Today’s disappointing outing by some government officials of our state, Kogi is ineptitude and lack of synergy exhibited at its most embarrassing level. I heard a SA tell the world; ‘ we have spent eight months in the saddle and paid eight months. People who are complaining are ghost workers and workers in diaspora’ That is nothing but a legacy of lies and display of deceit.
To a hungry man, food is God (apologies Ghandi). You don’t tell a hungry man stories, you feed him first; you don’t pontificate to genuine and cleared workers owed eight months of wages, you pay him/her first. Excuses and rationalisation don’t hold water anymore; this is no longer acceptable viewed against the callous claim by some government officials no one is owed salary.
Some people around Gov. Yahaya Bello are not working in his interest and that of the state. They cannot serve themselves and serve the state simultaneously. The future of Kogi state is what we make of today and our future as a state would be bright if we make today bright and bleak if we make today bleak.
Gov. Yahaya Bello should know he is hobnobbing with people working in interests contrary to that of the state and it’s traumatized workforce. It’s an exercise in futility to by fiat declare cleared workers ghosts.
My admonition to the Governor is to look beyond the hailers to realize all is not well on the vexed issue of salaries.
A leader will delegate but not abdicate his duty to friends, followers and admirers. A leader does not grope for the way. Never! Great leaders are not great talkers but great doers. A good leader does not dwell in rhetoric or sweet lines of sycophants but notes the wailing of wailers; a great leader trades in action. He must actuate his rhetoric. It is the action of the leader that propels followers. If the leader is not acting right, followers will stutter in the wrong direction. The bottom line is if it takes other government activity being in pause mode to resolve this screening/salary issue that is becoming intractable, so be it. A template that will bring this nightmare to an end is urgently required.
The Governor should start straining his ears to the wailing and ignore the hailers for now. Wages and salaries are rights and ought not be treated as privileges. The indirect and direct deaths witnessed so far is needless and avoidable. Time to bring the tribulations of genuine and cleared workers to an end is now while keeping pensioners in mind.
– Aiyenigba Olalekan
