Two matters on my mind this morning; one is the issue of Kogi state becoming or being declared financially bankrupt and secondly, the disgrace of my respected party, All Progressive Congress (APC) and the issue of the foolish decampees.
On the issue of Kogi State being financially bankrupt; all indices on ground have vindicated those that predicted that with the current rate of fraud, embezzlement of public fund spear-headed by Yayaha Bello, Edward Onoja and co, the state will be declared financially bankrupt before the administration clocks 2 years.
Yes, the prophesy is coming to pass. The indices are clear.
For instance, the government cannot pay workers salaries for more than a year. Local government election cannot be conducted because of lack of funds, 90% of contractors have abandoned site because of non-payment of mobilization/contract sums. Local government receiving less than 30% allocations, salaries of political aides not been paid. Ministries, agencies and parastatals of government receiving zero or little running cost allocations.
The unfortunate aspect is that the Governor now fly on private jet, the finance commissioner also fly on private jet. Even the director of media now travels to England just to watch Chelsea FC match. All these at the expense of the state resources.
With over 139 billion received so far, the question still remains; what have they done with these monies or what do the intend to do with the monies? What we should be expecting any moment from now in the state is full blown humanitarian crises, where hunger, poverty and crime will be the order of the day.
On the issue of decampees from other political parties to my dear APC; the basic fact is that is either there is a loss in political common sense reasoning among the decampees or among the people organizing and receiving the decampees.
In the ideal sense, as its done in other states, political decampees from rival political parties are received by the state chairman of the party or any designated officials of the party. But unfortunately, here in Kogi state, the decampees are received by bunch of political liabilities headed by the so-called Edward onoja who is, to the best of my knowledge, the Chief of Staff to the Governor of Kogi State. He is not an official or constituted authority within the APC legal and administrative structure empowered to receive decampees.
To the best of my knowledge, the APC as a party has its structure and is headed by the state chairman, assisted by the vice chairman, local government chairmen, ward chairmen etc.
What is going on currently is not just an illegal decamping ceremony but a slap on the face of democracy and APC as a party. In functional democracies, perpetrators of such acts are supposed to be behind bars.
Also, I urge those decampees to use their common sense in approaching and arriving at political decision. If truly you love the party as you claim, why don’t you join the party in the right way by approaching the state party structure and applying for membership rather than allowing your intelligence to be played upon by desperate and unproductive politicians who actually went without been sent.
As far as APC is concerned, the decampees are not yet APC members, but Yahaya Bello Democratic Party (YBDP) members.
I will now use this medium to call on all those who were politically disoriented via the deceptive acts and actions of the Edward Onoja, both the poor and rich including the honourable member representing my lovely and politically dear constituency, Ankpa 1 at the State Assembly to approach the party state structure for the authentication and validation of their membership status. The decampees are still legally party-less.
– Sam Enemama Akubor
