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Tag: Bello

  • Bello in the eye of storm

    Bello in the eye of storm

    Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello is in the eye of the storm. His ‘New Direction Agenda’ has been criticised by stakeholders who berate him for lack of focus. Although the governor has recorded some achievements, critics say his performance is below expectation. Correspondent JAMES AZANIA examines the style of the governor, which has pitched him against the stakeholders.

    Since he assumed duties, Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello has not had peace.

    The governor of the Confluence State has been swimming in the pool of controversy. His supporters and adversaries are locked in a media war.

    The opposition against Bello has increased, following the alleged attempt on the life of Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi West), in which the federal legislator accused the Administrator of Ijumu Local Government Area and chairman of the Association of Local Government (ALGON), Taufiq Isa, of being the mastermind.

    The adversaries of Governor Bello, including Chief James Faleke, the running mate to the late Prince Abubakar Audu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) flag bearer in the November 21, 2015 governorship election, erstwhile APC Board of Trustees (BoT) member and former Acting Governor Clarence Olafemi, Dr Alex Kadiri and other party stalwarts have reported him to the APC national leadership. Urging the leaders to call the governor to order, they warned that his style of governance may cripple the chapter.

    The governor’s camp has, however, maintained that it is not at war with anyone, even as it continues to solicit support from stakeholders, to move the state forward. Although some of the challenges confronting the administration preceded it, the circumstances leading to Bello’s ascension have generated bitterness.

    Kogi has been beset with a bloated workforce. This was caused by previous administrations, including that of former Governor Idris Wada, who acknowledged same during the twilight of his administration. He, like others before him, however, chose to let things be, to the extent that the little problem of yesterday had grown into an albatross, and threatening to grind the wheel of government to a standstill. This, was the delicate situation when Bello came into office, which has now been aggravated by not to recession.

    Bello at the onset would probably count Hon. Faleke among his foes. But, there was no riff between him and Melaye.

    It appeared that the latter would tarry a while at the corridors of the Kogi State Government House. For he, it was at the Lokoja Confluence Stadium, on January 27, 2016, who described Bello to as the “God-chosen Governor of Kogi, adding that whoever fights Bello will be fighting God. But, events appear to have come full circle, with Melaye donning toga of opposition to the ruling party, even as analysts of political events in Kogi maintain that he presided over the choice of persons into strategic offices, including that of the Secretary to the ministries and boards.

    Events were to snowball, with unrestrained attacks from both divides, further stoking the ember of distrust within the rank and file of bigwigs. The APC national leadership has appealed to the warring chieftains to embrace truce so that peace and harmony can return to the chapter.

    While Bello said he was ready for peace, those fighting him do not trust him.

    Speaking under the condition of anonymity, a party stalwart from the West Senatorial district said the governor should change his style.

    “The governor’s camp makes it look like it is interested in a round-table talk, but that is neither here nor there. They want to discuss on their own terms, which cannot be. They are holding the cake they did not bake, and they seek to use the knife they do not have to share it.”

    From the camps of Senator Melaye, Hon. Faleke, Dr Alex Kadiri and other powerful forces are allegations of financial recklessness against the governor including the frizzling of N220 billion last year. They said Bello had wasted federal allocations to the state; N10 billion infrastructural development funds, N30 billion bailout fund and over N11 billion Parish Club excess refund.

    Melaye has insisted that his disagreement with the governor was not for selfish reasons, but in the interest of the state and its people. He accused Bello of disregard for due process, refusal by the government to pay primary school teachers, piecemeal payment of salary  and pitching the workers against one other. Another offence listed by the critics during their presentations in Abuja was spending money on “cars for SAs and other people”.

    While the government had said it did not owe salary for over 12 months, the aggrieved stakeholders insisted that the claim was untrue.

    A source said: “Onoja (Chief of Staff) admitted the government owed 12 months, but some are being owed 16 months. Since he assumed duties, he may say he has paid you N100,000, but in the  bank alert on your phone, you will see N30,000… No local government has seen allocation paper, they only see what they see”.

    The government has been showcasing its achievements, including the upward swing in internally generated revenue (IGR), roads and other infrastructural projects spread across the three senatorial districts, tackling criminality, kidnapping and armed robbery, landscaping of the state capital, Lokoja, and others.

    Bello’s media aide, Kingsley Fanwo, said: “We are not at war with anyone. They said we are not paying salaries, we silenced them by publishing what we have paid to each worker, month by month. They alleged we are owing 16 months but the published facts show we have cleared workers’ salary except that of April.

    ‘’The operational vehicles provided for political office holders are to be used to render service to the people of Kogi State and not for luxury. What good governance could brings to the state far outweighs the cost of those vehicles. All state governments provide operational vehicles for their officials.

    “Those allegations represent the height of hypocrisy. They are concealing their real grouses. They were not comfortable with the manner the governor changed the political setting of the state by bringing relatively unknown persons, but highly resourceful and competent, to drive his New Direction Agenda. The political establishment felt they should keep recommending their stooges for political appointments. Two, Governor Yahaya Bello is President Muhammadu Buhari’s version of an incorruptible leadership in Kogi State.

    “He has closed the waste of resources into private pockets and have lived up to his promise to use Kogi’s resources for the Kogi people. It is no more business as usual for the dealers who parade themselves as leaders.”

    He continued: “The ultimate trigger is the 2019 political calculations. Some people are bent on remaining relevant beyond 2019, despite their glaring failings. They thought they could bully the state authorities to submission. I also think they are shocked that we have largely ignored their distractive plans. The Governor will remain focused in unlocking the opportunities that abound in Kogi for greatness. He will continue to accommodate all because as the father of all in Kogi, he will continue to lead right without discrimination. All those pulling the state down are not hurting only the governor, but the entire people of Kogi State, who believe in the New Direction for purposeful leadership and development.”

  • Bello hailed for settling FADAMA backlog

    Bello hailed for settling FADAMA backlog

    Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello has been hailed for settling the over N55 million FADAMA owed by the last administration of Governor Idris Wada.
    Coordinator of the Kogi State Project (SPC), Mr. Paul Ogunmola, gave the praise at the opening of a two-day media visit to the FADAMA III Additional Financing (AF) sub-project sites. He explained that Bello also settled the 2016 counterpart funding, which qualified Kogi for the final slate, before any possible review and extension of the programme by the World Bank.
    “We appreciate Governor Yahaya Bello for paying the backlog of counterpart funding, which was last paid in 2014, and has continued to do so with over N55 million yearly,” Ogunmola noted.

  • Saraki, Bello, Atiku, Mark, Lagos NUJ mourn ex-Daily Times MD

    Saraki, Bello, Atiku, Mark, Lagos NUJ mourn ex-Daily Times MD

    Senate President  Abubakar Bukola Saraki,Kogi State Governor Yahaya  and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Nigeria Union of Journalists, Lagos State Council, yesterday expressed sadness over the death of a former Managing Director of the Daily Times of Nigeria, Dr. Adinoyi Ojo Onukaba.
    He was allegedly knocked down by a vehicle while escaping a armed robbery blockade.
    Saraki, in a statement by his Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, described Onukaba as a quintessential intellectual, consummate administrator, complete gentleman and a detribalised Nigerian.
    According to Saraki, Onukaba would be missed for his contributions to the country’s growth, both in the media, literary and political fields.
    He commiserated with his immediate family, the government and people of Kogi State over the “untimely death of their dear son and a true Nigerian”.
    Urging his family to take solace in the fact that Onukaba served his country excellently and left his footprints on the sands of time, he prayed God to grant the soul of the deceased eternal rest.
    Bello commiserated with the people of the state and family of the late journalist and former Kogi governorship aspirant, Dr. Adinoyi Ojo Onukaba, on his death.
    The Kogi State governor, in a statement yesterday by his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Petra Akinti Onyegbule, said Onukaba’s death was hard for the people, coming barely after a year of the loss of another illustrious son of the state and former Minister of State for Labour James Ocholi.
    The statement read: “This is especially sad and painful coming on the first anniversary of the death of another illustrious Kogi son and legal luminary, Barrister James Ocholi, SAN, who died in active service.”
    He prayed that God should put a stop to such loss of prominent indigenes in their prime.
    He added: “Onukaba was a rare gem, a sound mind and a technocrat per excellence. He will be sorely missed for his kind-heartedness. He has done things definitely worth writing about and written things worth reading, and as such, can never be forgotten in coming generations.”
    He prayed that Allah comfort his family and grant repose to the soul of the departed.
    Mark described the death of the frontline journalist and playwright as devastating .
    He noted that the late journalist was a patriotic Nigerian who worked  and believed in the sanctity of the unity and peace of the nation.
    The former Senate President spoke through a statement by his Media Assistant, Paul Mumeh.
    Mark recalled the contributions of Onukaba, especially to the literary community and submitted that the late author was one of the brightest and fertile minds in the contemporary history of Nigeria.
    Atiku described the late Onukaba Adenoyi-Ojo as a loyal and an irreplaceable asset and a great loss to the journalism profession.
    In a condolence message from his media office in Abuja, the former vice president described his death as shocking, painful and beyond words, adding that he saw him right before he travelled out of Abuja.
    He said: “Onukaba was at my house just on Friday. He visited me just before travelling out of Abuja. I had no idea that it was the last time I would ever set eyes on him.”
    Nigeria Union of Journalists, Lagos State Council, described the untimely death of Onukaba, as a great loss to journalism profession.
    Lagos NUJ Chairman Deji Elumoye, in a tribute yesterday, said the late writer’s experience as a quintessential journalist will be missed, saying that his death through motor accident was regrettable.
    Praying to God to grant his immediate family the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss, Elumoye noted that Adinoyi-Ojo, as a seasoned journalist who was very active as a member of The Guardian chapel of Lagos NUJ some years back, “also tried all his possible best to ensure that welfare of journalists and other workers was a priority while he held sway as Daily Times MD few years back”

    He said the late journalist rose through the ranks and got to the pinnacle of his professional calling before venturing into politics, where he also made his mark, especially in his home state, Kogi State, where he tried twice in the past to be the governor.
    Elumoye said the death of the veteran journalist through motor accident showed the deplorable condition of the federal roads across the country and called on government to effect timely repairs of these highways “so as to reduce cases of accident and untimely death of people”.

  • Bello: Taming the tides of insecurity in Kogi

    Bello: Taming the tides of insecurity in Kogi

    As we journeyed from Lokoja to Okene enroute to Akure for the swearing-in ceremony of the Ondo State Governor-elect, Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), my mind dwelt on a number of things that have changed in my journeys along the familiar road with deep reflections on the innate capacity of purposeful leadership to fully transform failing infrastructures for people’s benefit. I realised once again how much our everyday life is affected by governance, anchored on leadership or the lack of it, and how inexorably linked our access to infrastructure is to our living standards and what difference a visionary leadership could make in a short period of time.

    Being from Ogori, Kogi State the road is one I had plied very frequently. And as we moved smoothly and swiftly for that matter, I recalled how torturous transiting through this road used to be few months down the fading past. The experience was always a nasty one with intermittent descent into wide gullies bestriding the un-motorable road amidst insecure grunts of apprehension. As my mind lingered on the ease and comfort now experienced on the road, compared with what obtained in the not too distant past, I became suddenly overcome with emotions and overwhelmed with deserving appreciation to His Excellency, Governor Yahaya Bello from the hordes of social commentators who are frequent users of the road.

    Of the several journeys through that road that I can remember, there has never been one that felt like this one. The journey was smooth and quick. There have been several leaders at the helm of affairs in our dear Kogi State, but I make bold to say none has given this road this much attention at renewal, no one, not even close. Never mind the question of the consistent window dressing of majority of our prominent roads by successive administrations with purchased or rented crowds to cheer the leaders for variegated political plaudits at the bogus commissioning –those are plays upon the stage. What is truly unprecedented in the mind of the patriotic and discerning Kogi people is the propelling love of the people by the governor, the desire to improve on their access to functional road infrastructure, and the sheer magnitude of quickening heartbeats in millions of Kogi people who are filled with appreciation for the uncommon transformation of their once ruined road networks which they hitherto plied largely buffeted within and without by the simmering ache of dread.

    In a similar vein, I have never seen transformation so vivid with clear evidence of committed work and applauded performance so unencumbered by questions of divisiveness, tribalism, and other base considerations.

    One thing about performance is that it cuts across all the people as ultimate beneficiaries without undue interference by a tangled web of conflicting interests. Despite the pageantry of unity that accompanies any accomplishment that cuts across everyone in Kogi State, there is a piercing sense of fulfilment that touches close to home that the one doing these exploits is the revolutionary game-changer governor.

    Apart from the cogent and limitless benefits to travellers on this road and many others in form of easy and comfortable drive, less wear and tear on vehicles and the tyres, faster and safer travels, there is a more important reason why people of good conscience continue to applaud the Governor Bello for working on the road: this is the improvement brought on the security apparatus – something that earned him recognition as the governor with the greatest strides in security improvement in the country in the past year.

    It should be recalled that these bad roads hitherto contributed to the insecurity challenges faced by the state as they made it easy for robberies and kidnaps to happen unfettered on that axis. Journeys on that route were previously characterised by reasonable apprehension, palpable fear of imminent danger over carefully orchestrated robbery ambushes and hostage-taking owing to the slowness of journeys accentuated by structurally defective road infrastructure.

    This move to further improve on security which the Bello administration considers as priority was informed by intelligence reports that criminals hide behind bushes along the roads to perpetuate crime. And so in line with the Kogi State government’s unalloyed commitment to ensuring security, the governor directed a construction company to be engaged to clear five metres on both sides of the roads from Kabba Junction to Otite in Okehi LGA; Check Point in Okene LGA to Okpela; from Check Point in Okene LGA to Ajaokuta to assist the road networks, open up the lingering hideout of criminals on that route and ultimately contribute to nipping insecurity challenges in the bud once and for all.

    The second phase of the road clearing and widening project is billed to commence from Kabba Junction through Odo-Ape to Kabba Town while the third phase will equally commence from Lokoja through Ganaja to Ajaokuta Township and the link road between Igalamela/Odolu to Ofu and several internal road path in Omala LGA which have been previously considered to be flashpoints for the unbridled infestation of crime in the state.

    It is instructive to note that the Kogi State government has completed the clearing of the roadsides between Koton-karfe and Abaji in fulfilment of the administration’s strides towards delivering on its promises to improve on the road networks and ensuring the security of lives and property of the commuters in a continuous bid to making Kogi safer and more secure.

    The fact that one of the multi-dimensional approaches the Bello-led administration is taking to curb insecurity challenge in Kogi State is to improve on the road network confirms his faultless genius as solving the people’s peculiar infrastructural challenges and delivering the dividends of democracy to all Kogi people irrespective of their political affiliation despite the limitation of resources. It is worthy of note that these worthwhile huge investments in the road and security infrastructure is already paying off as seen in the substantial improvement of security in the state.

    One can only wish the hard-working, diligent, extremely focused governor, Alhaji Yahaya Adoza Bello, more wisdom, strength and sound health as he continues in his laudable efforts towards repositioning the state as contained in the New Direction Blueprint in the years ahead.

    •Onyegbule is Chief Press Secretary to Kogi governor.

  • How to ensure speedy criminal trial, by Onnoghen, Bello

    How to ensure speedy criminal trial, by Onnoghen, Bello

    The Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen and the Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Justice Ishaq Bello yesterday suggested ways of ensuring speedy trials in the nation’s courts.

    They said the general application of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015 was a sure way of ensuring speedy trials and prompt disposal criminal cases.

    They advocated the domestication of the Act by all states.

    Onnoghen and Bello spoke in Abuja yesterday at the opening of a two-day conference for judges and stakeholders in the criminal justice sector tagged: “Judicial Colloquium on Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015,” organised by the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (CSLS).

    Represented by Justice Mary Peter Odili (of the Supreme Court), Justice Onnoghen identified the innovative provisions of the Act, which he said would aid prompt trials of criminal cases if fully applied.

    The Acting CJN noted that from objectives of the Act, as reflected in Section 1,  it is imperative all states domesticate the ACJA.

    “It is common knowledge that, Nigeria, alongside other developing countries, is moving away from a punitive criminal justice system to a restorative one that recognises the various needs of society and is determined to protect the rights of her citizens, including the defendants, the victims and vulnerable persons.

    “One beautiful features of the ACJA is the provision of a monitoring committee to ensure that the provisions of the Act are effectively complied with by all stakeholders of the criminal justice system – judges, prison staff, police officers, social workers, the victims and defendants,” the Acting CJN said.

    He praised the event’s organiser, the CSLS, for it commitment to the campaign for full application of the ACJA.

    Justice Onnoghen noted that the CSLS  was instrumental to the creation of the law, including its involvement in the drafting of the Bill,  its development and advocacy, leading to its passage and signing in 2015.

    Justice Bello urged  participants at the event – judges and states’ directors of Public Prosecutions – to adopt the ACJA and modify it to suit their local environment in order to ensure “uniformity of the criminal justice system”.

    He said the ACJA  had an added advantage of making prosecution easy.

    “May be you are a policeman, a prosecutor in various states from Ibadan to Ondo or Kaduna, you find out that substantially, the criminal justice system is the same.

    “It makes it easy for the prosecution and the courts either for the magistrates or the judges,” the FCT CJ said.

    He said, in line with the Act, courts in the FCT no longer take arguments on application challenging the competence of a charge.

    “This is because at that stage when the plea has not been taken the court has yet to have dominion over the charges.

    “It is not likely that the court will consider arguments that there is no nexus between offences and the defendants when the charges are not yet before the court.

    “The defendant has opportunity to raise the issue through a no-case submission when the prosecution will have concluded its case and the court will be able to review the evidence.

    “So even if argument is taken on the objection before plea is taken the ruling will be reserved till the end of the trial.

    “At that stage the court will be able to take a holistic view of the evidence adduced in the case and if the application succeeds the case ends there.

    “So we need to be more pragmatic. It is high time we cultivated the spirit of the Act.”

    The President of the CSLS, Prof. Akinseye-George, expressed delight that more states were beginning to appreciate the Act and have domesticated it.

    “At the last count, not less than seven states have enacted the Administration of Criminal Justice Law.

    “These do not include Lagos State which set the pace for the entire country by being the first state to enact the Administration of Criminal Justice Law in 2007 and again in 2011 when it passed a revised version of the same law. Others are Anambra, Ekiti, Ondo, Enugu, Oyo and Rivers states.

    “These and the FCT are now referred to as ACJA compliant jurisdictions. Several others are at various stages in the process of passing the legislation. These include Kwara, Kaduna and others,” Prof Alinseye-George said.

    A Deputy Director at MacArthur Foundation (one of the foreign agencies supporting justice sector reform in the country) DayoOlaide called for a sustained effort to ensure the full implementation of the ACJA nationwide.

    The two-day conference ends today.

  • People’re suffering under Bello, says Faleke

    People’re suffering under Bello, says Faleke

    All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirant in Kogi State, James Faleke, has passed a vote of no confidence in Governor Yahaya Bello. According to him, the people are dying of hunger because of Bello’s leadership style.
    Faleke, who led a group, comprising former ministers, former ambassadors, former National Assembly members and other stakeholders from the state to the office of the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, said state stopped working since Bello assumed office.
    He addressed state house correspondents at the end of the closed door meeting with Osinbajo.
    Faleke said Bello’s unsavory actions were inimical to the future of the APC in the state.
    He said: “We came to let the Federal Government know what is happening in Kogi as regards the party’s fortune – how it continues to dwindle daily, the people’s welfare and their relationship with the government.
    “We have come to let the presidency know so that when elections come and the party loses, no one will be blamed. We want the Federal Government to intervene to find a way forward.
    “The governor should recognise those who work for the party’s success. It is one thing to be victorious in court and another to carry the people along. I urge the governor to carry the people along.
    “This is the fifth time he is setting up a committee to review staff strength, with so many screenings every day. People are dying; you ask people to come from the 21 councils to Lokoja to present their documents, some of them are dying in accidents.
    “If he is not sure, he should set up a better frame rather than this recurrent approach. He condemned all reports sent to him, though he set them up. Now, another committee has been set up for the same purpose.
    “We get calls every day from workers and pupils that their parents have not been paid for months. So, we want him to stop this because this is not the only way to stop ghost workers and it shouldn’t be the last. I’m not against eradication of ghost workers, but it shouldn’t be done to the detriment of the people,” Faleke said.
    He said the delegation was satisfied with Osinbajo’s response.

  • 48-hour cargo clearance stays, says Bello

    To ensure ports’ competitiveness, 48-hour clearance of goods must be complied with, Executive Secretary Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Mr Hassan Bello, has said.

    Speaking with The Nation in his office, Bello said the deadline was the only way to free the ports and make them attractive for business.

    He said the council was established to regulate tariffs, charges, dues, rates and quality of services

    He, therefore, sought an amendment of the NSC Act to strengthen its control of traffic, rates and related economic charges at the ports to make them the hub in the sub-region.

    “The Act establishing the NSC needs to be amended by the National Assembly to enable it to enforce fair trade practices to protect rights and balance interest of providers and users of ports services as it is required to do in Section 3 of its establishment Act,” Bello said.

    According to him, the council’s aim was to provide more platforms for quick cargo clearance to make the ports more efficient next year.

    He urged stakeholders to resolve the challenges of quick cargo clearance, saying: “The idea is that the NSC is the referee in this friendly contest, and the more we interact with the terminal operators, other service providers and government agencies, the better understanding we will get and the more robust our ports would be.”

    This year, Bello said, the council would focus on generating more revenue for the government through price control, trade facilitation and quick cargo clearance.

  • Bello: no godfather to spend state resources on

    Bello: no godfather to spend state resources on

    The Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, has said the state resources will be used for the benefit of the people because he has no political godfather to service with the fund.

    Bello addressed reporters in Lokoja as part of activities to mark his one year in office.

    According to him, his administration sought God’s intervention for good governance upon assumption of office and, having thought of the way forward, applied common sense which is now making the state better.

    He reiterated that in as much as the state is not corrupt, resources from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) will always be available for services.

    His words: “Like I said, we were somewhere watching and observing our dear state. But since we came in, we sought God to assist us, and He did. We wore our thinking caps and applied common sense, and we’re getting better.

    “It’s common sense that if there’s no corruption, resources will be available. It’s common sense that when you tap into your internally generated revenue, there will be resources and, as such, all we need to do is to apply it to get things done.

    “If you don’t have godfathers that you service periodically through the coffers of the state, the resources will be available for the state. I can assure you I don’t have any, so why won’t I use the resources for the people?”

    Bello hinted that the government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to provide electricity, noting that before his tenure ends, Kogi would have sufficient power to attract investors.

    “We have the land and we have designated certain places as industrial areas. The land is fertile, and we’ll prepare it for investors to come.

    “I’m sure before the end of the first quarter of this year, a lot of them would have sprung up because they are more or less falling onto each other now to come and invest.”

    Governor Bello added that the state is taking advantage of its waters to develop agriculture in order to create jobs and wealth for its citizenry, which prompted his trip to Omi dam.

    He saidthe state declared a state of emergency on agriculture, which is expected to yield positive results in the next one year.

    On accusations that he bought vehicles for his aides without paying workers, Bello explained that he inherited a state where the last administration collected about five months federal allocation, with the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), without paying workers and contractors.

    He vowed that the state “shall recover every single dime”.

    “We came on board and cleared the minimum of that five months arrears. Because of the screening, as they cleared, we paid. Apart from a few cases, Kogi paid workers both current and arrears before December 20, so we’re up to date. Let me set the record straight.

    “We purchased vehicles aspart of security infrastructure. That is why Kogites can go to bed with their eyes closed; that is why both northerners and southerners that traverse Kogi will not travel with the fear of molestation by robbers or kidnappers.

    “It is evident and everybody is seeing it. In any case, we applied our ingenuity and common sense, and I can tell you from that particular transaction, we saved over N1.5 billion.

    “In other climes, they will claim that N1.5 billion and share it among themselves, but I said zero tolerance to corruption. We won’t allow that to happen,” the governor added.

     

  • Bello inaugurates verification appeal committee

    Bello inaugurates verification appeal committee

    Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello has inaugurated a 32-man Screening Complain and Appeal Committee to look into the cases of workers whose names appeared in the unclear list and those who did not appear in either cleared or unclear list of the workers’ verification committee.
    The governor reiterated that no genuine worker or pensioner will be short-changed in the effort to reform the civil service.
    Bello urged the committee to do a good job and submit a comprehensive report in six weeks.
    The governor regretted the inconvenience the verification may cause workers, noting that his government is not insensitive to the plight of workers.
    “The civil service is known to be the engine room of any government, and where the engine is not effective as a result of existing  anomalies, government will not function properly, and that is what we want to address in the interest of the state and its people. “The state had stagnated for too long and we have to change it for better. We are desirous of ensuring that nobody is short-changed in the process of the civil service reformation. That is why we have constituted this committee to attend to genuine complaints with a view to address them,” Bello said.
    Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Folashade Arike said the appeal committee would be the end of the workers’ screening. She called on those whose names appeared on the uncleared list but have genuine complaints to forward it to the committee.
    Committee Chairman Mr. John Yila Ayuba promised that the committee will do a credible job.

  • Farce and incompetence in Bello’s Kogi

    Farce and incompetence in Bello’s Kogi

    GOVERNOR Yahaya Bello, the so-called digital governor of Kogi State, spent the better part of one year and two successive panels screening the state’s workforce for ghost workers. After he brought the exercise he described as staff verification to an inglorious conclusion a few weeks ago, claiming with fanfare to have discovered over 18,000 ghost workers out of a little over 27,000 state staff roll, it was clear he was working to a predetermined answer. The verification exercise was riddled with contradictions and gross ineptitude, salary payment itself is still haphazard, deductions lack arithmetic and financial coherence, and the governor is engaged in a war of attrition with institutions and agencies for the purpose of getting as many workers as possible struck off the payroll, regardless of extant rules and laws.
    For a government that claims to groan under a monthly wage bill of more than N5bn (they have dishonestly included LG staff salaries), and whose second verification panel claims to have saved the state government about N2.6bn every month, it is incredible that the state still finds it difficult to pay salaries as and when due, not to say pay all workers full salaries at the same time. Kogi obviously operates outside known mathematical laws. And despite the second panel claiming to remedy what the state government described as the first panel’s shoddy verification exercise, it is remarkable that there are still complaints galore among state workers, some of whom, estimated to be nearly half of the workforce, have not been paid for more than six months.
    The governor, it seems, would prefer not to pay any worker at all. Seizing upon the screening panel’s recommendations, but without recourse to either its own terms of reference or the law, the state has asked professors in the state university and chief lecturers in the College of Education, and any other top civil servant, including chief nursing officers in state hospitals, to retire on account of salary and promotional stagnation that have lasted for eight years. In Kogi, the lecturers and directors do not have to reach retirement age, and neither the law nor any other rule matters. What matters is that Mr Bello is obsessed with cutting staff strength by hook or crook or simply not paying them at all using one pretext or the other. He prefers to splurge the state funds on other trifles. The famous roundabouts in Lokoja’s main street that conjured spiritual nightmares in his excitable imagination, and which he destroyed shortly after he assumed office, have remained abandoned. Instead, the restless traveller governor is erecting garish sentry posts on all the access roads to Government House, Lokoja.
    Those who imposed this naïve and dangerously inept governor on Kogi can look back with sadistic pleasure at the consequences of their meddlesomeness. Kogi now groans under a power shift of other people’s making, a shift that is in essence humiliating and disruptive. With no development happening anywhere in the state, and with workers hungry, sick and oppressed, Kogites are in a quandary about what to do to survive the next three years until either God or the ballot box puts paid to the impressionable young governor’s clownishness and propaganda.