This is certainly not the best time for artisans in Oyo State. None of them could have prayed for a time like this. The unpaid accumulated salaries of civil servants in the state is taking its toll on them. In fact, many of them have been frustrated out of their chosen skills. They have turned to sudden commercial motorcyclists popularly called okada riders.
Governor Ajimobi exchanging pleasantries with Oyo workers when the going was good
Before the March 28 and April 11 elections, they had taken solace in aligning with a political party not probably for the interest they have for it but just to eke out a living. But, now that political activities are at its lowest ebb in the state, there is virtually no way out for them. Instead of being engaged, some use their productive hours to sleep and yawn intermittently an indication that their stomach is empty.
When Vanguard moved round Ibadan metropolis, some of artisans interviewed, lamented seriously blaming their fate for not being educated. Mr. Bashiru Ayanrin, tailor, a middle aged man said, “the delayed payment of workers salaries has affected me because there are so me clothes I have sown which customers are yet to come and collect.
And this is affecting my financial responsibility at home. Customers are not bringing clothes to sow like before. The ones they have brought and I have sown, they have not come to collect them. So, this has really affected the artisans. I have been coping from my savings. I am pleading with Ajimobi to pay civil servants before things get out of hand. As it is now, anything can happen.
You might be going along the road and your bag gets snatched. Imagine a person who is hungry who has tried to borrow some amount of money but could not get it, he can do just anything”. As fashion designers are crying, petty traders too are not left out stressing that money is so scarce that you wonder who actually you can go to for any help. Everywhere is very dry. Not that there is no rainfall, but for lack of money.
Mrs. Abiodun Oluwatola, a petty trader who is a grandmother. As for me, it is difficult to fend for myself. If not for my children who have been sustaining me, I would have died of hunger. “I know they are trying, but you know if I had my own thriving business, I would not look up to them. Remember, also that they have their own challenges to tackle. They have their children to cater for. It sounds so odd if you say today, send money to me, tomorrow send me card.
I am just looking at myself more or less like a useless woman today because there is too much demand. I appeal to the government to pay the workers salaries so that things would change. As for Kazeem Adeyemo, a house painter, “the situation is having too much effect on artisans. We all rely on salaries of workers. It is when they receive their salaries that they remember to give their houses a face lift.
It is when they get their monthly pay that they buy foodstuff, pay school fees and even fix their faulty vehicles. To worsen the situation, price of petrol is not affordable to most artisans. You know there is erratic power supply and this is what most of them rely on to get their businesses moving and when they try to buy generators, fuel has suddenly become a scarce commodity. Since the beginning of this year, I have been staying here because I have no other place I can go to.
The situation is so tense that to cater for children at home becomes a huge problem. I have been dependent on my friends”. Monday Joseph from Ondo State is a motorcycle repairer at Mokola area, Ibadan. According to him, since the story is not palatable in his place of work, he has turned to an okada rider. Government should answer civil servants so that the effects could trickle down to us. Let me add this, the government should not try to ban okada as the action will be too suicidal for us because that is our last hope for now”.
The story is not different with Mr. S. A Odedokun, a welder, said it is not easy to imagine what is happening to artisans. To him, government workers still have a way out. If the salary is late, some day, they will be paid. The same is not for artisans. Ours is no work no money. “A government worker contracted this burglary proof to me. He could only pay one quarter of the money. For months now, I have not seen him. That is just one example. Please, help us tell the government to do something very urgent about this. It is going beyond endurance”, he lamented.
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