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.
Credit: Thenation
