Kogi State is popularly called the Confluence State, a nickname it derives from the confluence of River Niger and River Benue, which is at its capital, Lokoja. But the confluence of political negativities coming from the political gladiators in the state is the reason why the state is consistently in the news for bad reasons. With Alhaja Yahya Bello as the governor of the state and Senator Dino Melaye as the senator representing Kogi West in the senate, there is high risk that the duo may spread their horrible ways to otherwise good people of the state.
The narcissistic tendencies of these hitherto friends have brought the state to its knees. Misgovernance has reached its fearsome crescendo in Kogi and insensitivity to plight of the people has assumed an irksome dimension.
Workers are no longer worth their wages and they are not better than beggars. But the governor is more concerned about the Tom and Jerry kind of rivalry between himself and Melaye. The governor thinks the senator is his problem.
And the senator feels launching diatribes consistently at the governor is what he needs to do to be a man of the people. Both Bello and Melaye are problems unto themselves. They are same of the same. Just like six and half a dozen. The two gladiators are huge headache to the people of the state. Before Bello and Melaye fell apart like a pack of cards, they were best of friends.
But the friendship was bonded by hypocrisy. They both found a common enemy in James Faleke, the deputy governorship candidate to late Audu Abubakar. If the election had been concluded, Bello would not have been in any way near the Government House as the governor. For the sake of avoiding unnecessary argument, let me put on the thinking cap of a rational religionist that it was fate that gave the governorship to Bello on a platter, but he should not have betrayed such fate. His only option should have been good governance and service to Kogites as the people of the state are called. But the governor has chosen to be on the wrong side of history by being insensitive to the plight of the workers in the state.
That such a young and lucky man like Bello chose to be on the wrong side of history beggars belief. On August 26, 2016, Bello escaped mob attack at a Jumat service where he was pelted with stones and sachet water by worshippers. By then, he was owing workers in the state eight months salaries.
But today, his debt profile as it relates to workers’ salaries has increased. I doubt if the governor knows the number of months he is owing. His aides have given contrary figures. The workers themselves are confused. The confusion arises from different months being owed different categories of workers.
Those who are lucky are being owed two months but the hapless ones have not received salaries for 18 months. The governor’s heart must be made of stone. Otherwise, how does he sleep when a lot of families go to bed hungry on a daily basis and they have been doing that for months? There are many walking corpses in Kogi. For civil servants in the state, their living condition is forlorn in the very least.
The governor will rather dissipate energy, time and money on how to recall the gadfly Senator Melaye than concern himself with how to clear the backlog of salaries. Rather than facing the reality and admitting that he is a failure and too naive to rule, the governor and his agents have resorted to threats, intimidations, blackmail and outright falsehood against the workers.
Nigerian politicians like populism and Bello is not an exception. Take on the bad teachers in the system and you will get Nigerians talking and singing your praises.And that is the priority of the governor for now. Unashamed populist will always seek to shift attention from social and economic disharmony at home.
A governor who has not shown a modicum of competence in governance may soon find some teachers as scapegoats. Since Bello deemed it necessary to send one of his commissioners to understudy Kaduna’s competence test for teachers even when the dust raised by the issue is yet to settle, he should also send emissaries to understudy how some states have been paying their workers’ salaries as and when due. This, I am sure, will interest Kogites.
I have always known that Melaye’s recurring theatrics and tantrums as well as his ostentatious lifestyle will put him into trouble waters. It baffles as to why it has never occurred to him that his perennial display of his opulence on social media is an open invitation to opprobrium and will make him easy target among his people. His tawdriness even provide amusement in social circle at times.
The senator’s penchant for responding to critical issues in whimsically amusing ways can be so nauseating. His last video asking security agents to investigate why people are poor if they must investigate the rich is just a mere addition to his idiosyncrasies. Questions must be asked if people became rich overnight and there is nothing legitimate to back their sudden wealth.
What will the senator lose if he stops displaying his sumptuous and extravagant lifestyle on social media? Nothing! But his continuous display of opulence will only attract more of Kabba Day treatment in which the senator was attacked and had to be whisked away from the venue of the event. It was learnt that security report prevented the governor from attending the event. Melaye and Bello are not good business for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi State. For the governor, it was a case of once beaten, twice. He had been embarrassed in the past. He came to pray but the worshippers pelted him with stones and sachet water. It happened on August 26, 2016.
The governor’s aides expectedly denied and blamed bad press for what got ample spaces in most major newspapers and have top-billed attractions on radio and television stations.
The denial was typical of the proverbial man that was clubbed one thousand times by a mob but shook them off to give the impression that all was well. Governor Bello is a big disappointment.
Could it be that he is naive, too young to rule or insensitive to the suffering of the workers in the state? With a governor like him in the saddle, a bleak future is in store for the Kogites. I often wonder the kind of advice the so-called coterie of advisers that mill around the governors and top politicians give to their principals. But since most of them exist at the mercy of those that appointed them, they find it convenient to tell their principals only things that will be pleasing to their ears.
I was scandalised that a governor who is owing workers and pensioners would have the temerity and rashness of building a mansion either in the midst of his people or elsewhere and was brazen enough to invite dignitaries to rejoice with him.
An insider described the edifice as “a thing of beauty.” The governor must be fulfilled that his dream home, befitting his status as the number one citizen in his state, is finally here. While the construction of the edifice was ongoing, some residents complained that the governor had converted the street entrance to his private gate but Bello ignored them. Perhaps, it didn’t occur to the residents they now have a very important personality in their midst and his comfort and that of his family is now of utmost priority even if it inconveniences others.
The last time President Muhammadu Buhari had a meeting with the governors, he wondered how some of them sleep while workers and pensioners are groaning under the burden of unpaid salaries. But Governor Bello had proven that he doesn’t only sleep, he snores and have sweet dreams in his mansion.
The building of the house is the height of insensitivity. In talking about five behaviours that create insensitive people, an anonymous writer on a platform: ‘Power of Positivity’, says chemistry is the primary driver of callous behaviour in human beings.
He adds: “Insensitive people have a different brain chemistry than most. Certain mechanisms within their brain just do not permit the conveying of altruism or sensitivity. Most of the time, insensitive people aren’t aware that their behaviours are perceived as such. Even if someone pull them aside and attempts to explain their behaviour as unacceptable or off-putting, the insensitive person will display a sense of bewilderment. Hence, they’ll probably carry on as usual.”
– Waheed Bakare
New Telegraph
