That many of the state’s civil servants and pensioners are yet to be paid their backlog of salaries and allowances despite being cleared at the sham screening exercise being conducted by the state government which has refused to end since its commencement over a year ago is a pointer to the fact the Yahaya Bello administration was sent and installed by the devil himself to come and subject kogi workers to severe starvation, torture and the most dehumanizing condition. If the huge finance available to the state government is anything to go by, it amounts to wickedness and lack of respect for the sanctity of human lives as the government has no justification or excuses whatsoever to continue to withhold payment of arrears of salaries and allowances even after the concerned individuals have been duly cleared.
It is evident that apart from constituting an “army” of semi-literates, internet “rats”, online attack “dogs” and cyber “rodents” headed by the arrogant and “Mr-know-all” himself, in person of Edward Onoja, the chief of staff to the governor, the next thing the present government in the state is pretty good at is organising and acting movies. The script played out a couple of days ago where a large cache of weapons was displayed with some faceless and unnamed bokoharam suspects were paraded in a desperate move to prove a point to kogites and the general public that the state government is making frantic efforts to rid the state of undesirable elements is to say the least shameful and a comedy taken too far, even as the purported arrests of men of the underworld is yet to bring down the level of criminality in the state. The recent kidnap of an Islamic cleric in a mosque in the eastern part of the state few days ago shows that the security situation in the state hasn’t really improved.
Even though events of the recent past has shown that common sense has completely eluded the present occupants of Lord Lugard’s House, governor Yahaya Bello should be properly guided and advised that he can’t expect the security situation of the state to improve when over forty percent of the state’s workforce have been tagged as ghosts and systematically sacked from the civil service, salaries and allowances of many of the already cleared workers and pensioners are still being withheld, all categories of students of the state university, polytechnic, colleges of education, primary and post-primary schools are roaming the streets as a result of the striking workers.
I expect any of the governor’s aide with a little bit of common sense to tell him that the act of turning residents of the state into beggars by throwing money at them around Lokoja, the state capital isn’t only senseless, childish and uncalled for, it is an insult on the sensibility of Kogites and on the intelligence of the suffering and starving civil servants and pensioners. The best way to reach out to the poor masses or connect to with the indigent is to design a social safety program by way of an economic empowerment with the aim of ameliorating or reducing extreme poverty among the down trodden in the state.
The open display of arrogance, indiscipline and lack of decorum by many political office holders and appointees of the state government, some of whom can barely construct an error free sentence in simple English language is worrisome and unfortunate. Appointees of the governor should be properly educated that one of the gains of democracy is that the public can freely express themselves and constructively criticise their leaders in a quest and demand for good governance and dividends of democracy. Insulting elder statesmen and individuals who openly oppose or speak against some of the governor’s policies and actions is immature and wrong. In a video that has gone viral on the social media platform, governor Yahaya Bello was seen saying “let them keep talking, but it will fall on deaf ears. I don’t care” this does not only exposed the tyrannical nature and attitude of the governor, but has shown his shallow level of knowledge and understanding of basic governance principles and the relevance of criticism and a healthy opposition in holding a government accountable to the citizenry and bringing about good governance.
Kogites do not need a deaf governor at this time, governor Yahaya Bello should take some lectures on management, administration, governance and public speaking from elders and experts before the whole state is thrown into a chaos as a result of his utterances, mismanagement and bad policies.
– Hussain Obaro writes from Lokoja, Kogi State
oseniobaro@yahoo.com
