Ondo city, a significant town and the second largest town in Ondo state received multitude of visitors as Governor Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa flagged off his campaign on the 12th of October, 2024.
Aiyedatiwa, being moved by the milk of human kindness, shocked Ondo workers with the announcement of seventy-three thousand naira as minimum wage when the Federal Government has agreed to pay seventy thousand naira. That could only come from a man who truly loves and genuinely sacrifices for his people.
Leadership is about equitable redistribution of whatever nature has dismally distributed. It comes with a special ability to foresee the unseen. It is what Amartya Sen, the 1998 Nobel laureate in economics called ‘capability’ or ‘functionings’ when he was developing his capabilities approach.
Flowing from Sen’s argument, economic growth cannot be sensibly treated as an end in itself. Development has to be more concerned with enhancing the lives we lead and the freedoms we enjoy. In other words, a book means nothing to an illiterate no matter how novel. What a person has or the feelings commodities provide are less important. What matter is what a person is, or can be, and does or can do.
In tandem with Sen’s argument around functioning, Aiyedatiwa has justifiably used his position to the ultimate benefit of Ondo workers. This shouldn’t make anyone sick or restless unless such person is an enemy of the people of Ondo state. No sane party should ordinarily begrudge a good thing like this especially when Ondo state is making history to have been the only state with the highest minimum wage so far. Just as the devil hates the light, the PDP is venting their frustration as the party came heavily against the idea. What does the PDP want? A Governor who wouldn’t show care to the people he swore to serve? A Governor who will impoverish the people? God forbid!
I agree that politics and sound education are necessary fillips to the advancement of humanity especially in a democracy. Obviously, the PDP with a deflated house lacks thinkers. The party cannot even differentiate right from wrong. How can a party which cannot save its own house from avoidable ruin proffer solution on any public issue? That’s sacrilegious. What has the PDP touched that didn’t die? Is it not shamefully scary that only the PDP kicked against the minimum wage that will improve the standard of living of the workers of Ondo state?
Plato, the great philosopher, had seen the plights of the PDP long ago when he opined:
“Hence, I was forced to say in praise of the correct philosophy that it affords a vantage point from which we can discern in all cases what is just for communities and for individuals, and that accordingly the human race will not see better days until either the stock of those who genuinely follow philosophy acquire political authority or else the class who have political control be led by some dispensation of providence to become real philosophers”.
Governor Aiyedatiwa is a careful talker. As a matter of fact, he has even been accused of being ‘slow’ in making decision because of his thoughtfulness. Aiyedatiwa will never say a thing he does not mean. He didn’t announce 73,000 as minimum wage to score political point. To think that PDP doesn’t know that there are apolitical procedures to implementing the minimum wage is a big shame.
The workers of Ondo state have made up their minds to support the party as well as the Governor that treats them well with regular payment of salaries and other benefits. The people have noted the PDP’s anger the moment Governor Aiyedatiwa announced a robust minimum wage that is not yet obtainable in any state in Nigeria. May Ondo State workers who the PDP wishes to suffocate continue to be Lucky under the leadership of Governor Aiyedatiwa beyond 2025.
Ondo state workers are asking the PDP to heal itself already as they have started calculating their pay. It’s a year of increase for the workers of Ondo State. No controversy. Prosperity is here to stay with Governor Aiyedatiwa in the saddle.
Sunday Olugbenga Abire is Special Assistant on New Media to the Governor of Ondo State
Views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Precision Online Newspaper.
Study @ Achievers University
