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Tag: Gov Bello

  • Gov Bello and harassed Kogi judiciary

    GOVERNOR Yahaya Bello of Kogi State seems more at ease provoking critics than governing the state on which he was foisted more than three years ago. The context of his rise to the governorship in 2016 is not flattering, but he had the opportunity to transcend that murky political background by deploying his youth and energy to enthrone probably the most vigorous and enterprising state administration in Nigeria. Instead, by a combination of lackadaisical approach to governance and poor judgement, he has courted criticisms with unparalleled ardour while also bristling at the opposition. Two weeks ago, this column wondered why Mr Bello wanted a second term, especially when he has alienated virtually every sector of Kogi life. Why, the puzzle is not so remote: the governor is a political trapeze artist.

    One of those alienated sectors is the state judiciary which has been on strike for about five months over 10 months salary arrears as well as other provocative constitutional issues. The governor, citing the refusal of the judiciary to subject their staff to the state’s data capturing and futile pay-parade policies, unconstitutionally withheld the salaries of judicial staff for 10 months. The state government has stuck dogmatically to the biometric exercise as if that is the elixir needed to make the payment of salary backlogs possible. As good as data capturing is, it has proved costly, time-wasting and useless to the Kogi government which today owes civil servants months and months of salary arrears, some totalling more than 20 months.

    Probably worried that judicial workers all over Nigeria had last April threatened to go on strike if the Kogi judicial workers’ salary crisis was not resolved, and perhaps prodded by the presidency which had shown some interest in what was happening in Kogi, the National Judicial Council (NJC) sent a fact-finding mission to the state. On Wednesday, the five-man panel met the state government in company with the chief judge and then later interacted with the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN). JUSUN sources disclosed that the fact-finding mission seemed more placatory of the state government than censorious of their meddlesomeness. This consequently inspired the governor’s media chief, Kingsley Fanwo, to declare that a compromise had been reached that asked the state judiciary to embrace the government’s biometric and pay-parade policies.

    But the NJC is yet to determine its course of action in the Kogi crisis. Weeks ago, when the state legislature was being instigated to remove Chief Judge Nasir Ajana on the grounds that the state’s auditor-general had indicted him over financial wrongdoing, the state government had in addition sent a petition to the NJC accusing him of engaging in financial impropriety. But JUSUN sources indicated that the state government  in fact redacted the 2016 auditor-general’s report and gave the erroneous impression that it was a recent report. It is not clear whether the NJC fact-finding mission was actually meant to establish the veracity or otherwise of the issues raised in the petition, or, as a newspaper reported last week, try and engineer a peaceful or amicable resolution of the face-off between the state government and judiciary.

    Mr Fanwo suggests in his hasty press statement on the NJC visit that the state judiciary had been asked to submit to the state’s data capturing exercise preparatory to embracing the obnoxious and degrading pay-parade/table-payment style. JUSUN, in a statement late last week, debunked Mr Fanwo’s assertions, insisting that the substance of the discussions and conclusions between the NJC, the state’s Chief Judge and the government were inconsistent with media reports of the visit. The biometric exercise, if it came to that, said JUSUN, would be undertaken by the State Judicial Service Commission, not the state government. In any case, the union further stated, the constitution never envisaged that the judiciary would be held in thrall by the state government or humiliated by unconstitutionally withholding their salaries.

    The NJC may wish to guide themselves in writing their report by first of all discounting Mr Fanwo’s mendacities. Secondly, the judicial body must be conscious of the fact that flowing from its abysmal tameness in the matter involving the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen, and especially because the presidency engineered his removal by foul and unconstitutional means, its independence, influence and power have been considerably whittled, if not entirely abrogated. In the Kogi matter, the NJC is expected to courageously determine whether Justice Ajana is guilty of the allegations levelled against him by the state government or whether the state government is infernally and meddlesomely wrong in the pay-parade affair. The NJC’s job is not to make peace or reconcile the state and the judiciary. Its job is primarily to let justice be done, and secondarily to protect the independence of the judiciary. Governor Bello does not understand these nuances. He should be educated. If he proves uneducable, then he should be put in his place.

    Surely, the NJC cannot pretend not to see the similarities between the deposition of Justice Onnoghen and the impetuous and impudent attempt to unseat the Kogi State Chief Judge. The similarities are striking and disturbing. This column had noted in the heat of the Onnoghen affair that the country was entering a dark tunnel of impunity whose end no one could foresee. Sadly, this generation of Nigerians is witness to the damage which politics and indiscipline in both the executive and the judiciary can inflict. It is not clear whether the NJC will blink first before Mr Bello, as they blinked repeatedly before President Muhammadu Buhari. But whatever the case, history is chronicling the roles being played by everyone and every group — some as they betray causes, and others as they ennoble causes.

  • Police, Gov Bello colluding to kill me, Melaye cries out

    Embattled Senator Dino Melaye has accused police authorities of connivance with Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello to kill him by all means.

    The Police, he alleged, has “openly taken side in the Kogi State political crisis” to nail him at all costs.

    Melaye (APC, Kogi West) also denied fleeing the country as alleged by police authorities, which declared him wanted last week.

    In a statement yesterday in Abuja, Melaye said: “For the records, I did not flee Nigeria and have no reason to flee my country leaving behind my family.”

    He also stated he was yet to receive any court summon to appear before Police, alleging the parade of crime suspects in Lokoja by the Force Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood, was stage-managed.

    The Senate further alleged the suspect was tutored to implicate him as “a continuation and expansion of the Police attempt to have me arrested at all cost and ultimately kill me.”

    He described the travel of the Force spokesman to Lokoja to parade suspects as “bizarre and unprecedented”, accusing him of being there to “act a script written by Governor Bello.”

    According to the Senator: “It is worrisome the Police Headquarters has got itself entangled in the Kogi political crisis and has taken side.”

    In a related development, a group, Mega Imolede Movement in Kogi West, alleged there were also plans to blackmail the Senator.

    Its coordinator, Comrade Oluade Bright, also said the jail break on the eve of appearance of suspects in court as “a bad set up.”

    The group wondered how masses will be assured of protection if a serving senator and the son of a former governor could be so easily set up.

     

  • Gov Bello and INEC’s scandalous prevarication

    Gov Bello and INEC’s scandalous prevarication

    IN their response to allegations that the electoral body endorsed double standard over Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello’s Temporary Voter Card (TVC), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) last Thursday insisted, through the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Lokoja, James Apam, that the affair or the alleged offence had not been swept under the carpet. The governor would still be prosecuted for the offence of double registration once he no longer enjoyed immunity, he said. Mr Bello had on May 23, 2017 at an illegal voter registration centre located in Government House, Lokoja, registered as a voter a second time contrary to the law, after first registering as a voter in Wuse Zone 4, Abuja on January 30, 2011. The three INEC officials who facilitated the second registration have since been punished for their part in the illegality.

    When last December INEC suggested that it would wait for the governor to finish his term before charging him in court for the electoral crime, no one expected the electoral body would so quickly succumb to pressure to issue him a temporary voter card. INEC, however, suggested that the governor’s request to transfer his card to his ward in Okene, Kogi State, had finally been approved and legal advice could find no reason to bar him from being issued a TVC. It was the lot of Prof Apam, the REC in Lokoja, to make that incredulous argument that satisfies a suspect in a crime to the detriment of justice.

    Before INEC took action against its three staffers, two of whom were dismissed, it satisfied itself, complete with photographs of the alleged crime in Government House and the admission of Mr Bello’s spokesman regarding the May 23 second registration, that an electoral offence had been committed.  There was not only electronic evidence of the crime, the staffers admitted to aiding and abetting the crime, since they showed up in the photograph with the governor registering. INEC had an impregnable case, and it was unlikely the governor would have been acquitted despite his specious and insulting defence of having been impersonated by a ghost at the illegal Government House registration centre.

    INEC’s action of issuing the governor, a suspect in a crime, the TVC was indefensible. Had he been tried, he would almost certainly have been found guilty of dishonesty. The evidence was too damning. And had he been found guilty, regardless of whether he was jailed or fined, he would have been an ex-convict by the time of the next elections. The constitution, in Section 182 (1) (e), forbids someone convicted and sentenced for an offence involving dishonesty from standing for election. Yet, Prof Apam not only defended the issuance of the TVC to Mr Bello, he baffled Nigerians by adding that the TVC would enable the governor to vote and be voted for. Clearly, INEC has lost its mind and cast grave doubt on its independence. It had no reason whatsoever to rush to issue the Kogi governor a card when he was still a suspect in an electoral crime.

    No one believes INEC acted independently. It bowed to pressure, not legal advice. The obscene and indefensible action of the electoral body is the sad culmination of the appalling electoral travesties inflicted on Kogi State, much of it inspired by forces outside the state, and a part of it connived at by the electoral body itself. INEC had in 2015 put Mr Bello on the ballot despite not being qualified to vote or be voted for, as the events leading to the double registration showed. More defiantly of the electoral law which INEC ought to naturally defend with courage and fairness, it put Mr Bello on the ballot without a running mate. To an electoral body easy to manipulate or pressure, it was not surprising that it issued the TVC to Mr Bello and argued that such a superfluous action did not negate or vitiate its resolve to charge the governor in court at the appropriate time.

    Given the spinelessness of INEC and the connivance of political and judicial forces outside the state, that appropriate time will of course not come. Mr Bello has turned himself into the foremost cheerleader of President Muhammadu Buhari, and is constantly and shamelessly in Abuja for one irrelevant event or the other, including welcoming the president’s son back from medical treatment abroad. Like his mentors and highly placed supporters, he is not a democrat and does not give a damn about democratic principles or the rule of law. As unconscionable as they come, he will ride roughshod over and compromise institutions and anything the people hold in great esteem. He will aim to stand for the next governorship poll, and he will want to subvert everything of value to enable him win. Now that everybody knows the mettle INEC is made of, especially recognising that the electoral body cannot call its soul its own, the electorate must find ways of triumphing over the electoral body’s shenanigans and the manipulations of cruel and ruthless officials, no matter how highly placed, who have sworn to subvert Nigeria’s democracy.

  • INEC, Gov Bello and rule of law

    INEC, Gov Bello and rule of law

    LAST Friday, the cantankerous and inconspicuous Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello celebrated the transfer of his voter card from Abuja, the Federal Capital City, to Okene, his hometown in Kogi State. It had seemed impossible. He could neither be voted for nor voted for anyone during the state’s governorship poll late 2015. But by an abracadabra inspired and executed by a group of political and legal conspirators, Mr Bello, who was registered to vote only in Abuja, was elevated crudely and insanely into the office of governor of the state without a deputy. The issue of that bizarre transmutation came up before three courts — from the election tribunal to the Court of Appeal and eventually the Supreme Court. In a move that defied logic, morality and common sense, the courts paid no attention to the clear treason involved in the conspirators’ subversion of the constitution.

    To reset and right his electoral standing, Mr Bello childishly orchestrated a second voter card registration at the Government House in Lokoja last year, a move that was publicly celebrated by his aides. Responding to the affront, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) waded in, queried its staff who deployed in Government House to register the governor where no registration centre was approved, punished the offending staff who masterminded the charade by dismissing them, and announced to the public that but for the immunity enjoyed by the governor, he would have been dragged before a competent court to answer for his criminal breach of the Electoral Act. The governor swore he committed no offence, but no one believed him.

    But rather than wait for him to prove his innocence before the courts after his tenure in 2020, the electoral commission apparently restarted Mr Bello’s voter card transfer process, ignored his double registration offence, and last Friday issued him a temporary voter card to indicate that the card transfer process was completed. In addition to Mr Bello himself, INEC also has a case to answer. It must be established why the electoral commission would stand the law on its head and shamefully subvert the rule of law and their own integrity and independence. Were they pressured from higher quarters? What becomes of their registration staff who were dismissed? Does Nigeria have two sets of law, one for the poor and disadvantaged, and another for the rich and connected? INEC and Mr Bello’s godfathers can bet their last kobo that the last has not been heard of this shameful and provocative subversion of electoral law and the constitution.

     

  • Re: Gov. Bello and probe of Kogi ex-governors

    Re: Gov. Bello and probe of Kogi ex-governors

    Kogi state prides itself as the Confluence State. And this is for good reasons. Lokoja, its capital city, is the meeting point of two of Africa’s largest water bodies- Rivers Niger and Benue. It is also home to the historic Mount Patti, from which top, Nigeria’s former colonial master, Lord Frederick Lugard assisted by Lady Flora Shaw, his mistress, invented a suitable name for the world’s biggest concentration of black people. That is not all. Kogi State is believed to harbour in commercial quantities about 27, out of Nigeria’s 35 solid mineral resources.

    However, it is not only in the foregoing, that Kogi’s confluence status consists. Her true confluence is in her rich human resource content. The state is inhabited mainly by the Igala, Ebira and Okun people. Other ethnic groups include Bassa, Ogori and Kakandas. These groups are highly resourceful. But Kogi has also been a confluence of the absurd. The mother of the absurdities is in the emergence of a man who did not participate in the general election, as governor, about two years ago, through supplementary election. Alhaji Yahaya Bello, the governor was not even a registered voter in the state, let alone voting. So unprepared for the luck fate thrust on him was Bello, that he did not have a running mate upon inauguration on January 27, 2016.

    Since coming to office, the young man has demonstrated crass incompetence, an affectation for juvenile misdemeanours and arrogance. The governor’s poor performance has attracted more negative comments to the state. Every now and then, Kogi has been in the news for the wrong reasons- unending staff screening and verification exercise, a haphazard probe of two former administrations in the state, death of a civil servant in kidnapper’s den while pursuing screening, suicide over unpaid salaries, declaration of 24-hour total curfew (state of emergency?) in a senatorial zone, the governor’s criminal double voter’s registration and shameful denial, his procurement and commissioning of a Mobutu-style country castle to mention but a few.

    Not surprisingly, Bello’s style has attracted unsavoury commentaries and turned the state to a banana republic of sorts where theories and undue generalizations are being made about Kogi’s leadership misfortunes. For instance, The Nation of Saturday, December 16 on Page 3, writing under the caption, ‘Gov. Bello and probe of Kogi ex-governors” the UnderTow page paints a gory and hopeless picture about the state’s yearning leadership question, declaring it is ‘a state where cynicism and sarcasm reign.’

    The writer’s starting point is a comment allegedly made by a former governor of the State Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, CON. Idris, aka Ibro, one of the former governors being probed by Bello had been accosted by journalists who asked of his reaction to the exercise. The elder statesman responded in a metaphor that the probe was like ‘chasing shadows.’ The former governor went on to echo a popular belief about the present occupant of Lugard House, the Kogi State seat of power. He said the government has failed and that ‘the people know their leader,’ a euphemism that Bello will be voted out in the next election.

    Undertow agrees with Ibro on Bello’s poor performance as the writer describes Bello’s government as ‘peculiarly incompetent.’ The writer goes on to mourn the leadership failure in the state and (perhaps inadvertently) lumps Ibro, along with his immediate successor Capt. Idris Wada in the same club of failed leaders of the Confluence State. He argued that both are ‘simply incapable of determining what is wrong and what is right’.’ He added that they are ‘too prejudiced, too self-centred and parochial to know better.’ The writer declares with a tone of finality that ‘Kogi people are themselves not fond of Mr. Idris’.

    It is not clear how the writer reached his findings on Idris, apart from the lame charge that ‘Mr. Idris helped to foist an incompetent successor on the state.’ What is clear however is the fact that he has grossly underrated the former governor’s altruistic qualities and abilities as his political opponents are wont to do. Since it is safe to pass his comments as coming from an unbiased social analyst, one may assume the errors are out of ignorance.

    To start with, the charge of tribalism against the former governor is untrue. While in office, projects were located on the basis of needs and equitably. In fact, throughout his nine years governorship, Omala LG, where he comes from never had a commissioner. In addition his finance commissioner was always from outside his Kogi East zone. These do not fit into the profile of a tribalist.

    Most people living in Kogi today know the difference between the trio of Ibro, Wada and Bello. As light is far from darkness, so is the difference between the public perception of each of these men. Ibro has unequalled follower-ship in the state. Humble, hardworking, prudent and detribalized, his political influence span from his records of achievement while in office and his yet unbroken chord with the grassroots even six years after he left office.

    Ibro’s achievements touched at the heart of where it mattered most. As a policy, his administration saw staff welfare as priority. Salaries and allowances were paid as and when due. The two months unpaid salaries which he inherited from his predecessor were cleared in record time. He introduced relativity and was the first governor to implement minimum wage in the north-central. What is more? For the nine years he was in office, Idris did not owe salary, not even for a month. Closely related to this, Ibro paid scholarship and bursaries to all deserving indigenes of the state in higher institutions across the country. In addition, he lifted a heavy burden off the shoulders of indigent parents as he introduced and implemented to the end of his tenure, the payment of WAEC/NECO fees for all final year students in secondary schools in the state.

    Clearly, Idris had distinguished himself in his service to the people and should not be ranked along with inept leadership and a rudderless administration. In the area of infrastructure development, Idris may not have built skyscrapers or castles in the air, but he laid the foundation on which future administrations could build. One of his most enduring legacies is the Greater Lokoja Water Scheme with installed capacity of 50million gallons of water per day. He built the International market, Specialist Hospital, 40,000-capacity Confluence Stadium, more than 2,000 housing units in Otokiti, Ganaja estates and in all the Local Government headquarters.

    He gave Lokoja a face lift by changing all its major roads to dual carriage ways with appropriate bridges. He also built about 2,000 primary school blocks, state secretariat Phase II and three-star Confluence Beach hotel extension. He also built new governor and deputy governor’s offices, rehabilitated all ministries, parastatals and other government offices. He established College of Education (technical) in Kabba, and Confluence Fertilizer Company in Agbeji and gave generous financial backing to the state university which ensured full accreditation of all its 29 academic programmes in 29 months. By the time he left office in January 2012, the NUC had declared KSU as the best state owned university in Nigeria.

    Whereas his achievements are too numerous to mention here, it is noteworthy that Ibro recorded all the transformations, without borrowing a dime from anywhere or pushing the state into debt burdens. In fact, his clean records and prudent management of resources enabled the state to approach the capital market for a bond of N20b, which his immediate successor, Capt. Wada collected. The Debt Management Office, Ministry of Finance and the then Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala still hold his records in awe for his commitment to due process.

    It is instructive that since Ibro left office he had been free from incessant arrest, invitation or harassment by the EFCC, ICPC and other law enforcement agencies. This is the background of Ibro’s ‘chasing shadows’ response. It is an allusion to his responsive and responsible management of Kogi’s lean resources while in office. A clear conscience, they say fears no accusation, for even if accused he shall be vindicated at the end. Little wonder that whenever the man visits Kogi, people mill around him and still look up to him to lead the way out of the current leadership quagmire in the state.

     

    • Achadu, an indigene of Kogi State, writes from Lokoja.
  • Gov. Bello visits Buhari, says no pay for striking workers

    Gov. Bello visits Buhari, says no pay for striking workers

    Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi says his administration will implement the no-work-no pay policy following the decision of some workers in the state to sustain the strike they embarked upon on Sept. 22.

    Bello told State House correspondents after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Monday that a majority of the workers had resumed work.

    He, however, described those still on strike as “political civil servants’’, saying that the government would pay only workers that had resumed work.

    “Those workers that are on strike are political civil servants; the real civil servants are coming to work.

    “And we’re trying our best to keep up with the payment of salaries.

    “There is no denying the fact that the economy is biting hard everywhere and you will recall that I met four months’ salary backlog, which I cleared; and today we are up to date with salary payment.

    “We are owing August and September salaries as we speak.

    “We are up to date in terms of salary payment and those that come to work we shall pay.

    “And the no-work-no-pay policy shall surely apply to those that do not come to work.’’

    The governor pledged to maintain the periodic publishing of the state’s accounts.

    He said: “Very soon we are going to publish all the salaries that we have paid to workers since inception in newspapers for people to see.

    “All the noise about Kogi state government not paying salaries will be in the public domain.’’

    The governor advised people of the state to remain patient with his administration, saying: “Things are hard generally and we are trying our best (to make life easier for the people) and that is why we are transparent in everything that we do.’’

    It will be recalled that the organised labour in Kogi, had in September, directed workers in ministries, agencies and parastatals to commence an indefinite strike from Sept. 22.

    Mr Ranti Ojo, the Chairman of the state chapter of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) gave the directive while briefing newsmen in Lokoja.

    The leadership of labour had explained that the strike was embarked upon because the state government had refused to invite workers for negotiation over their demands.

    They maintained that the strike was the only other option left for the workers to explore for negotiation with the government.

    NAN recalls that the Federal Government had also on Oct. 11, resolved to enforce the “No Work No Pay’’ stance as part of measures to restore harmony in the country’s public service.

    Read Also: Three NDLEA operatives killed in Kogi

  • Gov Bello, Melaye’s recall and Okun dilemma

    Gov Bello, Melaye’s recall and Okun dilemma

    IN his desperate bid to stave off the disaster his recall from the senate would signify for his political career, Dino Melaye (APC-Kogi West) has assembled a posse of public relations mercenaries to sway the shifting loyalties of the public to his side and take the fight to Governor Yahaya Bello, the man masterminding his woes. Mr Bello is fairly anonymous, almost as if he lives and works in a cosmic black hole. He is so ideologically barren and devoid of human feelings that it is a wonder he ever had the presence of mind to even contest for the Kogi State governorship in 2015. He of course did not win, but through a series of convoluted machinations by the All Progressives Congress (APC), the young pretender soon found himself in the State House in Lokoja. At his shambolic inauguration boycotted by the movers and shakers of the APC, he was supported by the rambunctious Senator Melaye, 43, who delivered a stirring but entirely vacuous speech.

    Barely a year later, the two men fell out for a number of reasons, all quite self-serving. With each passing day, the animosity between the two men has grown in amperage to the point that the state is now aflame. From Abuja, Sen Melaye also masterminded a potpourri of measures and inspired a host of statements all designed to undermine Mr Bello and possibly get him impeached. The governor would have been deserving of impeachment, for his incompetence is of such intensity that the state is truly and unquestionably groaning in mess. But from Lokoja, the state capital, in addition to assassination bids of undetermined origin, Mr Bello has himself inspired a more effective political chicanery designed to recall Sen Melaye and put paid to his political career. The ostensible reason for the recall plot is the senator’s embarrassing theatrics, loutish behaviour, and despicable loyalties and interactions. Neither combatant is more likely than the other to win in this deathly struggle.

    From all indications, Mr Bello, despite the loathing Kogites have for him, will serve out his tenure. He will not get a second term, however, regardless of the thuggish youth groups he is assembling and training for future electoral shenanigans. Unseating a serving governor, as everyone knows, is a difficult, if not impossible, enterprise. Former president Olusgeun Obasanjo succeeded in unhorsing a few governors because he went outside the constitution to consummate that political malfeasance. Unseating a senator is also by no means an easy task. There are all sorts of legal and constitutional roadblocks, and of course extralegal obstacles too, some of which Sen Melaye has enacted with practiced ease over many years of thuggish but exhilarating politicking.

    With the two politicians matching each other in their infamy, it is surprising that Kogi State, not to say Kogi West senatorial district where Sen Melaye hails from, should find it befuddling to take sides. Both Sen Melaye and Mr Bello are undesirable; but it is not difficult to settle the precedence between the two. Mr Bello’s damaging impact on the state is impossible to quantify. He is destroying everything in his path. And, to boot, he is destroying everyone close or far from him. Everything he touches turns to dust in the state. On the other hand, despite his comical politics and infuriating attachments and statements, Sen Melaye’s influence is not as destructive in its impact on the state as Mr Bello’s. What is even more worrisome is the close inverse relationship between the victory of one and the defeat of the other. Should Sen Melaye win, and it is hard to see him unseating Mr Bello despite the unalloyed support from the state chapter of the APC, the consequences for the state would be manageable. But should Mr Bello win, it is not only Sen Melaye who will probably and deservingly go to jail, the state itself would be shackled, castrated and humiliated beyond human endurance.

    Given this zero-sum game, it is hard to understand why Kogi political and business elites have been both timid and undiscerning in determining whom to back. Sensing their customary diffidence, not to say their constant ideological and philosophical pusillanimity, Sen Melaye tried last week to force the hands of the fence sitters from Kogi West, particularly the elite from the Okun speaking part of the state. In a badly worded press release, the Okun Development Initiative (ODI), doubtless working for the senator, sensibly suggested that it was more desirable to support Sen Melaye than back Mr Bello. Proudly affirming Okunland’s ideological and political independence, the ODI told the world that while they would not dispute the weaknesses of Sen Melaye, the region was quite capable of independently unseating its representatives whenever they desired. It was apparent the ODI knew instinctively that Mr Bello’s victory in the titanic clash with the uppity senator would spell far worse doom and tragedy for the state. Their logic is unimpeachable. Mr Bello is a far more pressing danger to the state than Sen Melaye.

    The relatively unknown ODI, however, attributed their statement to some of Okunland’s well-known leaders, including Prof Eyitayo Lambo, a former Health minister, Bayo Ojo (SAN), a former Justice minister and attorney general of the federation, Julius Oshanupin, a retired general, and Tunde Ipinmisho, a former editor. It turned out that the four neither signed the statement nor knew anything about it. They were therefore right to refute the statement; but it is not clear why they did not go further to give their perspectives on the battle between the two undesirables. Other than declaring their reluctance to be drawn into the ‘mess in Kogi’, they seemed to be indifferent to the need to come down from the fence and help Okunland — and by extension Kogi West — to make up its mind on the delicate issue of offering a nuanced support to one of the combatants.

    Before the combat developed into a stalemate, Kogi elites from all the senatorial districts ought to have courageously made their voices heard. Instead, they pulled their punches, and appeared to surrender to the likes of Sen Melaye the leadership of fighting Mr Bello. The senator may lack the integrity to engage and even lead the noble fight, but the objective of calling Mr Bello to account is indeed a just one. Kogi should be able to make that distinction. More, they should be able to recognise that while Sen Melaye’s national buffooneries should be execrated, it can at least be tolerated. What is indeed intolerable is Mr Bello’s incompetence which has led to wholesale despoliation of the state, the destruction and indirect killing of unpaid workers, and the general retrogression of the state at a time when many other states are making great strides.

    The Okun Development Initiative doubtless works for Sen Melaye, and may be as disreputable as the senator himself. But the group has drawn attention to the need for everyone in Kogi State, and in particular Okunland, to make a choice, even if it is Hobson’s choice. Neutrality is deprecated. By failing to side with one camp does not mean the two combatants will mutually self-destruct. They will not. Instead, one side will win; but it may be the wrong side. It is not too late for Okunland and Kogi in general to take sides. Okuland may have been guilty of many things in the past, including their indefensible timidity borne out of many years of exasperating caution and poor judgement, they must never let it be said of this generation that they allowed, by unintelligent default, the likes of Mr Bello to determine for them their choice of representatives. ODI made this point well.

    Okunland, as much as the national APC, was complicit in the controversial enthronement of Sen Melaye. Worse, by keeping quite in the face of his national tomfooleries, when they should have on their own agitated for Kogi West to recall him or put pressure on him to tone down his idiotic politics, they indirectly gave room for Mr Bello to captain a cause that resonates with Nigerians who neither know the circumstances and intricacies of Kogi politics nor have an understanding of the consequences of allowing Mr Bello succeed in the plot to recall the noisome senator. The choice is simple and the priority clear: ensure that for now Mr Bello loses the recall gambit, and then  later ensure that both the governor and senator never smell the corridors of power ever again. Both men are unqualified to represent themselves, not to talk of either Kogi West or the state as a whole.

  • Gov Bello reinforces Kogi tragedy

    Gov Bello reinforces Kogi tragedy

    WHEN the top hats of the All Progressives Congress (APC) plotted furiously to impose Yahaya Bello on Kogi State as governor in place of Abubakar Audu, the deceased winner of the 2015 governorship poll, the party and those who supported him were warned that they were about to foist a disaster upon the state. The warnings were ignored. Prince Audu’s running mate, Abiodun James Faleke, was the right and proper person constitutionally to inherit the mandate. But the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, introduced a legal sleight of hand to undermine justice and help emplace the vile anomaly now blighting the state. To complete the conspiracy, Mr Bello’s supporters, many of them from his ethnic stock, jumped enthusiastically on the usurper governor’s bandwagon by describing the Abuja concocted mandate as a divine mandate, one that supposedly came from God.

    Now, all the conspirators have since moved on and abandoned Kogi to its tragedy. Some of them are party officials from the Southwest who schemed to, in their opinion, checkmate what they saw as the ‘expansionist’ plans of former Lagos governor, Bola Tinubu. Others are governors from the Northwest and North Central who ignored the constitution and arrogantly swore that no Kogi Yoruba or Christian would govern the state. And others simply suggested that Kogi had a North Central identity to maintain, not  a Southwest identity to acquire. The plots and intrigues did not make sense, but their authors were determined to thwart democracy, subvert the constitution, and annihilate the principles of justice. The plotters eventually triumphed, for most of them were in any case not Kogites who would suffer the consequences of imposing a total misfit upon the state.

    Mr Bello is not just a misfit, he presides over a cabinet of grovelling and deluded misfits. The state is so horrendously misgoverned that all three tertiary institutions are shut, workers are not paid in harmonised fashion, with some being owed more than one year salary, elementary exercises like staff screening and verification came to a tortured end after three false and incompetent starts, and nothing properly described as elevated and visionary projects are being undertaken. It was in the midst of this retrogression, when workers and pensioners were dying of hunger, when the state was pining in agony sickened by the ineptitude inflicted on them by both Mr Bello and the APC in Abuja, that the Neanderthals in Daily Times, apparently marking their 91 years anniversary, conferred on Mr Bello a ‘good governance’ award. The paper, now a shadow of itself, claimed to be celebrating what they improperly called the ‘Times Hero Awards’.

    Kogi State is probably the worst governed state in Nigeria. Its governor and cabinet have no idea what governance is all about. The cabinet is inexperienced, without ambition, has no design for the present or the future, is totally devoid of any feelings for dying, unpaid workers and shut tertiary institutions, and is incapable of conceiving even modest plans for the state as a whole. How Mr Bello, presiding over this mediocre cabinet and dysfunctional ministries, can be conferred an award by anyone beggars belief. That he received the award and celebrated it in his usual newspaper propaganda flourish is an indication of his relentless clowning and just how things have declined and decayed in Kogi.

    Who will help Kogi after the APC in Abuja and scores of conspirators have betrayed the state? The anomaly of 2015 cannot be reversed until Mr Bello has spent his four years in office. He will of course not return in the 2020 election; but surviving till then is almost practically impossible for the tormented people of Kogi. But survive they must, even if thousands die. They were betrayed by the APC and Nigeria’s feckless and fickle judiciary, as the supposedly ethical and reformist government in Abuja turned a blind eye to the disaster plotted in late 2015. After surviving two incompetent governments before Mr Bello’s ascendancy, Kogi now lies prostrate. Only Abuja can call Mr Bello to order, assuming all the big political players in that scheming city are not seized by pangs of conscience and guilt. They can lean on him substantially to compel him to pay workers, reopen schools, fund hospitals, and reverse many of his silly and immature policies enthroned in a little over one year after he managed to stir himself from deep slumber.

    Nobody else can help Kogi. Not the workers who are underfed and helpless; not the governor and his cabinet who lack ideas and imagination; not the House of Assembly which has been castrated and rendered voiceless and soulless; and not even the people themselves, given their initial inexcusable connivance at the enthronement of the spineless wonder, Mr Bello. If the APC should openly denounce Mr Bello, and President Muhammadu Buhari will return to Nigeria and, among other pressing matters, remember the tragedy his party has inflicted on Kogi and decide to call the governor to order, perhaps the state can be salvaged. For now, Kogi is in steep decline, unheeded and unaided.

  • Tinubu is our leader, says Kogi Gov Bello

    Tinubu is our leader, says Kogi Gov Bello

    •Berates Dino Melaye

    Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, yesterday pledged his loyalty to the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, saying the state under him has continued to benefit from Tinubu’s wealth of experience.
    Bello also affirmed his respect for the party hierarchy.
    But he berated Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi West) for what he called the Senator’s unbridled media attack on his (Bello’s) person.
    The governor spoke through his Special Adviser on Political Matters, Pius Kolawole, at a press conference in Lokoja,the state capital.
    The people of Kogi West, Bello stressed, have never had it so good in the state with their sons occupying such positions as Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and some key ministries unlike what obtained in the previous administration in Kogi.
    He expressed surprise that instead of representing the interest of his people at the National Assembly well, Senator Melaye has been busy fighting ‘a selfish and egocentric’ cause.
    He was particularly shocked by the alleged religious coloration which Melaye imputed into some of his (governor’s) actions.
    Such imputations, he claimed, were capable of creating tension in an otherwise religiously tolerant state, like Kogi.
    Kolawole, who was with the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Political Matters, Bello Abdullahi added: “Coming back home, we wish to reaffirm for the umpteenth time that His Excellency, Alhaji Yahaya Bello remains the number one leader of the APC in Kogi State, and there is no type of gimmicks adopted by Senator Dino Melaye and his cohorts can do.
    “His Excellency also knows and recognises Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the National Leader of our great party, the APC. We respect him, and we tapped from his resources and wealth of experience.
    “We are also loyal to him and respect constituted authorities of the party. We will also stand by the authority and resist anyone that tries to use these resources negatively.
    “The people Kogi West have not enjoyed any dividend of good representation from Dino since he was sent to the National Assembly.
    “All he does is to engage in useless fight with colleagues and associates. Where is the quality representation he promised his people?
    “Governor Yahaya Bello has flagged off numerous projects in the
    senatorial district which Dino is supposed to be representing, yet he doesn’t see anything good in the government, simply because the governor has refused to be used to achieve the selfish interest by Dino Melaye”.

  • Gov Bello, don’t appoint commissioners yet

    I would like to call on the Kogi State Governor AlhajiYahaya Bello to stop any appointment of commissioners and other political appointees, for now.

    This becomes necessary due to the financial condition of the state due to the actions of the immediate past government of Governor Idris Wada.

    The governor should ensure he studies the current finance of the state, and take into consideration the peculiarity of the current reality facing the state at the moment.

    We believe he would use his wide range of knowledge as an astute accountant to ensure he provides a level playing ground for the successful take off of his administration to the satisfaction of all the components of the entire state.

    The appointment of commissioners and other political appointees would have a great drain on the lean financial prospects of the state.

    The debt profile of over N44.4 billion the past government left for the state and without commensurate physical developments.

    The present government in the state could afford to make use of permanent secretaries and other directors to pilot the affairs of the state pending the increase in the revenue of the state.

    The state governor should also look into the issues of screening of the entire workforce of the state to check the manipulation of payment that goes into private pockets of some government officials in the name of ghost workers.

    The present peculiar problems facing Kogi State needs concerted efforts by all to make the state a pride to all the people irrespective of our differences.

    We shall continue to advance our views and suggestion in various media and forum for the success of his government and the good of our people.

    • From Bala Nayashi, Lokoja.