The governors of Kogi and Kaduna states have donated N50 million each towards President Muhammadu Buhari’s election campaign for the 2019 Presidential election in Nigeria, ALEDEH can report.
The development confirms ALEDEH’s January 4, 2017, exclusive report where we reported that governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, were asked to contribute N50million each towards the campaign for the re-election of President Buhari.
In our exclusive report, ALEDEH revealed that thirteen (13) of the APC governors rejected the request, maintaining that they would want to hear “directly from President Buhari” before they will contribute.
Eight (8) days after the meeting of the APC governors which was chaired by Nigeria’s Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, ALEDEH can exclusively report that the matter came up again on Friday, January 12, when President Buhari met with the governors.
During the meeting which took place at the Aso Rock presidential villa in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, the APC governors assured President Buhari they have no qualms supporting him, ALEDEH gathered.
The governors cited the fact that they will need President Buhari’s support for their re-election as the reason for their decision, Nigeria’s burgeoning online integrated media, ALEDEH can report.
ALEDEH gathered that the APC governors queried President Buhari’s unilateral decision to make Mr Amaechi the DG of his reelection campaign.
However, President Buhari in his defence denied appointing Mr Amaechi as his campaign DG as reported last week in the Nigerian media.
The governors sensing that the President may not be honest about that insisted that they will contribute their monetary support if Mr Amaechi presents a formal letter showing his re-appointment as Director-General, ALEDEH gathered.
Recall we had reported in our January 4, 2017, exclusive that three (3) of the APC governors have already contributed the sum of N50million each.
However, during Friday’s meeting with President Buhari, it was discovered that two (2) of the governors who have contributed are Governors of Kaduna and Kogi States respectively.
Meanwhile, the N50 million donation by the Kogi state governor is coming at the time the state government carried out a massive retrenchment exercise that saw the sack of one thousand, seven hundred and seventy-four (1,774) from the state civil service.
Apart from the massive retrenchment exercise carried out by the state government, Kogi tops the list of the states owing workers salaries in Nigeria.
A survey conducted in 2017 by BudgIT, Nigeria’s civic tech organisation, revealed that twenty (20) states owed their workers, including pensioners their entitlements ranging from one to thirty-six (36) months.
“In addition to outstanding pensions, we note from our survey, that across all categories, states like Kogi, Abia, Benue, Oyo, Ekiti and Ondo have not paid their workers’ salaries for this year 2017; owing at least 4 months’ salary. However, the likes of Lagos and Rivers have been consistently impressive with their up to date and full payment of civil servants’ remuneration”, a statement issued by BudgIT read in 2017.
Credit: Aledeh.com
