The civil service is the engine of the government in whatever form of government in existence in any country.
If this is how the civil service is held in high esteem, it is therefore an axiom that any government advertently or inadvertently that tries to “toilet-roll” its civil servants does so at its own risk and that of the general public.
Once employed, a civil servant remains permanently in office not without fulfilling the service regulations. He retires meritoriously at the end of his service with all benefits-pension and gratuity. He is not a politician. He is anonymous, loyal to the government in power. As a member of the executive, he knows the nitty gritty of his functions and discharges his duties to the best of his ability until his retirement.
Government comes and goes, he remains in office even though he is obscure and strategic. It often shows the indispensability of the civil service.
In Kogi state, this critical sector of the executive is about to be subjugated by the governor who benefitted enormously from the floodgate of legal quagmire created by the death of the 21st November, 2015 gubernatorial
candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC); Prince Abubakar Audu.
However, since the assumption of office of Gov. Adoza Yahaya Bello, the fortunes of Kogi workers is slowly dwindling and about to take an unfortunate dimension with the mass sacking of State and Local Governments workers following the staff screening and verification exercise led by Brigadier General Paul Olushola Okutimo (Rtd), an act
which the Kogi Central Forecast Group (the senatorial district of the governor) has described as barbaric and a tendency to increase art of criminality; kidnap, torture, murder and thugs in the State in a piece titled “Gov. Yahaya Bello Wins Most Horrible Governor Award, Inducted Into Hall of Shame”
The Kogi Central Forecast Group also maintained that it was these genuine and so called ghost workers Governor Bello used to access the bailout fund from CBN and Federal Government.
In the prevailing economic down turn and cash crunch in the country and the unprecedented level of unemployment, we find it amazing that this Kogi government will deign to resort to a policy that will further exacerbate an already precarious situation.
While some individuals within the government circle defended the action of the government as not done in bad faith, the governor should ponder over the economic implications of its latest anti-people policy. Kogi state is our common heritage. Governor Bello is merely on the driver’s seat, in transit as a caretaker of our common or collective patrimony. To suddenly throw this number of workers into unemployment market in an already saturated labour market without adequate safety net is inhuman, unpatriotic and unacceptable. What is the fate of the workers, their
dependants? Those who rely on them for survival- drivers, traders, carpenters and others too numerous to mention will suffer vicariously. If these people decide to vent their aggression on the society, who is to blame?
Because it is said that power is transient, to use his acronym, AYB should rather tarry a while, reconsider his decision on the sacked workers and suspend further drastic and stringent economic policies against his people.
Kogites deserves better deal from Governor .Y. Bello than the prevailing state of despondency pervading all sectors of Kogi state.
– Balogun Emmanuel Funsho writes from Ilorin.
He can be reached on irule9ja@gmail.com or 07034444976
