A Rebuttal Open Letter To Igala Vanguard On Their Recent Open Letter To Ohinoyi Of Ebiraland (His Royal Majesty Alhaji Ado Ibrahim) Titled: “Call Yahaya Bello To Order”
It amazes me the recent open letter sent by the Igala Vanguard to Ohinoyi of Ebiraland. I was wondering if the Igalas have any shame at all. I expect such letter from the West not the East.
The Igala have manipulated Kogi State since the inception of the State, August 1991 up until the present day to be precise. They have the audacity to write such an open letter to our Royal Majesty. It took me time to analyze and synthesize why they decided to write such an open letter? I will have responded immediately I was still given it some thought.
Kogi State is divided into three major geographical locations the west, the central and the east. As I write, the Igalas are still controlling the State of Kogi yet they have the audacity to ask Ohinoyi to call the Governor to order. The Governor of Kogi States wined and dined with Igalas more than any other ethnicity in Kogi State. As a matter of fact the Governor of the entire State has become the adopted child of the Igalas. It could have been appropriate, if such open letter is addressed to the Atta of Igala not Ohinoyi of Ebiraland. How on earth will they even venture to send such an open letter to Ohinoyi of Ebiraland. I am still perplexed.
Let us look at it point by point. The Deputy Governor comes from the East, the Chief of Staff from the East. The Governor himself is more lenient towards the Igala than any other group in Kogi State. They have more access to the
Governor than Ebiras and Okuns combined. The screening Chairman is from Igala, what does this people of eastern region of Kogi State wanted?
They wanted to eat their cake and have it too.
All the appointments of the Governor, majority of such appointments were all from Igala land to appease them. That includes all his special advisers and commissioners. So tell me, Why does the Igala Vanguard wanted to ask our
Ohinoyi of Ebiraland to call the Governor to order? Mr. Governor you might as well sacked the few Ebiras you appointed as Special advisers and Commissioners and give such positions to the Igalas. I am sure they will still find something wrong with your leadership or they will still not be pleased with you. Governor Yahaya Bello has done more for Igalas than all of their three leaders since the creation of Kogi State. I have said before and I will repeat it again Governor Yahaya Bello is a ceremonial Governor of Kogi State the Igalas are still in charge.
Now in the letter to Ohinoyi, they alluded to the idea that the screening exercise as like witch hunt against the Igala people.
Meanwhile, during the screening exercise they have the largest ghost workers in the entire State if you combined the west and the central they still top the list.
Besides, most of their ghost workers made it back to the list since they finally chaired the screening exercise of which I think it was a wrong move by the Governor to appoint Igala man to chair the screening exercise. Of course that happened as a result of the influence Onoja had on the Governor.
As per current statistical data, of those workers been paid, three months, five months, or seven months up till date, the Igalas were the people who have received the most salary payment.
Again, it is as result of the effort of their Chief of Staff Onoja. It is my view that all legitimate workers who have been successfully screened should be paid with immediate effect by the Governor without further delay. At the same token the Igala will be taken care of first before others, that I am sure of it because they are still in charge.
Let me remind the Igala Vanguard during the creation of Kogi State, they were supposed to be the parasite. Out of the kindness of the West and the Central they were allowed to be the pivotal of the leadership of Kogi State. The agreement that was reached for the leadership of Kogi State on the bases of rotational rule was trashed quickly by the Igalas after they assumed the office of leadership. They are quick to tell you that because they are the majority that is why they are destined to continue to lead the State. Mark you we have Ebira Kotos and Ebira Mozum and other minor ethnicities of Kogites that could have unite together to trash the Igalas but all of these ethnic group were bought by the Igalas.
Leadership should not be by ethnic populace or where you come from, leadership should be who has ability for real leadership.
I will further bring to the notice of Igala Vanguard that their vindictiveness in leadership speaks volumes since the creation of the State.
When the Igalas left Benue to merge with Kogi State, they were the only zone that inflated their workers Salary grade levels. Consequently, they headed their counterparts in Kogi West and Central. That is called Fraud of the highest
order. Suffice it to say that they all get away with such atrocities of mankind, the first executive Governor of Kogi State was the late corrupt Prince Abubakar Audu who by measure of performance did much better than Governor Ibro and Wada combined. All the small development currently in Kogi States was achieved during Audu’s tenure.
Even though he looted a lot, he was still better than Governor Ibro and Wada combined. Late Governor Audu stripped naked the Obangede Nursing School and the hospital Obangede without a challenge by our people. The creation of Local Government was a fairytale where Igala took 9 LGA and the West and the central have to scrabble on the rest of the twelve LGAs of which 7 goes to West and five went to Ebiraland. The allocation of the Local Government was fraudulent from the get go. I still dispute the populations of the east till date.
If the Governor Bello decided to probe the leadership of Ibro and Wada from 2003 to present, which should have been welcome by Igala Vanguard because the only way you can wipe out corruption is to get to the root of the corruptible. Governor Yahaya Bello has come under serious criticism by me quite of resent, because of his lack of sensitivity to issues that matters most to our people. The Igala Vanguard if you truly genuinely love Kogi State the idea of probing our leaders who only came into power to enrich themselves enslaved the people of Kogites should have been something you give Kudos to any leader who will actually do so to correct what was wrong in our dear State. All the stock pile of Kogi Wealth in Dubai, Swiss Banks and other parts of the world will never make it
back to Nigeria. Currently, Malaysia Government is about to auction three planes acquired by Governor Wada because he could not pay for hosting the planes in Malaysia. Those planes were acquired with Kogi State budget. This means the money that could have been used to develop Kogi State has been wasted for the purchase of three of the Boeing 747 that was purchased by Wada during his tenure as Governor.
Patriotic citizens do not defend the criminals just because they come from the same geographical regions with them. We must call a spade a spade, if we all wanted Kogi to progress this convoluted idea that we are born to rule must be
erase from our mindset. We must see ourselves as Kogites first. The issue of Kogi State is much bigger than the individual interest or the Interest of East, the West or Central. Until we begin to look for interest of all Kogites we have a long way to go.
The probing of Governor Ibro and Governor Wada’s administrations is the right thing to do.
After all, the Governor himself has stated that when he lives office who ever took power from him has the right to probe him as well that is what we called transparency.
I urge, all Kogites to have a better interest of Kogi State at heart instead of seeking for individual interest, join me in given constructive critics of our leaders not ethnic divides type of critics. I have boldly criticized Governor Bello; the Igalas also must do the same of their leaders. We are not fools we know and the world knows that Governor Bello’s leadership so far, is geared towards appeasing the Igalas so if you are complaining about him what do you expect the Central and the West to say?
May God Almighty continue to give us the spirit of togetherness as Kogites to fight the plague that has eaten deep into the bones of our dear State! May Kogi State be great!! May our leaders have the fear of God in them to lead the State in the right footing to make great history for all Kogi State Indigenes!!! Amen!!!!
Humbly submitted by:
Joseph Ozigis Akomodi
New York State, USA
