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Where is the 20Billion Naira Bailout Fund approved and released to Kogi State?
This is the big question begging for an answer in the state.
Every government is about income and expenditure, while accountability and transparency is the watch word. Yahaya Bello is operating kogi state in secrecy and public accounts are operated like private business. It is fraudulent for any government not to be accountable on the collective resources of the people. The people have absolute right to know the state of the finances of the state.
The bailout fund is strictly a special intervention for the civil servants. It is not expected to be saved or kept in any unscrupulous account. It is sacrilegious and evil to be killing our civil servants over their rights.
Our people should wake up from their slumber and use every legitimate means to demand for accountability on the 20billion bailout. Noting stop citizens from taking the government to court.
At the Council of State meeting where the decision was taken, Mr. President said emphatically that the bailout would be given to states to enable them to pay liability of salaries. So, Kogites are aware of this fact and which our state governor have also confirmed is to the effect that, that money is meant first to pay the arrears of salaries.
Mr Laolu Akande said “the president made the intervention with the motive and purpose of alleviating the suffering of state workers who were being owed months of unpaid salaries. We don’t want to enter into any argument with any governor on that money (but) as far as the president is concerned, payment of outstanding salaries is the purpose for which the money is meant.”
We thank God for democracy. In a democracy, the principle of accountability holds that government officials—whether elected or appointed by those who have been elected—are responsible to the citizenry for their decisions and actions.
Transparency requires that the decisions and actions of our Governor and that of his cabinet members are open to public scrutiny and that the public has a right to access such information. Both concepts are central to the very idea of democratic governance. Without accountability and transparency, democracy is impossible.
It is obvious Bello has become arbitrary and self-serving therefore the citizens demand immediate answers to some questions:
How much has so far been spent from the bailout fund?
What happened to the five months allocation collected so far by the Governor?
How much is left from the bailout and where is the money deposited ?
The Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, has alleged that the Governor has Fixed the money in some private Accounts. This amount to financial crime. Democracy works best when the people have all the information that the security of the nation permits.
The ordinary citizens of Kogi state are now set to take the battle to the doorstep of our own state governor who fails to pay his workers after collecting the bailout funds and unable to adequately furnished the organized Labour Unions, the Civil Society Community and the good people of Kogi state the whereabouts of the much anticipated Bailout Fund.
Kogi people deserve to know the where about of the bailout fund. They must be informed about how best to determine their affairs and how best to represent and execute them , it is on this note that transparency and accountability are brought to bare.
No one should be able to pull the curtains of secrecy around decisions which can be revealed without injury to the public interest.
Of course, the people themselves also have the right to know about government proceedings and the right to gain access to government information. Interestingly, though, such rights have been entrenched in the laws through FOI Act signed by Jonathan.
Governments that are truly accountable can more effectively prevent corruption, which involves the use of positions of power or privilege for personal enrichment, as NLC Alleged that the bailout is in a Fixed Deposit Account. Therefore, it is high time the government of Kogi state come out boldly and clear the air by detailing the citizens, the NLC and Civil Society group about the whereabouts of our 20Billion Naira Bailout Fund.
– Usman Okai Austin
Abuja, Nigeria
08095555061
08095555061
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