Amadu Ali, former Senator and Chairman of Kogi East Elders Council, KEEC, has criticised Yahaya Bello, governor of Kogi State, over the deplorable state of affairs of the state.
Ali said at a news conference in Abuja today, that the Kogi East Elders Council, in its attempt to give the young administration the benefit of the doubt, had restrained itself from taking a critical posture, in the hope that the current leaders would retrace their steps and take the right path.
According to him, KEEC, the apex socio-cultural body formed on the principles of equity, justice, fairplay and good governance in Kogi State, has laboured behind the scene to ensure harmony among various political divides in the State, even across the three senatorial districts. He said, though not strictly a political organization, the Council has consistently counseled those at the helm of affairs at both the state and federal levels, encouraging them to engage in measures that would lead to peace, harmony and the well-being of the people of the state. An example is our communique as published in The Graphics of February 9, 2016.
“It is, therefore, with absolute distress that the Kogi East Elders’ Council has decided to go public on the deplorable and deteriorating condition of resources-rich Kogi State. In the last two years since Alhaji Yahaya Bello providentially took over the mantle of leadership as the Governor of the state, impulsive and ill-informed steps taken by the administration have left in their trail the sounds of wailing and lamentation in villages, towns and cities across the state.
“The Kogi East Elders Council, in its attempt to give the young administration the benefit of the doubt, had restrained itself from taking a critical posture, in the hope that the current leaders would retrace their steps and take the right path. However, our hopes that the government would take the right path was being dashed as the leadership is sinking deeper into errors, making a shipwreck of the opportunity given to this younger generation to steer the ship of Kogi State towards a greater future. Consequently, as at today, Kogi is in dangerous waters, rudderless and sailing wildly into difficult storms. That is why we, Kogi East Elders Council, have come out to address this press conference on the current situation in Kogi State and to advise the way forward,” said Ali.
The Council flayed the Bello administration for stalemate in the state’s university education system, particularly the termination of the appointments of 135 academic staff of Kogi State University by the State Government, which it said was an evidence of its ignorance with regard to administration.
“The lecturers had embarked on a strike action for over a period of six months because of unpaid salaries. Instead of government to pay up what it owed the lecturers, it rather glossed over the issue and insisted that the academic staff sign attendance registers as evidence that they had acquiesced to government’s arm-twisting strategy of compelling them to return to work under duress. These lecturers, some of them professors and PhD holders, were sacked from the state’s university, at a time when many universities in the country are hunting for intellectuals to beef up their faculties. The state government’s action has a tendency to depreciate the academic standard of the university by a huge percentage,” said Ali.
He added that in an attempt to salvage the situation, the Kogi East Elders Council had sent a delegation, led by Gabriel Aduku, a former Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to the governor with suggestions in the form of a six-point communiqué.
But Ali said instead of hearkening to this appeal and voice of reason by the Kogi East Elders’ Council, the state government rebuffed the moves, claiming self-righteousness and proclaiming that it is on a mission to sanitise the civil service.
in the area of security,
Ali said the situation in Kogi is unacceptable. “It has culminated in a situation in which a labour leader, Mallam Abdulmumuni Yakubu, was reportedly killed in Okene on November 1, 2017. The evidence of the widespread insecurity was manifest in the imposition of 24-hour curfew on five local government areas by the state government on November 9, 2017. The LGAs include Adavi, Ajaokuta, Okene, Ogori/Magongo and Okehi. Thuggery and senseless killings are not the only definitions of insecurity in the state. There is kidnapping, armed robbery, conflicts between herders and farmers, leading to the loss of lives and properties. The crimes have continued to fester dangerously, while government beats its chest for fighting the menace through donations of vehicles and other facilities to the police.
“Crimes are defeated, not only with facilities, but through intelligence gathering from the communities,” continued Ali.
the Council also said since Bello came into power on January 27, 2016, he has been beclouded with the fixation that the civil service is mired in monumental corruption. “He embarked on series of staff audits that saw to the non-payment of staff salaries for close to 21 months and counting. Over this period, Governor Bello claims to have uncovered 10,000 ghost workers, many of whom have cried out aloud that they are bona fide civil servants of Kogi State, not ghosts. It is becoming increasingly evident that the ghost workers narrative is exaggerated and at best false. Rather, it is an unqualified excuse to downsize the Kogi State civil service workforce without justification. The never-ending staff audit has pauperized civil servants, leading to frustrations, deaths and suicides.
“Recently, 40 senators had to donate 1,260 bags of rice to Kogi State civil servants in order to ameliorate the hunger and starvation that the obnoxious staff audit brought upon the people of the state,” the Council stated.
Based on these allegations, the Council, “Wish to reiterate the fact that the situation in Kogi State is totally unacceptable to Kogi East Elders Council.” Therefore, it declared that President Muhammadu Buhari should intervene in the crises in Kogi State by setting up a presidential committee to investigate the purported staff audit and ensure that staff salaries are paid; investigate how the funds that went to Kogi State as bailout and Paris Club refunds have been utilized, to the point that the president’s directive that civil servants’ salaries should be given priority in the disbursement of the funds was not adhered to; all trade unions in Kogi State’s tertiary institutions should be allowed to operate undeterred. The proscription of these unions by the state government was not in good faith, and has worsened the teaching and learning conditions in tertiary institutions in the state.
It also said the State Government should immediately pay up all salaries and emoluments due to the state’s civil servants and pensioners, because there should be enough money in its coffers to do so; the staff audit should be brought to a logical conclusion immediately or halted, so that it is not used as an excuse for non-payment of staff salaries, and that all the 135 academic staff members of Kogi State University who have been sacked under the draconian policy of the state government should have the termination of their appointments reversed unconditionally.
It insists also that the Kogi State Government should keep to all the terms and conditions of agreements reached with trade unions in the state to ensure industrial harmony.
The Council said, “It is worth putting on record that Kogi State belongs to over three million people who hail from the Confluence State and not the few persons who hold political offices in various capacities today. Every indigene of the state is interested in lifting it from its parlous state to the height of progress and prosperity. Therefore, the state government should consider critical voices as partners in progress, not enemies. It is imperative for this government to run an all-inclusive administration as that is the better way in which the state can move forward.”