Look at the fellow in Kogi State. Yahaya Bello, the present Governor of the State, wasn’t even on the initial gubernatorial ticket of the All Progressives Party (APC) at the polls. The late Alhaji Abubakar Audu clinched the APC ticket alongside his running-mate, Hon. James Faleke, but due to a uniquely local play of Kogi political dynamics, the latter’s name was substituted after the death of the principal with Yahaya Bello. He went on to contest and won the governorship. But he has nothing but contempt for the people that elected him.
This morning I learned, from newspaper reports, that Governor Bello has fired 1,774 civil servants, including eight Permanent Secretaries. This is consistent with the flow of negative news, which has been coming in from Lokoja, pertaining to the poor handling of government affairs by the Governor. He tops the list of governors that owe civil servants months of salaries in spite of taking several bail-outs from the Federal Government; in fact, earlier last year a Director in the civil service there who was owed not less than seven months’ salary arrears made front page headlines after committing suicide.
Now he has thrown out thousands of workers into the bleak job market at this time of biting recession. These are people that have dependents facing issues of feeding, schooling and the challenges of health and other deprivations. I thought any government that cannot provide jobs for the people has no right to deprive people of their means of livelihood. But like I said our government appears to strive in repaying public goodwill with insensitivity.
I noticed that Governor Bello has been reassuring the President, who ought to be alarmed at his sheer recklessness, that he was going to deliver far more votes to the APC come next year than it recorded in 2015. I hope the Presidency is smarter than it is letting on. I recall similar assurances in the run up to the 2015 elections in Plateau State. Having made a blunder in the choice of his successor as Governorship candidate under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), setting off an open rebellion within the rank and file of party members, former Governor Jonah Jang, declared he was going to give President Goodluck Jonathan two million votes at the forthcoming Presidential elections.
President Jonathan was swayed by the empty promise and refused to intervene in the imbroglio even after several entreaties from elders of the party. Unfortunately, he realised the truth only about two weeks to the election by which time it was already too late.
Will President Buhari be wiser?
