Ekiti State Governor, Mr Biodun Oyebanji, has canvassed the support of the state chapter of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) as well as members of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) for a resounding victory at the June 20 governorship election.
The Governor, who is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), hailed members of the two unions for their unflinching support for his administration and for their contribution to the maintenance of industrial peace in the State.
Oyebanji who spoke during engagements with the two unions in Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday in continuation of his re- election campaign, stressed the need for the people of the state to vote APC and return very high figures that will serve as a reference point among the comity of states on the electoral map.
Leaders and members of TUC and its 23 affiliates adopted Oyebanji as their preferred candidate and pledged to deliver their votes in favour of his victory at the poll. Leaders of MHWUN also assured the Governor of massive votes at the election in appreciation of his commitment to their improved welfare.
The State Chairman of TUC, Comrade Omotola Farotimi, said all the affiliates of the union have signed up to support Oyebanji’s candidacy because he has redefined governance and consolidated good governance which has benefitted the entire people of the state.
Reeling out the achievements of the Oyebanji administration across the six-pillar agenda, Farotimi said the governor has earned the trust of worker’s body with the improvement of their welfare and giving attention to their requests from time to time hence their resolve to join the vanguard to re-elect him.
The State Chairman of MHWUN, Comrade Oluwafemi Ajoloko, who described the governor as “the game changer in the health sector,” said union members are grateful to him for bridging the gap between the salary scale of health workers in the federal health institutions and their counterparts in the state health institutions as they both now enjoy the same salary scale.
Ajoloko also cited the ongoing construction of an 80-bed hospital within the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital Complex and for increasing the subvention to the tertiary health institution twice within 12 months which he described as unprecedented. He also lauded the renovation of all general hospitals and health centres across the state.
The two unions presented awards to the governor for his commitment to provision of better welfare packages to workers, infrastructure transformation, relieving workers of transportation burden, among other benefits so far enjoyed under his watch.
But the governor who said workers are entitled to good welfare package describing it as their rights and not a favour, assured that it will keep getting better if they can entrust him with another four-year mandate.
Oyebanji expressed his readiness not just to win but to win resoundingly and that Ekiti must show its readiness to be taken seriously in Nigeria as a state of electoral influence which President Bola Tinubu can count on to sweep to a massive victory.
He said: “I want to reaffirm my commitment to your welfare through the renewal of my mandate. We don’t want to win by whiskers, we want to win resoundingly because the party (APC) has set a minimum target of 500,000 votes. I believe there are ways you can talk to people and they will listen to you.
“Like your chairman has just said, just ensure that each of you take not less five other persons to your polling booths to vote for APC. I need your help to ensure that on June 20, we post a performance that will be a reference point, that will make President to know that we are not ingrates and we must prove that we appreciate all these good things he has done for us.”
While explaining that both the state government and the federal government are led by APC, the platform upon which he is seeking re-election, Oyebanji revealed that gigantic projects being executed by the Tinubu Administration including the Itawure-Aramoko-Igede-Ado highway should ginger the people of the state to reciprocate with bigger votes tally noting that the road will last for not less than 50 years when completed
He added: “If not for a president that cares, a president that loves his people, there’s no way Ekiti state will have been able, even with our whole budget, the whole budget if I didn’t pay you, I didn’t pay myself, we won’t be able to embark on such magnitude of construction.
“And it’s a concrete pavement road, that’s going to be the first in any state, in any road in the southwest. Once it’s completed, that road will last for 50 years without any rehabilitation.
If you have a president that is this good to us, that is this fair, that loved us this way, the only way we can show appreciation to him is through our votes for his party.”
“When I sat down there and you were telling me everything we have done as a government, and I told myself, it’s not about me, and I wrote it down, it’s due to Mr. President’s support. If the president had not supported me, there’s no way I would have been able to perform that miracle.”
The parley was attended by the Chairman of the Campaign Council and Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele; Deputy Director General (South) of the Council and Senator representing Ekiti South, Senator Yemi Adaramodu; Secretary to the State Government, Prof Habibat Adubiaro; House of Representatives Candidate for Ekiti Central Federal Constituency 2, Rt Hon Karounwi Oladapo and a party elder, Chief (Mrs) Ronke Okusanya.
