Spread the love
An air of disenchantment currently envelopes the land and the people desire nothing more than a speedy flicker of hope. At this auspicious time, I am forced to use this medium to appeal to the Governor of Kogi State, Alh. Yahaya Bello, to pay the over twelve months outstanding salaries of workers, gratuities and arrears of monthly pensions of
retired teachers under the purview of the Kogi State universal Basic Education Board.
I have had to write several piece on this issue in the last thirteen months but no action has so far been taken to end
the suffering of these workers who have been subjected to regular verification exercise.
Sadly, this reign of agony is coming against the backdrop of high profile expectations of new direction that appear
to have crash-landed under the weight of needless political shenanigans and the harrowing ordeal of unpaid salaries.
The masses of our people have for years lived on pittance and wages they barely subsist on. The cost of living has outstretched their incomes farther than bearable. Inflation is galloping. Power supply is epileptic. Many have no idea
where the next meal will come from. Our communities need roads, water, modern health facilities and better schools. Many parents cannot afford a decent meal for themselves and their children. Workers who spent their entire life serving the state are consigned to a life of scavenging in old age because their pensions are not paid. Some die
while standing in pension queues, struggling to get their legitimate earnings and what is due to them.
These salient facts are not secret, the government knows, and the citizens are on the edge having borne so much in
silence.
The Kogi scenario can be best captured in that evergreen folklore, where it is said that the people having become tired of the needless squatting of the dog, got annoyed and decided to sell the dog to buy a Monkey, only to then discover that the squatting of the Monkey is even far worse than that of the dog they thought was a burden.
The Yahaya Bello government must be careful not to push the people to that point where they start drawing the above conclusions.
Your excellency, Governorialism is about political wisdom and political wisdom is summed up in the ability of a leader to manage diverse political interests, no matter how primitive and disgusting. Therefore, you must get down to radically restructure the state and not doing the same old things with a new style. After all, like our people have said, if it takes a Man twenty years to rehearse how to go mad, when exactly should we expect him to make it to the Market square.
– Balogun Emmanuel Funsho,
Kabba, Kogi State.
07034444976
Spread the love
