Academic and commercial activities were paralysed on Monday at Rufus Giwa Polytechnic Owo (RUGIPO) as workers staged a protest over the alleged refusal of the Ondo state government to implement the new national minimum wage.

The protesting workers, under the umbrellas of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnics (SSANIP) and the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), barricaded the institution’s main gate, halting both vehicular and pedestrian movement while chanting solidarity songs and demanding immediate wage adjustments.

The protesting workers said they remain on an N18,000 salary despite the federal government’s approval of a new N70,000 minimum wage.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed the new national minimum wage into law in 2024 following agreements with organised labour, including the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress.

The chairman of SSANIP at the RUGIPO, Comrade Saka Olokungboye Nurudeen, who spoke during the protest, lamented over the welfare of workers at the school by both past and present administrations of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa.

Nurudeen said that despite successive reviews of the wage structure from N18,000 in 2011 to N30,000 in 2019 and the recent N70,000 by President Bola Tinubu, the staff of the polytechnic are still earning N18,000 as salary.

He described the development as unjust, stressing that the workers in other tertiary institutions owned by the state had begun receiving the approved wage since October 2024.

“It is no longer news that the staff of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, have been reduced to second-class citizens in Ondo State.

“While other workers in the state enjoy the new minimum wage, our members are still trapped on N18,000 – a wage that became obsolete since 2019,” he said.

“So, we are only demanding what is rightfully ours under the law, and we call on this government to urgently implement the new wage to alleviate the hardship faced by workers,” Comrade Nurudeen said.

He recalled that when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed the new national minimum wage into law in 2024, Ondo State commenced payment in October of the same year, but excluded workers of the polytechnic.

“So, for over 15 months now, other workers in Ondo state have been receiving the new wage, but the staff of this institution have been deliberately left out. Several appeals by unions have yielded no result. This is unjust and unacceptable,” the SSANIP chairman added.

While describing the N18,000 minimum wage as “grossly inadequate in the face of rising inflation and harsh economic realities, Nurudeen said workers of the polytechnic can no longer feed their families due to low pay.

“Our members can barely feed their families. Many of them have become objects of ridicule in their communities.

“Landlords now see them as financially unstable. This is an embarrassment to workers who serve in a higher institution,” he said.

On his part, the Chairman of ASUP in the institution, Comrade Arikawe Ade, called on Governor Aiyedatiwa to intervene urgently in the matter.

Arikawe noted that the minimum wage approved by President Tinubu is not a privilege but a right that the workers in the workforce of the government deserve to earn.

He accused the Governor Aiyedatiwa-led administration of making what he termed “endless empty promises” while workers continue to suffer and languish in abject poverty despite rendering services.

“We appeal to the Governor to rise to the occasion and correct this injustice. The minimum wage is not a privilege; it is a law. Our members deserve the same treatment as other workers in the state.

“Ondo State belongs to all of us. We cannot continue to watch our members denied their legitimate entitlements while others enjoy theirs in the same state,” the ASUP chairman said.

Reacting, the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology in the state, Prof. Igbekele Ajibefun, said the state government has pleaded for calm among the protesting polytechnic workers.

Ajibefun added, “We have invited them into a meeting and listened to their plights and demands. We agreed that the institution’s gate should be open for academic and administrative activities.

“I told them to allow peace to reign and to allow us to present their demands to Mr. Governor. So, their grievances will be looked into and addressed in no distant time.”

(The Nation)

• PHOTO: Workers protest at the main gate of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic Owo over alleged non-implementation of the new minimum wage.2

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