 26 of every month. These are the things that we bring together to achieve. So that there won’t be any rancour. No talking of going on strike. You collect your leave bonus. You collect your arrears. You collect your salaries as well. Workers don’t want to talk about strike or any of that in this state. The state is free from any sort of rancour. No crisis in this state. That is what I want to work towards.

In the last dispensation under the current Governor, we realized that there was relative peace in the ranks of the driver’s union. And up till now, the tempo has been sustained. What magic did you use? How did you go about it?

When I came on board as a Special Adviser on Union Matters, I looked at the terrain and the system of things in this state. Then I invited all the past union leaders, and the NURTW. All of them, I invited them to my office. And I told them that the peace of the union lies in the individual. Because all of you have your own followers. Die- the- Matter has its own followers. Idajo has his own followers. I believe if you said now, that somebody comes to you in your house, that I am going to fight tomorrow. I am not supporting you. You are no more in my group. You are in Die- the- Matter’s group. The person will go back and meet Die- the-Matter. If you go to Idajo, please, I’m going to fight. I am not supporting you. Go and meet Die- the Matter. You see that there won’t be any crisis in this state. Because there is no group. I said there should be no group. And I have to call a meeting, a general meeting of the NURTW. I addressed the whole gathering that I am not tolerating any new group in this state. The only group that is essential now is the Odudu group. Since Odudu is forthright. He knows what he is doing. He gives respect to the elders. So, that is it. I called a meeting once or twice. I called them regularly. And that is how we have our meetings. For the first time in history. There is peace within the NURTW. It has never happened. And it happened in our state. And the peace, we are still maintaining it. Because the leader cooperated with us. And the governor. We invited the governor. They said they want to adopt Mr. Governor. Mr. Governor came. And I told Mr. Governor, they want to see you, Sir. The security said it is not possible. But the governor said it is possible, because they want peace in the state. The governor followed me. And we held a meeting, about one hour meeting. That was how we settled the crisis. And that is why we are one. Up till today, we are still one. No crisis.

Sir, recently, the state government increased the ticketing rates for  taxi drivers, Okada riders and Keke Napep riders too. Did you carry these people along before taking the decision or government based its reason on the economic situation in the country and just decided to increase the ticket rates?

We sent people to all the South West states to see what is happening there. Oyo, Osun, Lagos. And I think the least is N800. We came back from those states. We informed Mr. Governor that they said they want to increase to N1,000. Mr. Governor said no. We have just finished our election. 18-0. And you want to start something with N1,000? You want to create problems in the system? That was why we moved our own to N500, the least in the South West. N500 for Okada. It is the least. N500 for Okada and Keke Napep, N1,000. That is it. That is what is happening.

What does the government expect from labour unions?

To be loyal. We want to be loyal to Mr. Governor. We want to be loyal to the government because it is our government. We voted for him, all of us. We supported him. Loyalty is it. And regular work. That’s what we want.

Sir, electricity challenge is a major problem in this part of the country, especially here in Ondo State. Although the electricity distribution company, according to observers, has not performed to expectations in terms of power being generated and well distributed. Now, the state government has come in with a new metering system, maybe to assist the less privileged. Sir, in the long run, how soon will the state government begin to generate its own electricity, either through public-private partnership as enabled under the new administration? What is your expectation in that respect? How soon is Ondo State ready to generate its own electricity through public-private collaboration?

This is a new government. It just started. It started and started very well. It started with the meter. This metering is an opportunity to help the less privileged. The issue of electricity, even the Federal Government is still trying. They have not done well, although they have tried. Because in most of the houses now, there is improvement in the electricity supply. Even in your own house, you will see little improvement. Within a very short time, Ondo State is an oil-producing state. Mr. Governor has a plan for us in this state. Let us see what is going to happen between this year and next year. We are with Mr. Governor. We have to achieve a lot of things concerning metering. Then we go to electricity.

I heard you talking about 18 zero just now. That presupposes that the whole state is for Mr. Governor. In that case, how do you intend to compensate the people who came out to vote for the governor, especially artisans, in terms of the award of contracts? Because over time, contractors doing many jobs in this state have been coming from outside. How do you intend to encourage indigenous contractors this time around, knowing that it is under the purview of your duty as Special Adviser on Special Duties?

You see, the award of contracts to individuals to patronise our people has been going on. When you go to the Ministry of Education, sometimes they execute a national project. A lot of contracts are awarded, even to party members, in which the party members sold it to some other people. This is a means of patronising people. They give to artisans, give to other people. These are the ways the government can do that.

Most of the time, when SUBEB wants to give out a contract, they give it to artisans. They will invite all the carpenters, the furniture makers, give them contracts to go and provide bench and chairs for students. All these things are going on. Mr. Governor is doing that. These are the ways to compensate them for what they have done. Apart from giving out to individuals, there are a lot of projects that are going on. Look at the asphalt of roads that is going on. He is doing it for the people. The metering that we talked about, these are part of the payback initiatives. For the first time in the history of Ondo State, the women organised this year’s International Women’s Day. Grants were given to about 1,000 women. This is part of paying back. Before the International Women’s Day, we had an agricultural show or something similar. N100,000 was given to about 2,000 people. This is how it works.

We have a lot of projects because Mr. Governor believes in the past. He loved Akeredolu. Because of that, you see all the projects left behind, Mr. Governor is working on them. He has not left any untouched. By the time we finish, we will commission everything together. This is part of paying back from the votes we received from our people. The salaries of workers are being paid as at when due, as I told you. It is part of it. Gratuities of pensioners are being paid. I want to give you an illustration. Sometimes ago, we were there. A woman came, an old woman. She could not walk. We had to support her. We supported her to the Conference Hall. But when the woman received N7.5 million in gratuity, she stood up and continued to walk. That is how it was. Everybody was surprised. Mama said, “I can walk now.” With N7.5 million, the woman had never seen that amount before. These are the things. These are what Mr. Governor is doing and he will continue to do them. People will be happy. The woman had some health challenges. She received N7.5 million. The health challenges disappeared. That is it.

I want to also find out if, in the course of awarding these contracts, they are going to consider the relevance and importance of different unions, maybe the artisans’ union, maybe to recommend credible contractors among their members. Are you going to carry them along?

We are going to do that. We have been doing it. We will continue to do it. The artisans, we look at them. We know we have the furniture makers among them. We have electricians among them. We patronise them. We talk about sub-contractors. We have major contractors. We have sub-contractors. By the time you are constructing a building of this nature and you contract the electrification aspect to somebody, that is a sub-contractor. For instance, the setting of the block, you give it to somebody that can do that. And the roofing, you give it to another furniture maker. The furniture will be given to a furniture maker. All these sub-contractors will be taken care of. And all the unions will be partaking in the contract.

Thank you, Sir. How do you intend to bring development to the grassroots in terms of capital projects, companies establishments, agro-allied industries, and the rest, to be equitably distributed across the three senatorial districts, so that one side will not say, “Oh, we are shut out,” while another side gets concentrated development?

You see, we have 18 local governments in Ondo State. Apart from the LCDAs, we have six local governments per senatorial district. And all these local governments receive allocations from the Federal Government. During the Agagu regime, which we are going to follow, they gave money to all these local governments every three months. You execute a project for three months. Before three months, they give you another allocation.

During the Agagu regime, some local governments constructed roads and other infrastructure. Now, that is what is going to happen. All the local governments will have free hands to spend their money and partake. Mr. Governor does not touch local government funds. You see, within this short period now. Government has bought utility vehicles for the new local government Chairmen. They are there for the first month. By next month, you will see they will have to buy vehicles for the vice chairman, the secretary, the leader of the house. That is what is in the pipeline. After doing that, mobility ensures effectiveness. By then, you are working very well. You are mobile. You will be able to do your job as expected. Then, you come to contracts. There will be evenly distributed contracts to all the senatorial districts. The grassroots will be developed. You will see a lot of things. They will have an agriculture department in every sector. Most of the time now, we are giving them money to plant tomatoes, so that they can generate revenue from individual local governments. That will bring development to the grassroots. That is the plan of the government.

Then again, Sir, how relevant are the LCDAs under the autonomous local government administration system as pronounced by the Supreme Court of Nigeria? How relevant are these LCDAs? More so, they are not elected, and we have cases of friction between some of them and the elected council chairmen over power, domination, and other issues. The state government, as the father of all, has put in place the LCDAs. What is the relevance of the LCDAs in the different local government administrations across the entire local government area?

Mr. Governor is a person who thinks ahead. He forecasts what is going to happen in the future. There are state laws that allow us to establish these LCDAs. Until we amend the law, there is nothing we can do about the LCDAs. The LCDAs have come to stay. When we talk about the Supreme Court judgment, that ruling may affect the LCDAs, because the money will go directly to the local governments, and they will not be able to finance the LCDAs. That is why I said Mr. Governor thinks ahead. We held a meeting on Saturday, with the LCDAS Chairmen and the local government officials, where it was made clear that there is no rancour, no dispute regarding the operations of the LCDAs and the local governments. The local government Chairmen remain elected, while the LCDAs Chairmen remain appointed. There is a difference between appointed and elected officials, but they are still working together. Mr. Governor has handled this very well. Most of the supervisors in the LCDAs are now councillors in the main local governments. We have only a few left today. We are still going to maintain the LCDAs. Now, we have structured things. If you are an LCDA, you generate your internally generated revenue (IGR) by yourself. As an LCDA, you generate your IGR, then you remit it to the main local government, where all the LCDAs and the main local government sit down and share the money. So, there is no crisis. Mr. Governor has done this very well. That is it. We know that the LCDAs Chairmen and the main local government Chairmen, who were elected, are from the same party. They are friends. They have to work together. If there is peace, everyone will work together. There is peace in this state, and Mr. Governor is in control. So, there is no problem.

On a last note, Sir, the new minimum wage has been announced. The Federal Government announced N70,000. The state government went further by announcing N73,000. Now, with local government autonomy, will they decide their own minimum wage, or will they align with the N73,000 minimum wage announced by the state government?

The federal, state, and local governments are the same. If the president announces N70,000 and we announce N73,000, the salary structure of that N70,000 at the federal level may be higher than our N73,000 at the state level. The federal scale is different from the state scale. The state and local government scales are the same. Most of the time, the governor controls the local government. Any local government chairman has to take instructions from somewhere. Whether there is autonomy or not, if you give total autonomy, some people will misuse it. There must be checks and balances. That is it. We are going to maintain N73,000. The local governments will maintain N73,000, while the state will also maintain N73,000. No issue.