By Kingston Obung
Calabar
There was celebration across Cross River state yesterday as Governor Ben Ayade announced the payment of salaries for the month of May on the first day of the month.
A mild drama immediately ensued when the workers who were at the U.J. Esuene Stadium for the May Day celebration each began to receive salary payment alert from their various banks.
Unable to contain the excitement, shouts of ‘alert, alert, alert’ rent the stadium as the workers went into a frenzy, singing the praises of the governor.
In his remarks, the Governor said his administration had a duty to give workers in the state a sense of dignity.
“We must create opportunities for labour to feel a sense of dignity. If you are truly a Christian, you must know that as you care for your kids, you must care for labour. No infrastructure is more important than labour; that is why in all my programs, I focus on people,” he said.
While urging the Labour Union to keep faith with his administration as he strives to foster the socio-economic growth of the state, the governor declared that no worker who has dully put in his honest labour will go unrewarded.
“Anybody who pulls down labour does not understand the philosophy of existentialism, hence the need for labour to come before infrastructure and skyscrapers.”
Other packages the governor announced were the donation of a new Toyota coaster bus for labour, release of funds for the building of Labour house as well as the appointment of labour representative into the state executive council.
Earlier, the organised labour, through chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade John Ushie, had lent its support to the construction of the 260km superhighway as well as other projects aimed at repositioning the economy of the state, but appealed to government to intervene in repositioning the state newspaper corporation and other dilapidated edifices.
