By Ojo Akinyemi
“Leadership cannot just go along to get along. Leadership must meet the moral challenge of the day”. – Jesse Jackson
It is a fact that can never court controversy that Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo is the first state-owned higher Institution in Ondo State. It was birthed in the year 1979 and put into operation by Pa Michael Adekunle Ajasin, the first civilian Governor of the State in the year 1980. This Institution had, in no small measure, produced a vast number of industrial captains, political moguls, academic einsteins, religious magnates, technocrats of high repute and other eminent people across the globe. Without gilding the lily, the institution had enduringly gained a niche, apropos to excellence in academic and moral milieus, especially among its contemporaries. Quite the contrary, it is grief-stricken to aver that the Polytechnic is now waxing and waning in its bid to maintain the status quo antes.
First off, this piece is not set to bawl any person out but to busy self with uncovering of the institution’s binding constraints and its concomitant plaidoyers for proffering lasting silver bullets to the protracted and seeming intractable hydras of the institution, as they are not above the bend of man. It is therefore deemed simply apt to say, without ounce of blandishment, that the visitor to the institution did not abandon us in destitution, even before he became the substantive Governor of the State. He is a special man who is well endowed with munificence and possessive of vast political wit and will. Little wonder why he broke his duck in the last gubernatorial election by winning the whole 18 local governments in the state. Also, the doyen of the institution and his unrelenting team must be well beclapped for replacing ME-FEELING with WE-FEELING in their administration. It is not a misstatement that the honcho of management had indeed clocked up in various ways within the short period of time in office. His spirit of self-abegnation and overt empathy to the sufferings of workers is unequalled. This is evidenced in his all-out effort to putting a permanent cessation to the fractional payment of workers’ salary and other sterling achievements. He indeed broke the mold for the good of mankind. What a moral deftness!
However, it is as clear as crystal that RUGIPO workers are yet to have the deserved elbow room from excruciating anguish, which is a derivative of the successive maladministration by various authorities. It is therefore not in incongruous for me to give the blow-by-blow of the kettle of fish to which the institution is plunged and beg for urgent attention.
SALARY PALAVER
It is a well known fact that RUGIPO workers have been in a serious dire strait, as a result of wishy-washy payment of salary. Permit me to say that RUGIPO workers are still being paid Eighteen Thousand Naira (#18,000.00) minimum wage up to now, which connotes that the #25,000.00/#30,000.00 consequential adjustment still remain figment of imagination to us in RUGIPO as well as the nascent #73,000.00 minimum wage. Despite the fact that we unavoidably capitulated to the payment of this #18,000.00 as minimum wage, because we have been left to Hobson’s choice and bitter pill to swallow, we are still supplicating to be paid six (6) months’ salary arrears, ranging from January 2017, August 2024 to December 2024. What a pain! We are now struggling to eke out a living. No wonder why RUGIPO workers engaged in undue frolicking and unconscious jollity upon the payment of July 2024 salary at the twilight of December, 2024, while we wrestled with hunger during Christmas celebration. To say the least, poverty is a bastard and serious cankerworm.
Devastatingly, three (3) workers of the institution bit the dust within two days, on the heels of their inability to take good care of their health and intense depression, while others are living in acute hunger and much else. May the souls of the departed continue to rest in peace! What have we done to be cast aside and denied of these pecuniary benefits? Even though, it is an offence, does it mean it is immune from pardon? If it is a full-bore imprecation, does it defy atonement, expiation or propitiation? How long do we continue to wallow in this mire and depravity? Do we still need to pretend and conceal our sufferings? Haven’t we suffered enough? Are they not trying to tatter our dreams? In fact, our agony has been in force for an egg’s age, with no definite solution.
We are not loungers but adepts in our various fields and merited to be paid our salary as and when due. It is not incorrect to declare that SALARY IS A RIGHT AND NOT`A PRIVILEGE. So, lobbying should not be a tool for the payment of our salary.
It is not imbecilic to state that prompt payment of salary has its footing in religious books, a sharp allusion is made to the Holy Bible, in the books of Leviticus 19:13, Deuteronomy 24:14-15, Proverbs 3:27-28. The Holy Quran, and book of hadith (Sahih Bukhari 2270, Sunan Ibn Majah 244), Surat Talaaq 65:6 and Ifa literary Corpus also lends its support to the prompt payment of salary, in OTURA MEJI, OTURA IMELE, IWORI OBARA and OFUNONIGEDE. So, regular payment of salary is not anomalous to religious dictates.
There is no prevaricating the fact that, a good number of foredeals, is ingrained in well-timed payment of salary to workers, inter alia; quality delivery of service, adequate exertion of power and authority, proper unity of command and direction, increase in standard of living, abatement of illicit acts, such as, theft, bribe, backhander, inflation of figures, insubordination, kickback, fraud, subornation, douceur and extortion to the bare minimum. Could there be any moral justification for any authority to mete out punitive measure against any worker who, inevitably steal food for survival, because he was owed six months’ salaries, and remain penniless? It is a well known fact that stealing is bad and illegal. This will definitely immerse the authority in a cleft stick and moral quandary. May God deliver us in RUGIPO.
Without much ado, irregular payment of salary is really eating away at the workers of the institution, as the suffering is really above a bit. Therefore, crossing our palms as and when due is a cut and dried balm of Gilead to the multifaceted and exasperating pains of the workers. Sir, it is strongly believed that this is achievable by you without breaking a sweat. Kindly bounce a few strategies around towards getting a never-ending catholicon to the sticky wicket. RUGIPO workers also deserve a good life. All the white knights in the system should eighty-six the sweetening the pill of the Polytechnic, rather speak the truth to power.
ABRUPT CLOSURE OF STAFF SCHOOLS
I will at this juncture break a lance with the shutting down of the institution’s Staff Schools (both Primary and Secondary) in August, 2019. It needs to be said in a clear term that these schools were indeed taking the lead in Owo and its environs, ever before the closure. So, their nocuous act was taken to exacerbate and raise the stakes of the existing challenges, the institution was facing at that period of time. It must be said in no scruple that, the purported telos of not well-thought-out action of those in the swim of winding up of the schools was a bunch of wild-goose chase. These schools were primarily meant for welfare package for the staff of the institution, but fordone, out of crass incompetence of the then Management and Governing Council of the Institution. Worse still, the staff members of the schools were laid off unceremoniously, instead of absorbing them to the mainstream according to their academic qualifications. This is an absurdity of high magnitude, which left a lot to be desired. It is now expedient for the well-thought-of the new Visitor to the Institution (Governor Aiyedatiwa) to revisit their ominous action and take remedial measures on the moribund Staff Schools in no time. We shall all be happy as a lark, if the schools can be rebirthed and justice be done to the fired workers without delay.
MEGA HOSPITAL FUSS
Justice will be so sparse and exiguous in this piece, if I plead the fifth on the pseudo and phony-baloney Mega Hospital by the Alumni Association of the Institution, upon which launching was organized in November 2018 and whooping amount of money was realized, but the stringent conditions attached to its implementation as well as the little brawl which happed between the doyen of the then Council Chairman and the big cheeses of the Institution balked its execution till today and the project was invariably forlorn into outright debacle, nix and dead end. What an anathema to the Institutional development! My prayer is that our amiable Visitor should investigate this matter in spade, and the needful be done in the nick of time.
WAY FORWARD
It is therefore not unobvious that the attention given to the institution remains inadequate, especially in terms of funding. We passionately condemn the contempt placed upon our welfare. It is a palpable fact that, Ogun State is possessive of MAPOLY, ABEOKUTA, OGITECH, IGBESA, ABRAHAM ADESANYA POLYTECHNIC, IJEBU-IGBO, OSA ICT, ITORI and GATEWAY ICT POLYTECHNIC, SAPADE. Oyo State is blessed with The POLYTECHNIC, IBADAN, ADESEUN OGUNDOYIN POLYTECHNIC, ERUWA, OKE-OGUN POLYTECHNIC, SAKI and COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY, IGBOORA. I will like to spare Osun state, as I do not wish to be logorrheic but taut with this piece. Though, comparison is odious, but benchmark is a veritable tool for rapid development in any given society. It is firmly believed that our Sunshine State is not bereft of the requisite sine qua non to optimally maintain the one and only Polytechnic in the State.
It is time we come away with poverty and its by-products, viz. acute hunger, depression, frustration, inability to access good medical care, inability to take proper care of one’s family and host of others. We are neither slaves nor simps but normal human beings like other workers in the State, who dream big and achieve big. We also ache for good life and therefore worthy to be treated according to Holye.
Swift attention also needs to be given to the dysfunctional Governing Council of the Institution, and ensure it is free of bad apples or people enmeshed in material avarice, foolhardiness and free of inveterate controversy. This will indeed undergird Management in carrying out some issues bordering on staff welfare, especially promotion of staff. Also, the various panels of enquiries set up by the State Government to unravel the misery behind the challenges of the institution are seen as veritable springboards for reinvigorating the institution. So, they must not be epitheted “blind alleys”. On this note, the white papers of the panels and Auditors’ Report should be made available and implemented bar none. Strict adherence to the Polytechnic Act (NBTE Rule) and Extant Rule of the institution should be optimally encouraged in the administration of the institution. It is worthy of note that the Polytechnic is empty of significant state-owned capital projects for the past two decades, while the only OSOPADEC project is suffering from utter abandonment. In the same breadth, it is not unsafe to say that, the resolve of our Visitor to upgrade the Institution to University status should be actuated in a flash.
All told, it is hereby simply hoped that sooner or later, we shall all bowl over with paroxysm of joy, while songs of praise will rent air in the Polytechnic, as the albatrosses around the neck of our welfare would have been bowled out through and through, by our amiable Governor. This is borne out of the fact that, our Visitor is a kindhearted man, who cannot recommend less-than-stellar overhaul of the system in less than no time, considering the above requests. It is at this juncture apt to say that, posterity is certain to note your quick responsiveness to the plights of RUGIPO workers and your harmless nature with appreciation, while generations yet unborn will live to remember your good governance.
Let us all embrace the truth in all spheres of life. If we speak the truth, we shall die, if we fail to speak the truth, we shall die. So, we should not put any damper on truth-telling. I remain a martyr for justice, equity and fairness, while the piece is not imbued with any scintilla of devious innuendo and campaign of calumny.
“People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you make them feel”. – Maya Angelou
Thank you and have a blimp.
LONG LIVED RUGIPO
LONG LIVED ONDO STATE
LONG LIVED NIGERIA
Comrade Ojo Akinyemi aka (Otanta) is of the Department Of Social Sciences, Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Ondo State. Contact Line: 07038374883
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