The embattled Governor of Kogi State, Alh. Yahaya Bello is a man assailed on all fronts. Aside the series of cases testing the legitimacy of his mandate in the courts, the man has been disowned by the party that brought him to power, the All Progressives Congress, APC. Little wonder he has been behaving like a tormented warrior, struggling to pull others along in his free fall to infamy and certain ignominy.
To this end, his foot soldiers employing the decadent tools of character assassination and propaganda are on the loose.
On Friday 17th June, two of the Governor’s aides, his Chief of Staff Edward Onoja and Special Adviser Media Abdulmalik Abdukareem were on the African Independent Television, AIT, where they labored hard to disparage former Governor Capt. Idris Wada and labored more tell the world of his achievements within the few months of the administration.
The men raised three issues alleging that Wada mismanaged resources of the state. They accused the aviator of:
– Owing workers in the State Four months salaries.
– Vandalization of Government House properties.
– Not properly applying for bailout funds for the State.
As the remarks were made in the course of an image laundering mission, one is tempted to ignore the traducers and leave them with the burdens of their convictions. But, not with men who are lost to conscience. In order to educate unsuspecting members of the public, we therefore wish to clarify as follows:
1- The circumstances that led to the inability of the Wada administration to meet its financial obligations to workers is well known to all. For the first three and half years of his Four year tenure, the Wada administration paid salaries as and when due. It is also recalled that his administration was one of the earliest to continue the implementation of the minimum wage. Even by early 2015 when allocation started dwindling in the State, the administration devised an ingenious way accessing bank overdrafts to pay the salaries. The administration finally became incapacitated when the state was wickedly exempted from benefitting from the bail out funds on the alter of violated political considerations. Even at that, as at the time the Wada administration was winding up on January 26, three months salaries namely October, November, December, 2015 and not Four as wrongly canvassed were unavoidably outstanding. Governor Wada did not collect the January allocations before vacating office. He cannot therefore, legally and morally be held responsible for its disbursement.
2. The allegation that Capt. Wada looted and vandalized Government properties even to the level of illegally removing stabilizers is not only laughable but satanic. Those who know the former Governor well will acclaim his uncompromising devotion to truth, integrity and due process. His commitment to prudent management of the limited state resources should be more glaring to the people of Kogi as things stand today.
Our take is that in its haste to award contracts for illicit gains, the administration lacks initiatives and must therefore demonize its predecessors in order to create imaginary needs. One of such is the on-going renovation of the Governor’s office at the cost of over Two Billion Naira. It is instructive that the building being renovated for the humongous amount was constructed in 2011 for less than the amount it is being renovated just five years later.
Bello is simply playing the Ostrich hiding under the charge of vandalization to justify the wastage of scarce resources on a gyration.
3. That the Bello men could accuse Capt. Wada of not applying properly for the bailout funds confirms that it is not only an administration eager to reap where it did not sow, but whose soul may well be set on perdition. What with inherited votes!
As mentioned above, the Wada administration applied for the funds and met all the conditions necessary for its disbursement. In fact, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN publicized its approval of N50.8 Billion to the state. It however declined release of the funds for barbaric political chauvinism and allowed our people to suffer untold hardship. The records are there in the public domain. It is too late for this people to now attempt to rewrite our history and pull the wool over our collective memory.
As Bello is claiming to be the mastermind behind the bailout funds we urge him to answer this simple but pertinent questions.
+ How come the figure approved for him is the same figure approved for Capt. Wada?
+ Which House of Assembly approved his application for the funds as required by law? We know as a fact that the law makers have been divided since the early days of Bello’s assumption to power.
+ Which State Executive Council approved the application for loan, again as required by law? To the best of our knowledge, the State did not have an EXCO as at the time funds were released to Bello.
Mr. Bello should mind his business and leave Capt, Wada alone. His attempt to tar the former Governor with the brush of corruption will certainly not distract people’s attention from his own glaring mis-governance.
History is watching us.
– Jacob Edi
Media Advisor to Capt. Idris Wada.
