100 Days of Alhaji Yahaya Bello: Motion Without Movement

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It would be recalled that on the 27th of January, 2016, the Alhaji Yahaya Bello government was inaugurated and since that date, it has become another page in the history of Kogi State. While 100 days in office might not be enough to assess the progress or otherwise of any administration, it is pertinent to note some of the decisions that have been taken under this administration in Kogi State.

The major among others, is the unfortunate demolition of all roundabouts in Lokoja the state capital, the on-going screening of civil servants in the state civil service, the avoidable crisis rocking the State Assembly, which the governor is the shadow party in that conflict, vote of no confidence passed by the Exco of the ruling APC in the state, the current episode where appointed Special Advisers now parade themselves as acting Commissioners in the state which is condemnable , rather he should appoint Commissioners without delay as the state cannot function properly without the state Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice as well as Commissioner of Finance, the suspension of all Permanent Secretaries and Directors of Administration and Finance, including the Head of Service, turning Directors as acting Permanent Secretaries.

While it is the prerogative of any employer to screen or verify its workers, it is a wait and see game as several of such verifications that were conducted since 2012, had not yielded any meaningful result. We therefore call on the current government to conclude this exercise without delay and make the reports public. We call on the Yahaya Belo led government to constitute a judicial panel of inquiry into the past administration in the state, particularly in respect to contract awarded, how much had been paid and the stage of work done as the state is littered with numerous uncompleted projects in all he 21 LGAs of the state, as that would also serve as screening exercise, as screening should not be targeted only at workers.

While we condemn the demolition of roundabouts in the state capital, we urge the government to as a matter of necessity, to commence the reconstruction of demolished roundabouts immediately.

While the parliament is another arm of government, the on-going crisis in the Kogi State House of Assembly is worrisome and condemnable, we urge the governor to put necessary machinery in place, along with other stakeholders, to resolve the matter as quickly as possible, as the continued crisis would affect the state in general.

While we congratulate the governor on his 100 days in office, we urge him to cultivate the habit of broad consultations as governance is not a personal business, so as to encourage the citizens to have sense of belonging.

We also call on the governor to declare his assets publicly so as to restore confidence and boost his credentials and transparency.

It is worrisome that despite that the tenure of the out-going local government councils would come to an end on 6th of May 2016, the agency responsible for the conduct of elections at local government level in the state which is State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC), and the Kogi State Government, is yet to make pronouncement on the preparations or otherwise on the conduct of elections to the local government councils, despite the constitutional pronouncement of this on the process and procedure for such elections.

We therefore call on the current government in the state, not to toe the line of past administrations by appointing care-taker or any such nonsense nomenclature into the leadership of the local government councils. We therefore recommend that the Directors of Local Government (DLGs) at various LGAs be appointed to manage the affairs of the LGAs as provided in the constitution, while the State Government put machinery in place to conduct the elections into the local government councils in Kogi State.

Signed:

Idris Miliki Abdul

Executive Director,

Centre for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution (CHRCR)

Lokoja, Kogi State.

 


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