Governor Idris Wada and His Teaching Service Commission Robbing Kogi State Unemployed Applicants Blind: BY Aliyu Abdullahi Ismaila
For a first time visitor and a tourist to Nigeria among the destinations in the list of such person(s) will be the Historic Lord Lugard city Lokoja the first capital of Nigeria and the current capital of Kogi state of Nigeria, the city where the Royal Niger company Flag was also lowered, a city where most colonialist were buried and their ancestors still come to visit till date, Lokoja the city where the two great rivers of Niger and Benue met. It is a reality which I have seen myself, all you need do to experience it is board a boat or ferry from Ganaja to Shintaku and ask the ferryman to show you where the rivers meet; there you will see the beautiful hand of nature at play, the 0% visibility and brackishness of the water of the Niger river and the near 100% visibility of the water of the Benue river distinctively flowing alongside each other side by side.
These are some of the Natural endowments that make Lokoja the capital of Kogi state a unique tourist destination for all Nigerians and international tourists but the unfortunate dilemma is that aspect of human environmental development as well as human development of the state especially on the part of the people vested with authority to run and lift the state shoulder high high among equals. The only visible physical structures differentiating the state capital since its inception as the capital of Kogi state are those that are credited to former governor Prince Abubakar Audu’s administration that left governance since 2003 with only the exception of the near modern market tagged international market the only achievement of former governor Ibro.
The issue of structural development is outside the scope of this write up as the main beef of this article is on the ridiculously humongous impunity and exploitative cancerous malignancy that has just recently surfaced and embroiled the Kogi Teaching Service Commission on the 500 teaching vacancy E-Card and applicants extortions headed by one Silvester Onoja a former inglorious commissioner for education of a scrupleless governor who ran our state as a subsidiary of his personal Hotel and estate and has continued to reign his hell over our state through his installed proxies and cronies ala Lugard House. It is a shame period for Governor Capt. Idris Wada and Mr. Sylvester Onoja whom apart from fleecing us of the monthly federal revenue allocation to the state have now resulted to daylight robbery of Kogi unemployed applicant through the guise of E-Card registration selling over Ten thousand (10,000) E-Cards at the rate of three thousand Naira (N 3000) for a vacancy of five hundred vacant space only: of which there is no guaranty of 1 in 20 of the probable, based on the probability of 500 in 10,000 that can get the jobs as we all know that the administration is run as a government of their families and cronies for their families and cronies.
It is sad to mention that the government of Owelle Rochas Okorocha of Imo State is also in the same range of the Federal Allocation of revenue as our dear state and can boast of several visible and viable achievements within the same periods as the present Kogi administration few among these achievements are as follows: Twenty five new housing estates still under construction, fifteen kilometer roads been constructed in every local government area of Imo state while the minimum wage of the state has been raised to N 20,000 and education at all level is free of charge for all citizens of Imo etc. This make me to ask, where does our ever smiling innocent faced governor Idris Wada stands when it comes to doling out the dividends of governance and democracy to the ever accommodating people of Kogi? Sir that office is not forever, what will be your legacy in the end? Mind your excellency this is not a disrespect for your office or person but a sort of reminder and motivation, PDP has a near abortive pregnancy an indication that election 2015 may not be business as usual and it is only the delivery of democratic stipends to your constituents that will guarantee your going back to reside at Lugard House not even the Aso Rock Villa resident can boast as at now his own fate in the 2015 Election. It is a reality that karma is taking shape and your future is in your hand and now that the reign of Kogi is in your hand, as a pilot I expect you to pilot your plane and not allow your passengers take over your sit for the consequence is dire.
Another shocking aspect of this matter is the quietness of the state house of assembly over the issue of robbing our unemployed applicant’s blind, we belief the legislature which is to check and balance the executive should always wade in when ever necessary to safeguard our democratic ethos anytime the interest of our masses are at stake. Kano state is a very good example where E-Cards is a great tool in the hand of the state government, a two hundred and fifty naira E-Card is been used to gather a data base of Kano state citizens for all purpose ie. Applicants, undergraduates, graduates and recently unmarried people interested in the communal marriages conducted by the state government; among the benefits of this data base registered through N 250 E-Card used to register to the Kano state portal to Kanawa’s are the selection of 500 citizens based on merit and given scholarship to study post graduate courses abroad, 101 citizens to study aviation and piloting in Jordan, recently in August 300 students were also selected for undergraduate studies scholarship abroad and as at 2nd September the second sets of 400 women trained at the Bagauda Fishery institute which is one amongst several training institutes established within the past two years by the kano administration to empower her people were graduated and given 500 seed-fish, water tanks, fish-feed/drugs and N 24,000 cash to empower them, in Kogi rather than empower our people our own Kogi government is stealing from our unemployed masses.
We want answers for why must our people pay so much for nothing? We are not talking of a probability of 1 in 2 but 500 in 10,000 (1 in 20) people meaning that the government that is supposed to regulate the criminal activities of business men is the one indulging in criminal impunity of the masses which the government swore to protect. It is beyond human rational reasoning that for a vacancy of 500 space only an E-Card numbering up to 10,000 and above were produced for sale at an exorbitant price to the indigent citizen of a state whose only crime is been unemployed a scenario created by the same unproductive government. Thirty million naira gathered from unemployed indigent people of kogi state what a way of modern slavery and stealing by Sylvester Onoja.
Except our amiable ever smiling Governor is heartless behind his innocent looks all the rogues involved in fleecing our unemployed applicants to the tune of (N 30,000000) thirty million naira; should be investigated relieved of their responsibility and sanctioned so that others in position of responsibility can take a cue from, while the prospective applicants be refunded at least N 2500 and the registration gathered from this exercise be used to start a data base for the state; as I would like to take for ordinary rumour mongering the speculations that the bank involved in the E-Cards saga claimed to have over-drafted the payments for the E-Cards to Mr. Sylvester Onoja the board chairman even before the commencement of the sales of the cards and when Governor Wada tried to wade in by seeking an explanation from the chairman who was abroad as at when the crises erupted, it was later learnt that he flew back into the country through Abuja and brought along to Lokoja with him the OGA @ THE TOP of the IBRO GROUP OF HOTELS, whom as usual came to Lugard house and promptly put the occupant manager of his subsidiary in his proper place which contradicted the position as published recently where the governor stated that “I AM IN CHARGE OF KOGI-WADA” in Daily Trust news paper, Wednesday, August 28, 2013 page 10.
In the light of recent happenings nationwide it is time for the Kogi state governor to make the right choice of renewing his commitment to the totality of Kogites, so as to write his name in the positive side of the sand of time better than his predecessors; this article was prompted by the story of one Emmanuel Onucheyo Adoga an applicant who borrowed money only to get to the bank at Lokoja and be informed that the first sets of ten thousand E-Cards has sold out and that a proposition to reproduce more cards which will now sell for N 5000 each which eventually led to the mass action that later ensued. Therefore, this is a token dedicated to Adoga and the millions of his likes in Kogi and allover the globe at the mercy of the exploitative system world over.
Written by
Aliyu Abdullahi Ismaila
e-mail: afristone2002@gmail.com
twitter handle: @afristone2002