Full Report: The News Report That Led To The Arrest of Kogi Journalist

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OVERZEALOUS CHIEF OF STAFF ACTS GOVERNOR EXTRAORDINAIRE

  • Ebira Nation must rise to the rescue

In the October edition of this magazine, we came up with a write up titled; “Kogians are groaning.” We thank God that no government official either elected or appointed disputed or refuted our observations or comments on various issues raised ranging from staff auditing to purchase of vehicles, to broken promises, to inexperience in governance, to corruption, to incapacitated House of Assembly etc. To us, it is a sign or proof that we are very correct in our analysis.

By now, we expect a total u-turn in governance in the state, but that is not the case, everything is going from bad to worse for the people of Kogi State. Once again, Kogians are terribly groaning. The state needs God’s intervention.
Over thirty percent of the state workforce have not received salaries this year (2016), about twenty percent received 4-5 months’ salaries, about thirty percent received part-payment of what is due to them for just about 5 months and about twenty percent received full payment for just eight months. This is the very situation in Kogi State civil service. But one ugly event often crops up from the government circle in which some government officials will go to the press to announce to Nigerians that the state government is not owing any worker in the state. What a blatant lie? To add more to this, about seventy-five percent of pensioners have not received any payment this year.

The staff verification in the state is becoming something else. Three individuals  headed the verification exercise, yet no tangible result was gotten, no headway into it. The aim of the exercise has long been defeated; the state government for now is chasing shadows and not the ghost workers.

No visible project is on ground in the state after ten solid months. Nothing has been commissioned by the present leadership in Kogi State since assumption of office (27th January 2016) – not even a borehole.

It is rather unfortunate that today people compare the weak administration of Capt. Idris Wada as being a better stuff than what we have presently in the state.

What does it take a good government to turn the state around for the common good of the people? Kogi State has no business to be poor if there is sincerity and the political will to do what is right.

When a leader surrounds himself with mediocres and inexperienced individuals, this is the result you get.

The Ebira nation must go into serious prayers so that their period on the leadership of Kogi State will never go down in vain. Late Adamu Attah would be remembered for some great achievements he had when he served as the governor of the then Kwara State. He built six specialist hospitals, located a school of nursing at Obangede, constructed the Kabba-Okene road amongst several others. He single handedly fought god-fatherism in Kwara politics. Though he failed to secure second term in office, his position was well understood by all especially his people.

Governor Yahaya Bello should face the fact as they are obtainable today. He is the ambassador of the long marginalized Ebira nation in Kogi State. He should take it or leave it.

He should see his opportunity as a chance to right the wrongs of the past, not by marginalizing others or group of people or ethnic groups but to do justice to all  people in the state.

Our continuous bewilderment is in Governor Bello making his chief of staff Edward David Onoja becoming larger than star, turning him into a tin-god and his perpetual heroli  idolizing him at the detriment of the entire state and the system. The federal character principles are not generally observed with appointment to public offices for instance the chief of staff’s wife is a SSA to the wife of the Governor in her office. The commissioner for Environment is equally a sister to the Chief of staff while Dr. Stella Adejoh of the Due Process office is also his relation. What a bastardized system? This is an embarrassment to your government and the state.

To our Ebira brothers and sisters who are very keen to see you succeed but are generally standing aloof watching Governor Bello in action, doing what we generally least expected of him in governance must all come to rescue him and salvage the state. We must not allow our age long struggle to be in vain.

In those days of the struggle before the APC primary, we were with Governor Bello we did identify with his struggle but never thought Governor Bello, will ever become a stooge to anybody not for want of anything.

The Ebira people that we know are dogged, resolute, courageous, tough, bluff and highly principled people to a fault, so why is your situation going to be so different today.

They say conscience is an open wound, it is nurtured by the truth. Our dear beloved brother, Governor Yahaya Adoza Bello chances has placed you far above your contemporaries, let history vindicate you of your action tomorrow and not condemn you.

Finally, on the issue of the over ambitious and power drunk chief of staff, we want to put it to you today that should there be an APC primary between you and him among the political appointees I bet it with you he will defeat your noble self. A word of caution from a quote in the statement of King Duncan in Macbeth: “There’s no art to find the minds construction in the face. He was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust.”

We have a lot to learn from Julius Caesar and Brutus in the William Shakespeare books Julius Caesar and in Macbeth in the betrayal of King Duncan by Macbeth is also another lesson for humanity.

Governor Bello we assumed is carried away with just the satisfaction of been called His Excellency Alhaji Yahaya Adoza Bello, the Executive Governor of Kogi State as he been viewed in many quarters as a titular the ceremonial governor while his chief of staff is been seen as the governor extraordinary, what an irony of life.

The consequences of the failure of this administration will generally be taken against Governor Yahaya Bello as a person and the Ebira nation in general and not Edward David Onoja to say the least nor Igala people again.

Kogi State is greater than matters of personal relationship and friendship. Governor Yahaya Bello you took an oath to lead the people of Kogi State and we charge you to live up to the expectation and make your supporters and the Ebira nation proud of you. We equally leave you with this quotation “Unnatural deeds do breed unnatural troubles; infected minds to their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets”

Alhaji Yahaya Bello must be aware of some individuals in his government that are there to create misgivings as well his down-fall. He must watch the chief of staff who has arrogantly arrogated power that does not belong to that office to himself. A chief of staff in government circle is like a domestic or personal staff of a political leader such as a governor or a president. He is never considered as a member of the state or federal executive hence no voting right in any decision to be reached by the council. Where does the present chief of staff of Kogi State derive his enormous power from? To the point of going about in a serious convoy, inspecting and monitoring of activities of government establishments in the state. This is uncalled for. The Governor of the state should put him in his proper place. He should not be as powerful as any commissioner who were properly screened by the State House of Assembly members and equally confirmed unlike the chief of staff who never had such opportunity. He must know his boundary and must work within it. We all knew his past while in Access Bank, he is extremely too arrogant and ambitious.

Governor Yahaya Bello, just like the soothsayer in the Shakespearean play titled Julius Caesar, “Beware the Ides of March.” To many admirers of the Governor, they see the chief of staff as having too much influence on him and his policies, he is too overbearing and if care is not taken he will run down the administration of Alhaji Yahaya Bello.
The governor must begin to re-design the objectives of his administration. Many things have gone wrong such as the unending staff verification, heighten of ethnic rivalries, economic stagnation, several broken promises since January 27th 2016 and reckless use of the bail out fund from the federal government. Can the state government come out clean in terms of the disbursement of the N20 billion bailout fund?

To come out of the present economic logjam, the governor must do the needful and seek for experienced people to assist him to reposition the state. He must run away from praise singers and get focused. We want to see projects commissioned and not speeches. Your success is our pride.

– Published in the current edition of Policy and The Lawmakers Magazine


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