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Outright Confusion in Kogi as Assembly Members concedes Legislative Roles, Chase Bogus Contracts, Line up behind Yahaya Bello
The crises of salaries of Kogi workers may linger for sometimes as law makers in the state Assembly who are charged to checkmate the activities of the governor have been induced with contracts and cash from the SDG office in lokoja
Investigation revealed subterranean moves by Governor Yahaya Bello and his aides which infiltrated the state lawmakers into toeing the line of the government to douse opposition from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers who are of the majority in the state Assembly.
It is novel and a misnormer in a state legislative arm for a party in the majority to produce just the deputy speaker and the majority leader at the expense of the speaker of the house and the minority coming from the APC the ruling party
The assembly members penchant for contracts and money have led to series of unressolved petition against the organs of the state in relation to the refusal of government to pay workers and pensioners their entitlements
Governor Yahaya Bello in his usual cunning tactics has cajoled the lawmakers to accept the contracts who unsuspectingly submitted variously companies were most of them are directors a situation which enough to indict the lawmakers, Some of them were given contact to supply brooms, dusters for class rooms raging from One million Naira to One million Seven hundred Thousand Naira.
Workers and pensioners have resorted to protests, fasting and prayers to mitigate the situation through divine intervention as the peoples representatives have turned avarice and stooge to the state government
Thank God, the workers in the state polytechnic lokoja and JAC of all tertiary institutions in kogi state are set for a five days warning strike hence paralysing the activities of the institution for one week.
With the apathy from the lawmakers in the state Assembly the only organ that should act as checks and balances, the state government will have no choice than to deploy all means to checkmate the workers in the state.
Ordinarily, the state Assembly is expected to summon the relevant organs of the state to brief the assembly on the workability of the workers screening but the speaker of the state assembly has been functioning as an appointee of the government with opposition party, the PDP members in the likes of Friday Makama and the rest members lying low for fear of uncertainty, the worrying sided is the inability of some members to even separate legislation from executive as some of them are seeing visibly functioning as more of aide to the Governor and his Chief of Staff instead of effective and efficient Representatives.
The Chief of Staff appeared on the Chanel television representing the state government and effectively communicated the position of the state government on the lingering salaries crisis in the state by demeaning the entire state workforce and labeled the agitation of the tertiary institutions workers as baseless described them as “hirelings” is worrisome and the only Supreme organ that can curtail this excesses is the state Assembly and unfortunately that organ seems sleeping the Assembly has being compromised to the extent that some members record the Assembly proceeding and give it to the Governor just to show their loyalty to the “Oga on top”
They should resolve to always follow due process, make laws that will be beneficial to the state and perform their oversight functions effectively rather than being used as a rubber stamp legislature, in the hands of the Governor
The state Assembly must play vital roles in resolving the ongoing massive sack and half salaries payment to those they claimed are genuine workers.
When the so-called ‘peoples representatives’ on the legislative moral high-ground begin to feel no longer obligated to pay the tribute of obeisance to those who elected them, a dictatorship of the legislature is in the making and that is unacceptable.
The state Assembly has power of oversight over both the executive and the judiciary, its power to authorise Governor Yahaya Bello spending and judicial spending, to initiate impeachment proceedings against Governor Yahaya Bello, to propose and to pass private member bills; to override Governor Yahaya Bello executive recklessness etc but all these seem lacking as the state is being govern like one man empire with Alhaji Yahaya Bello as the emperor.
We are stuck today in Kogi State being used as rubber stamp legislature by the governor
– Usman Okai Austin
Abuja.
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