In one of my published article I took it upon my self to caution the present Kogi State government led by governor Yahaya Bello on the deteriorated conditions of our civil service.
I equally called his difficult attention to the large fact that the processes employed in the screening of the Kogi civil servants is not healthy for the structural arrangement of its parastatals.
But as usual, he still turned deaf ears to me and a thousand of other articles that shared similar ideas.
In the course of this screening several funds meant for the development of the state was aimlessly lavished and the right and the person of our civil servants were not only abuse, but was totally trampled upon.
As if that was not enough, the screening process was a complete parade of incompetence, where people’s results and details were poorly checked and wrongly condemned.
Why this helpless civil servants were trying to cope with all of these, salaries were not paid for months and still an order was given for only the cleared ones to be paid.
This payment was not only carelessly done, it was a lopsided payment that saw few state civil servants paid with the remaining state civil servants and the local government staffs left to continue in their life of “God dey”.
Despite several plea for the payment of those on the cleared list and the consideration of those on the uncleared list, nothing was heard, nothing was said and nothing was done.
For months, no payment was done and when they eventually paid, it was 20% of a single month salary for workers who have not been paid for several months.
For workers who have spend all their penny going to the state capital for an unwarranted screening.
For workers who have been surviving on foods and clothes bought on credit, workers who have been sleeping in houses they are yet to pay rent, for workers whose children are still at home because of school fees, workers whose parents are at the village dying of one illness or the other because there is no money for treatment, workers whose wives are pregnant and about to deliver, workers who have been trekking through out several months.
This is not only painful and torturous,it is a complete modern slavery.
It is inhuman, it is unheard, it is unwarranted, it is unfair, it is unethical, it is irritating and most of all it is demoralising.
The Kogi civil servants are human beings,they have flesh and blood, they have life inside of them and should not be subjected to such torture and dehumanization.
Especially in a state that was given the whole trench of the bail out fund,excess crude fund with public statement of how it borrowed 11 billion naira to pay workers salary.
At some point we are tempted to ask if the Yahaya Bello led government has personal grudges with the state civil servants, because of the level of suffering and wickedness he has carefully and intentionally permitted upon them.
But be that as it may be until normalcy is returned to the Kogi civil service, until all the necessary payments are done with out any agitation, until we can say there was no error in the screening process of the Kogi civil servants. I will state here with out any fear, that so far so bad the Yayaha Bello led government has not only failed the state, but has successfully turned the Kogi civil servants into modern slaves.
– Jacob Unekwu Agada
author, Ebulejonu,
Osogbo, Nigeria.
