Democracy is said to be the government of the people, by the people and for the people irrespective of tribe, religion or gender. Without fear of contradiction or an iota of doubt, no other governor in Kogi state since its creation in 1991 has committed himself to selflessly governing the state without ethnic, tribal or religious bias.
While we continue to x-ray the performance of Governor Yahaya Adoza Bello, to come to a conclusion on whether he truly deserves or merited another term or not, we should be guided first of all by the fact that governor Bello inherited a bloated civil service. Successive governments in the state padded the wage bill of the civil service in connivance with a few senior civil servants, in their desperate bid to loot and milk the state’s treasury.
Apart from the fact that the civil service was already crowded with workers, many of whom do not even have or know their job specifications, as they resume under the trees to chat for an hour or two and leave for their various homes, the ‘business venture’ of “ghost” workers in which thousands of names of nonexistent civil servants who cannot be physically traced in the civil service records or identified finds their way into the payroll of the state government while their salaries were siphoned and diverted into private accounts of some top government functionaries and top ranking civil servants was the order of the day, thereby bloating the wage bill of the state.
The “ghost” workers ‘business venture’ which had been in place since creation of the state allowed people in government and their civil servant collaborators to defraud the state by cornering huge sums of money meant for salaries and pension allowances of the nonexistent workers and pensioners into their pockets.
The bastardization of the civil service and looting of the larger part of the padded wage bill virtually crippled the economy of the state to the point that payment of salaries became a challenge, as our treasury could no longer cope with and withstand the level of looting that happened for a long time. In their bid to cover up and conceal their looting and anti-economic deals they started taking loans and incurring needless depths which further pushed the state into an economic mess. The condition of infrastructure became nothing to write home about, the state of our schools became pathetic, our hospitals were reduced into mere consulting offices, our roads became dilapidated, payment of salaries was relegated to the back seat and state owned institutions became decayed.
Despite the declining allocation accruing to the state from the federation account which was occasioned by the dwindling oil revenue, past administrations in the state were too busy looting the state that little or nothing was done in terms of putting measures in place or brainstorming on how best to improve or boost the internally generated revenue [IGR] of the state, which was one of the lowest in the country before governor Yahaya Adoza Bello took over the mantle of leadership.
The inter-tribal tension and distrust that was prevalent in the state before the coming on board of governor Bello was unprecedented in the history of the state. Igala, Ebira, Okun and other tribes in the state sees each other as enemies and rivals rather than as partners in progress for the overall development of our dear state. Tribal hatred, acrimony and animosity were fueled by the wicked policies, actions and inactions of the past governors of the state. Before now, certain positions and appointments like the Chief of Staff, Accountant General, Auditor General, commissioners for Works and those of Finance and Justice were exclusively reserved for individuals or persons who are of the same tribe with the governor, because they were considered too “juicy” to be given to “outsiders”. Major developmental projects were concentrated and deliberately skewed in the senatorial district of the past governors of the state.
Today, all these have changed with Governor Yahaya Adoza Bello at the helm of affairs as governor of the state. We currently have a governor who do not only believe that appointments should be evenly spread among all the tribes in the state but also ensures that competence is place above tribal and religious considerations at all times. For the very first time in our existence as a state, a democratically elected governor appointed a Chief of Staff and commissioner of Finance who do not belong to his tribe. Appointments and location of developmental projects and industries are now evenly spread across the state and this has dowsed the hitherto tribal tension that existed before Governor Yahaya Adoza Bello came into power.
The cleanup of the civil service was a bold step that should be commended by all and sundry in Kogi state as the brave initiative have not only blocked leakages and sanitized the system but it has also helped in cutting down the bloated wage bill and eliminated all forms of corruption. The steady increase and improvement in our IGR is worthy of applause and the relative peace that we currently enjoy in kogi state despite the prevailing general insecurity in the country earns our dear governor plenty of accolades even in the midst of his colleagues.
We fully acknowledge the fact that governor Bello has not performed a hundred percent to the expectation of some people, but kudos must be given to him for all he has been able to achieve within the limited lean financial resources available to him. No government anywhere in the world is perfect or performs a hundred percent, not even in the developed world and advanced democracies. We shall continue to constructively criticize His Excellency in the coming four years and also encourage him to speedily build and improve on what he has achieved in the last four years. 4+4 is the code, GYB continuity is the answer.
– Hussain Obaro
oseniobaro@yahoo.com
