The workers are also protesting non- inclusion in the state Oracle database for salary payment.

The workers, under the umbrella of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, and Radio, Television, Theatre and Arts Workers’ Union, RATTAWU, Lagos State Broadcasting Corporation, shut down operations.

The workers comprised staff of Lagos Television, Radio Lagos/Eko FM and Lagos Traffic Radio.

They said that the strike had become imperative due to state government’s failure to meet their demands.

The workers, who walked around their various premises, sang solidarity songs for hours.

They were also being entertained by a musical band.

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The protesting workers carried placards with different inscriptions to press home their demands.

The inscriptions include: “Give us Oracle and take the revenue generated”, “Palliatives and subventions are not working”, “Oracle is the answer”, and “All we need is Oracle! Save our today and secure our future.”

The others are: “Non-implementation of new minimum wage is anti-labour”, “Minimum wage, a must! Our sweat is drying up”, “Save us from career stagnation”, and “LTV, Radio Lagos, Traffic Radio are not liability, we are asset to the government.”

Speaking to newsmen, the chairman of the Lagos State Council of NUJ, Mr Adeleye Ajayi, said that the media workers were demanding fair treatment and wages for being at the centre of promoting government policies.

He said that both the NUJ and RATTAWU had given different ultimatums and had exercised enough patience for the government to meet their demands.

Ajayi noted that the demands included payment of the new minimum wage and inclusion in the state’s Oracle database for salary payment.

“Both NUJ and RATTAWU are quite aware of this. We have given different ultimatums – a 10-day ultimatum, a 21-day ultimatum, and the last and final one was a seven-day ultimatum.

“I think these are ultimatums for the state government to accede to the requests of our members.

“Our members are very committed, they are very dedicated; they are very patriotic, they have no closing hours, and I think they should be well-remunerated.

“Our members should be integrated into the Oracle database. Oracle database is like the IPPIS system in the Federal Civil Service that creates a seamless way of paying workers’ salaries and other benefits,” Ajayi said.

According to him, the government should look into the issue of minimum wage which is being enjoyed by other state workers.

“Our workers here are not benefitting from the minimum wage like other state workers. Workers of the state broadcast corporations should benefit from the minimum wage.

“In the last three or five months, they have not benefitted a dime from the minimum wage, and this should not be the case,” he said.

Ajayi said that the state government should be more media-friendly and attend to the needs of the media so that the media could further propagate its policies and activities.

He expressed the optimism that the state executive council would address the issues.

The Lagos State Chairman of RATTAWU, Mr Ishola Adejumo, said that workers deserved due wages.

Adejumo said that workers in the state-owned media workers had not been enjoying the N85,000 minimum wage approved by the state government.

Adejumo said: “This is premised on the fact that the running of these stations is based on IGR (Internally Generated Revenue).

“This determines what they will do with salaries and other expenses.

“To us, this is no longer sustainable.

“For the past 12 years or thereabout, we have been demanding for migration of the workers here to Oracle database to guarantee regular payment of workers’ salaries and other benefits, along with their counterparts in the ministries; yet this has not been done.

“We are calling on the government and all the agencies concerned to migrate workers here to Oracle. Once they migrate them, we disperse and every problem will be solved.”

According to him, if the government refused to meet the workers demands after the warning strike, the unions will go on an indefinite strike.

“There is no retreat, no surrender,” Adejumo said.

Source: NAN

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The proposed industrial action is set to begin on Monday, January 13.

In a letter jointly signed by the Lagos State NUJ Chairman, Mr Adeleye Ajayi, and the Secretary, Mr Tunde Olalere, on Thursday, the union expressed its support for the strike.

The letter, dated January 9, was addressed to the General Manager of Lagos Television, Agidingbi, Ikeja.

The NUJ, along with Radio, Television, Theatre and Arts Worker’s Union, RATTAWU, of the Lagos State Broadcasting Corporations, comprising Lagos Television, Radio Lagos/EKO FM, and Lagos Traffic Radio, had announced the proposed strike.

They said that was in response to the non-payment of the minimum wage and integration into the Oracle database by the state government.

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The union leadership stated that it was fully aware of the several discussions, congresses, and notices given to the state government regarding the need for state-owned media house workers to be integrated into the Oracle database.

“You will agree with the union that these were enough notices given to address the issues at stake,” the letter read in part.

The leaders recalled that an initial 10-day ultimatum was issued, followed by a 21-day ultimatum, and finally, a seven-day final ultimatum.

“It is imperative that our members working in the state-owned media organisations should also enjoy the new minimum wage like other workers of the state,” the NUJ stated.

The union further noted that the revenue generated by state-owned media organisations could no longer sustain the payment of workers’ salaries and benefits, highlighting the urgent need for the state government to intervene for their survival.

“The welfare of our dear members is paramount and this is why the union deems it fit to support and pledge solidarity with our members going on strike,” the union stated.

The union also acknowledged the commitment and dedication of protesting workers to their duties in propagating state government policies and activities, stating that such dedication should be rewarded by the state government.

“The union, therefore, advises that only an amicable resolution and approval of the demands of our members can stop the industrial action,” the union stated.

Source: NAN

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I witnessed the debate about who owns the home between the man and woman fortuitously last Monday as I found my way into the premises of the Lagos State Television and Radio Lagos, both owned by the Lagos State Government, along Agidingbi Road, directly opposite Coca-Cola premises. I was rushing in from Agege to catch an appointment within the LSTV/Radio Lagos premises when traffic snarl caught up with me just before I got to Cadbury.

At that time of the day, the traffic was unusual. The harsh economic situation, especially the unbelievable hike in fuel price, has driven many motorists off the road. So, traffic in Lagos is low these days and traffic flow is usually smooth and seamless. Getting ensnared in traffic that day and time got me thinking.

Was there an accident? Is any of those unmindful traffic agencies at it again, piling misery upon an already distraught citizenry? I consulted my wrist watch incessantly as the traffic grudgingly moved at slower than the proverbial snail’s speed. I am sure you know that in such a situation, every moment lost looks like an hour and one’s blood pressure must have begun to surge upward.

Gradually, we got to the epicentre of the traffic snarl. There was a sea of heads akin to what our people would describe as “oja meta”; that is, three full markets converging into one. Men and women, old and young; children as well all struggling to get into the LSTV/Radio Lagos premises. An interesting programme must be taking place there, I reckon. Usually, when these “elewe omo” or traditional medical doctors converge there to advertise their wares and prowess, the place witnesses a surge. That was then when things were still a million times better than what they are now.

So, imagine what it would be like now when many people no longer can afford Western medicine. Cost of drugs has shot through the roof. Doctors are scarce to find in the hospitals. For ailments that need urgent attention, people are given six months’ appointment to return to try their luck whether a doctor would be available to see them. Many die before the appointment date. For those with contacts who are able to get appointments fixed for them, that is how lucky they can get.

No one is sure of the quality of attention they get these days. A recent study gives medical errors as the third highest cause of death in the United States of America. If that can happen there, imagine the margin of error here – which is not only a developing country but one in which thousands of qualified, competent and experienced medical personnel have “japa” abroad. And the tide is yet to abate or recede.

I was wrong, however! The sea of heads were not in search of medical attention; they were in search of something more important – stomach infrastructure – made popular by a one-time governor of Ekiti state. A banner, which hung on the gate of the LSTV/Radio Lagos premises said food palliatives were being distributed there!

The premises were filled. Getting an opportunity to drive in took minutes. A queue formed from the premises, stretching up to the nearby Ikeja Mall aka Shoprite. A horde of Police/LASTMA vehicles and officers were on hand to maintain order. The people were there to collect a handful of grains of rice and cups of garri. I saw people carrying all manner of sacks on their head. Some clutched polythene bags containing items I could not fathom. Others carried small kilograms of Semo on their head. Let us not bother to name those who said they were responsible for this show of shame. They must have thought they were doing something noble; don’t you think?

And I remembered what the governor I had earlier mentioned told me when, on one occasion as he distributed his own stomach infrastructure to the people – and I was there – he noticed that my countenance was sad (like that of Nehemiah before King Artaxerxes in Nehemiah 2: 1- 8). He said, “Sir, it is because you have food to eat: that is why you discountenance what we are doing here. Those who haven’t eaten for days and who do not know when and where their next meal will come from will appreciate our gesture and fall for it”

He was right! More so even now! Poverty has been weaponized to bring many of our people on their knees. Some think it is illiteracy that is responsible for the abject misery and servitude that the people are willing to subject themselves to. They may partially be right! Others argue that it is realism of the worst order. They, too, are right in a sense. The people have come to accept their powerlessness against their oppressors. If they refuse the tokenism they are offered, where do they go from there? What power do they have against their oppressors?

Some say the vote is the power of the electorate but our people are knowledgeable enough to know that their vote does not count. The historic vote they cast on June 12, 1993 that should have counted was annulled before their very eyes. They cried; they yelled, they struggled; they kicked; they fought; they marched in the streets; they laid down their life – yet, nothing came out of it. MKO Abiola refused to relinquish the mandate freely given unto him until death removed the shoes from his chicken’s legs, as they say. So, our people have come to realize that, head or tail, they lose!

The unfortunate thing is, they will be better able than us to cope with, and manage it because, for them, it is both cultural and religious imperatives. It has become, for them – and for years and decades – the social structure on which their entire society is built. Is that what our own present political leaders are trying to import into the South-west? Our best bet, if I may advise, is to quickly stem the tide before it is too late.

Soviet leader, Josef Stalin, was quoted as saying that those who vote in an election determine nothing but those who count the votes determine everything. That was then – and in his own days and clime. These days in our own time and space, those who count and record the votes do not even determine anything – the judges who sit in judgment in election disputes determine everything! And the judges are not saints. The most ridiculous and putrid judgments have oozed out of their mouth. Tell me, where do we go from here?

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So, the people accept their fate and move on. As I waited on a queue of cars that had formed, trying to meander my way into the LSTV/Radio Lagos premises, I listened to the argument of some woman trying to eject the men who had also joined the queue. What has this world become! Men were struggling with women to collect their own “Ounje Eko”!  Lagos food, is that not what they say it is called? I read some days back that some university professors queued to collect a loan of N36,000 or thereabout to buy subsidized “Ounje Eko” and I marveled that things have got that bad! More than, someone quickly corrected me! But that is a topic for another day!

The women on the queue told the men: “Obirin l’o ni’le”; meaning that it is women that own/run the home. It was a ploy to eject the men who had also queued for the measly grains and items being dished out but the men fought back bravely! “Okunrin ni baale ile”, one of the men yelled, and another supported him: “Ati okunrin, ati obirin l’o ni’le”! What the first man said, for the benefit of those who do not understand the Yoruba language, is that men are the head of the family while his supporter said both men and women are joint owners/managers of the home! The philosophy of poverty!

I finally found my way in, conducted my business and drove out. The crowd kept enlarging and surging. The successful ones carried all manner of sacks on their head. Some held their own catch in one or both hands. As I drove in to Shoprite to pick a few items, the queue was still dangerously close to the shopping mall.

There at Shoprite another spectacle confronted me: A woman picked up choice items and waited at the cashier begging everyone to help her pay for them! Few weeks back I had also seen a man by the food stands in the same Shoprite telling everyone he was hungry and they should buy food for him! What are we turning into – or is it, what have we turned into?

And my mind went back to kilometre-long queues of almajiris that I saw weeks back on social media, of children and adults with bowls in their hands waiting for food from God-knows where, when and how in one city in the north of the country! Many social ills that we thought were exclusive to other climes and peoples have crept in on us here in the South-West. And you wonder why? Our people say a lamb that walks with dogs will eat feaces. The mind-boggling scenes that we witness around us here these days (that get us worried) are the usual sight in other places. What ails us here is their own way of life. There is no way the vortex won’t suck us in.

The unfortunate thing is, they will be better able than us to cope with, and manage it because, for them, it is both cultural and religious imperatives. It has become, for them – and for years and decades – the social structure on which their entire society is built. Is that what our own present political leaders are trying to import into the South-west? Our best bet, if I may advise, is to quickly stem the tide before it is too late.

*Bolawole (turnpot@gmail.com 0807 552 5533), former Editor of PUNCH newspapers, Chairman of its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-chief, was also the Managing Director/ Editor-in-chief of the Westerner newsmagazine. He writes the “ON THE LORD’S DAY” column in the Sunday Tribune and “TREASURES” column in the New Telegraph newspapers. He is also a public affairs analyst on radio and television.

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The comic artist, whose real name is Taiwo Osinowo, dared the governor and showed up with Sanwo-Olu’s drawing at a youth event held in LTV Blue Roof, Agidingbi, on Tuesday.

Midweek, Boda Taiye Oniyakuya became a social media sensation after a viral post showing the Governor’s caricature. The artist, then, threatened to show up at the governor’s office to present the humorous image.

The artist’s audacity elicited Sanwo-Olu’s response under the viral post, inviting the artist to present the funny drawing.

Sanwo-Olu, dressed in Boy Scouts’ venturing green shirt, beret and light-brown pant with yellow tie to match, received the comic image from the artist and praised the creativity behind the post.

“I’m truly excited with the creativity we have in Lagos and the amount of talented youths we have here. There are several of Boda Taiye Oniyakuya that we need to bring out to showcase to the world. We have gifted artists and scientists in Lagos.

“I use this opportunity to tell our youths that we are changing education curriculum to accommodate music, song writing, entertainment and fashion to be taught right from school. This is to help young people develop their abilities and give them choices.”

The governor received the drawing and reward the artist for his effort.

Visibly excited after meeting the governor, Boda Taiye Oniyakuya, who attended the event with his twin brother, thanked Sanwo-Olu for encouraging his talent.

He said he received messages warning him not to honour the governor’s invitation for fear of possible arrest, pointing out that Sanwo-Olu’s simplicity and good-nature had changed the impression people sowed in his mind about the governor.

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