Kogi State and the “Percentage” System of Government by Funsho Michaels

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Some government workers in Kogi state were analysing the present working conditions of the state during which, they kept on saying “10 percent”, “30 percent” and so on. This made me very curious and inquisitive that I decided to ask them what the percentages they have been mentioning are all about. They told me that that’s how they are being paid and has been long they have received their full salary. Have heard of such occurrence before; if a worker entitled salary is N40, 000, the 20% payment will be N8, 000. Such meagre amount can barely feed a single soul in a month, talk more of a family. So many questions kept on reoccurring in my mind; how can they save, invest, pay fees? Though am aware that economy of the nation is presently in jeopardy, Kogi state government depicts it as if they are having the larger share of the repercussions of the bad economy.

People thought that after voting out the disastrous administration of the erstwhile Governor of the state, Captain Idris Wada, things will fall into pleasant places for them; since one of the vital manifestoes of the deceased contender in the last polls, Late Prince Abubakar Audu was to pay the workers their full salaries as at when due. Howbeit, he was not able to make that a reality but the hope of the people was resuscitated when the “Lucky Governor” Yahaya Bello was sworn-in and immediately announced that he was going to pay the full salary of the workers. The news resulted to jubilation, happiness and change in demeanor but all that became transient after it was found out that the allocated money is not sufficient to pay the full salary.

The Governor has instigated an urgent screening/audit of the workers to sieve out ghost workers which is déjà vu that has yielded subtle result hitherto. I will keenly opine that we look for measures we can increase our Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), weed out corrupt workers and also halt jumbo payments of our politicians.

It is pertinent to know that more than 75% of the Kogites that falls into the “working class’ strata, are mostly government workers, so non-payment of these workers derails the economy of the state from the normal. I look forward to seeing a better Kogi State.

By a concerned citizen

Funsho Michaels

shogatmccoy@gmail.com


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