The Oyo State Government has announced plans to increase the minimum wage in the state and a 50 per cent reduction in the fare for the Pace Setter Transport Service to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal on residents.
According to The PUNCH, the state Head of Service, Olubunmi Oni, made this announcement while playing host to the leadership of the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress led by its Chairman, Kayode Martins, at the secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan.
She maintained that although the state had limited resources available, it would yet continue to make life more bearable for the teeming masses, especially the workers.
She said, “The government has started deploying more buses through the transport service to take people from one place to another with 50 percentage reduction as part of the efforts to cushion the effect of the fuel subsidy removal on the general public.”
Oni assured the NLC that the current administration under the leadership of Governor Seyi Makinde would continue to prioritise workers’ welfare to cushion the effect of the removal of fuel subsidy.
The HoS stressed that Makinde had started working on the new minimum wage for all workers in the state, adding that, the government was looking at all possible ways to reduce the suffering of the downtrodden.
She said, “We are lucky in this state that we have a listening governor. We have a governor that sees civil service as his constituency. With this, the state will be far better than any other state in Nigeria on minimum wage.”
Recall that, the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, had on May 29, during his Inauguration, declared that “subsidy is gone”, which had a ripple effect on the price of fuel across the country.
The NLC and Trade Union Congress have been in dialogue with the government to reach a compromise on how best to cushion the effect of the fuel subsidy removal on the citizens.
