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Any government policy without people’s ownership will always be viewed in differing ways. While some will see it as anti-people, others may criticize the disconnect and latch on that to condemn government and its policy formulators and executors.
In the case of the Kogi State Staff Verification Exercise, the Governor of the State took his time to explain the need to rescue the state from the jugulars of ghost workers and unintended beneficiaries who turned one squirrel to a meal for 1000 men.
Governor Yahaya Bello had two options. He had the option of toeing the failed path of the past, put up with the fraud and failings of the civil service, pay them 40% of their salaries and box himself to a nonperformance ring-corner and bow out as another failed Governor.
The second option was to grab the bull by the horn, dare the devilish cabal, throw out ghost names and unintended beneficiaries from the payrolls of the State Government and save funds for roads, healthcare, education, water and agricultural development.
As a publicist, I know the second choice may spark temporary unpopularity. But in the long run, people will appreciate the courage and wisdom of rescuing Kogi State from the hyenas of ghost workers and their propagandist lackeys. Governor Yahaya Bello chose the patriotic path and defied those who wanted him to play politics with the future and survival of Kogi State.
As a government that listens, the New Direction Administration is the closest to the people when it comes to communication. No government in the history of the state has communicated more with the people than the Yahaya Bello administration. We have used the electronic, print and new media to reach the people and hear from the people. The Governor has made it inexcusable for his media team to fail. But beyond that, he has taken the driver’s seat through his program, Bello At Your Service. Through BAYS, the Governor speaks directly to his people. His Chief of Staff, Hon. Edward David Onoja has always been a powerful communicator, taking his time to explain government policies. Everyone in the digital government is talking to the people.
The reason for our well coordinated communication is to thrust the people at the centre of what we do, bring them to tune with why we do what we do and when, to mitigate against misinformation.
On the screening exercise, we have communicated to the people. While many see it as an absolute necessity, others feel, out of selfishness, there should be absolute absolution from crimes committed!
We are not so bereft of the reality of the potency of fraud to fight any system that tends to work against it. The cartel has stupendous war chest to pay even the uninformed propagandists to put up a big resistance against the government.
I am encouraged by some comments on my Facebook account recently and my conversation with labour leaders. The people agree that the civil service was encumbered by the wet logs of fraud. They also agree that the ticks on the body of the civil service must be removed for it to be comfortable. These are very strong public support and we are not taking them for granted.
But has the exercise come with some discomfort? Yes. We are in touch with the grassroots. This government has its ears on the ground. We hear your voices. We share your pains. We feel sorry about the pains our people, especially the genuine workers, went through in order for us to get it right. It is unfortunate. Regrettable. But that is the more reason we must get it right. Hopefully, it will end with March.
Our heart also go to those who lost their lives during the process either through accident or other hazards. We have the records. We feel sad about it. We feel sadder that the system was left in ruins for this long. And saddest that thousands others had died because of the inability of the state to strengthen healthcare delivery as a result of billions wasted on ghost workers and unintended beneficiaries in the past years. They won’t die in vain.
The biggest beneficiaries of the screening exercise are the people. The rot is humongous as the civil service was a cesspit of corruption. How can we explain the employment of a primary school certificate holder to teach primary school pupils? How can we explain the employment of a school certificate holder as a Medical Officer and placed on GL 13? How can we explain the grossly incompetent hands manning our institutions and agencies across the state? Those who superintended over this show of shame should apologize to the Kogi people rather than dissipate their energies on attacking the correction of their failures.
Two questions are dominating the currency mast of the exercise now. When will the exercise end? When will workers be paid?
One, the Screening Appeals Committee will surely submit their reports to the Governor by the end of March. The Governor has given a deadline and has urged the committee to deliver. On payment, I am aware payments have been going on, including payment to pensioners. Salary arrears of newly cleared staff will also be cleared over a period of time.
We are pained by the ongoing strike by our tertiary educational institutions. We have looked at their demands and the Governor is already addressing them. The Governor is in line with some of their demands and feels holistic steps must be taken to solve the problems once and for all. Recently, he constituted the Governing Councils of the institutions to meet one of the core demands of the unions. Going forward, the coast is clearer. We are not unconcerned about the plights of the students. This government will ensure all processes will be followed through to ensure stable academic system in our tertiary institutions.
I am excited by what the present administration could achieve with funds saved from plugging the fritter pipes of paying ghost workers and unintended beneficiaries. I am excited by the prospect of having an efficient and effective civil service. I am excited by the prospect of digitalizing the civil service through electronic clock in and clock out devices to control truancy and a database that will tell government everything they need to know about the a civil servant such as personal information and retirement date. This will help our planning, as civil servants will be able to take their gratuities within few months of retirement.
We are hopeful of a better Kogi State under Governor Yahaya Bello. The Governor owes God and the people a solid performance. He is working hard to make Kogi State better for us all. Labour leaders admitted that the biggest achievement of the staff Verification is not just in the billions the state would save from it, but the benefit of attitudinal change on the part of the people and the civil servants that things must be done right.
Governor Yahaya Bello has demonstrated uncommon leadership. He prefers the survival of Kogi State to even his own political survival. He is honest, focused, patriotic and undaunted by criticism when he is convinced of the genuineness of his cause. He is fearless and he thinks of the people, all the time.
What we lacked in the past is what we have. But the past won’t accept this humiliation of their history. They are fighting tooth and nail to justify their failure. Many are already afraid of the manner and ease with which the government is breaking barriers and creating records.
We know that what we save from the reforms will not be enough to build a Kogi of New Direction standards, but we have upped the ante by repositioning our Board of Internal Revenue to deliver the good. With an architectural edifice that is one of our achievements so far, they are poised for greatness. For the first time in December, Kogi’s IGR hit an all-time high of one billion naira. Before this administration came on board, our IGR was hovering between 350 and 400 million naira.
The reason behind the magic was not about inflicting new and harsher taxes, this government won’t do that. The secret was the anti corruption stance of the Yahaya Bello administration. People now know that with the new Sheriff in town, you can’t steal the Commonwealth of the people. Leadership!
Let us continue to pray for him. He means well. He listens.
– Kingsley Fanwo is the Director General on Media and Publicity to the Governor of Kogi State.
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