Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has promised to clear outstanding salary and promotion arrears owed to workers of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso, by mid-November, as he seeks an end to the ongoing strike at the facility.
The governor also pledged to sign the Medical Residency Training Bill in the first week of November, while approving an increase in the monthly salaries of cleaners at the hospital from ₦15,000 to ₦80,000.
Makinde announced the measures during a meeting with hospital management, labour unions and other stakeholders in Ogbomoso on Thursday, appealing to the striking workers to suspend their action to allow negotiations to proceed.
“The first step is for you to call off the strike, and once you assure me of that, we can move forward. This is our state; how we lay our bed is how we will lie on it,” the governor said.
According to a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media, Sulaimon Olarenwaju, on Friday, Makinde said the state government was facing mounting financial obligations despite the increase in federal allocations.
He disclosed that Oyo State’s monthly wage bill had risen from ₦4.5bn when he assumed office in 2019 to ₦18bn in 2026.
The governor attributed the financial pressure to rising personnel costs and inflation, which he said had also significantly increased the cost of infrastructure projects.
Using the 76-kilometre Iseyin–Fapote–Ogbomoso Road as an example, Makinde said a project executed for ₦43bn in 2023 would now cost at least ₦200bn.
“When I assumed office in 2019, FAAC was around ₦6–7 billion, and the first salary bill I signed was ₦4.5 billion. Today, the same road project we executed for ₦43 billion would cost ₦200 billion. That is our situation,” he said.
Despite the financial constraints, the governor assured the workers that their outstanding entitlements would be addressed, disclosing that the October salary bill had already been prepared and signed.
He specifically promised to pay ₦162m in salary arrears owed to workers by mid-November.
Makinde also pledged to settle minimum wage and promotion arrears covering October, November and December 2024, reportedly amounting to ₦38m.
“I will look for ₦200 million so that once salaries are paid, we can settle these arrears, hopefully before mid-November,” he said.
On the Medical Residency Training Bill, the governor said he was awaiting clean copies of the document before signing it, with the first week of November set as the target date.
The meeting also produced a salary increase for cleaners at the teaching hospital. Makinde approved an adjustment from ₦15,000 to ₦80,000 monthly following an appeal by the workers during his visit.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr Oluwaserimi Ajetunmobi, commended the governor’s interventions in the health sector and expressed the administration’s commitment to addressing recurring industrial disputes.
The hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Prof Olawale Olakulehin, and Board Chairman, Prof Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, also appealed to staff members and union leaders to cooperate with the government towards resolving the dispute.
Representatives of resident doctors, including Dr Mustapha Adedapo, Dr John Oladapo, the second vice-president of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, and Comrade Olobaniyi David of the Joint Health Sector Unions, acknowledged the government’s interventions, including the payment of some arrears and ongoing renovations at the LAUTECH Teaching Hospital Annex in Oyo.
They, however, called for the sustained implementation of professional allowance tables for resident doctors and allied health workers.
Makinde, who is also the presidential candidate of the Allied People’s Movement, said he had about seven months left in office and was determined to resolve outstanding issues before the end of his administration.
“If there are challenges, we must find ways to solve them,” he said, urging the workers to consider the state’s financial position while negotiations continued.
The meeting was attended by the Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Adebo Ogundoyin; Secretary to the State Government, Prof Musibau Babatunde; Chief of Staff to the Governor, Bashorun Akinwale Akinwole; Head of Service, Dr Adenike Fashina; and other government officials, hospital administrators and labour representatives.
