I’ll give priority to Workers’ welfare, job creation -Oyetola

A governorship aspirant of the All Progressive Congress (APC) for the September 22nd gubernatorial election in Osun State, Alhaji Adegboyega Oyetola has promised that workers’ welfare and job creation will be his priority if he succeeds the incumbent governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola.

He said this while addressing newsmen at his campaign office in Osogbo, the state capital on Tuesday shortly after declaring his intention to contest for the post of the Governor in the state.

Oyetola who is the current Chief of Staff to the Governor commended the workers in the state for their perseverance and assured them of better deal. He also promised to create opportunities for the youths in the state to get jobs.

According to him “The welfare of workers shall top our list of priorities. While the current administration has tried its best possible to enhance the welfare of the workers, our administration shall intensify efforts and come up with stronger strategies to ensure prompt payment of workers’ salaries and pensions of our senior citizens.”

“We shall pursue workers’ welfare with all the energy in us. We will seek a gradual and inclusive civil service reform, make the work environment more conducive, stimulating and development-oriented, with sustained reward mechanisms and keep workers morale high. We will promote an enviable culture of excellence and service.”

Speaking on his plan to provide jobs for the unemployed youths in the state, Oyetola said necessary mechanism would be put in place to cater for the youths and open doors of opportunities for the youths in the state.

“Job creation is uppermost in my mind. A study that we commissioned has indicated that 25-30 factories employing over 30,000 workers can be created within a period of 3-4 years across the length and breadth of the State”.

“I will therefore pay critical attention to the establishment of light manufacturing industries, such as those focusing on agricultural processing, meat and fish preservation and packaging, leather goods, building materials production, woodworks etc. This is because Osun has the necessary inputs for a competitive labour intensive manufacturing sector (light manufacturing).”

Oyetola said his goal is to make Osun to be known as the State for Employment and Jobs in the country. He said every able-bodied person in the state would be assisted to be gainfully employed.

“We shall provide jobs through two means. First, by providing the enabling environment, we shall attract investors in agriculture, agro-allied industries and light manufacturing in our areas of comparative advantage. Secondly, we shall make sufficient financial support and other forms of assistance available to anyone with ideas of starting any business that will employ a minimum of ten (10) other workers.”

“We will leverage on the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (O-YES), and then move forward to employ more and provide a more conducive environment for the private sector to engage a large number of our youths in the critical sectors, including Agriculture, Mining, Tourism, Education and Social Services”, Oyetola said.