The Ekiti State House of Assembly has moved to break a truce with the state government and striking civil servants led by the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) in the state.
The development culminated in a meeting of leaders of the labour organizations and the members of the state House of Assembly on the floor of the chamber on Thursday.
Speaker of the House, Right Honourable (Pastor) Kola Oluwawole, while welcoming the labour leaders to the meeting, noted that the honourable members were taken by surprise at the turn of events, owning to their understanding that there had always been a good rapport between the state government and labour unions.
According to a statement by his Special Assistant (Media), Stephen Gbadamosi, the Speaker said; “The relationship between the labour and government had always been cordial.
But the recent trend caught us unawares. In fact, we were embarrassed. We had expected that a lot of meetings and consultations ought to have taken place before resort to the strike option. May be it was as a result of omission or commission, we were not carried along.
“So, we believe that there is the need for us to talk. What we want to know is at what point did that relationship break down? What is the way forward?”
Leader of the labour delegate and chairman of the NLC in the state, Mr Ade Adesanmi, while thanking the leadership of the Assembly for calling the meeting, said the labour was a major stakeholder in the current administration in the state, hence, it would not pray for its failure.
Detailing the genesis of the crisis and rapprochements moves that had been made, Adesanmi denied that the strike had no political underbelly as had been said in some quarters.
Thereafter, members of the House, including Gboyega Aribisogan, Jide Omotoso, Akinleye Ekundayo, Badejo Anifowose, Wale Ayeni and Cecilia Dada, took turns to address the labour leaders and expressing their sympathies over the workers’ plight.
They are, however, in unison in calling on the workers to return to work, re-open talk channel with the government and proffer solutions as to what could be done in the face of the dwindling allocation coming to the state.
Leaders of the labour delegate promised the House to report back to members of their unions, after which their decision would be made known.
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