DON’T SACK THE HELPLESS BENUE STAFF – an appeal to H.E Dr Samuel Ortom

By Comr. Martin Iorsamber (M.Sc) FEntD, MICRM, ASM

The Secretary to the Benue State Government, Barr. Targema Takema last week released a statement which among other issues said Governor Samuel Ortom has cancelled ‘last minute recruitments’ in the state. While I am wondering what Gov. Ortom referred to as ‘last minute’ since government is a continual process, it is worthy to give my candid advice to the governor.

His Excellency Sir, you will agree with me that you are also a beneficiary of ‘last minute’ decisions of your party and should not be in a hurry to condemn last minute decisions taken by a legitimate government who acted under the provisions of the 1999 constitution as amended. The process for these jobs, like that of College of Education Katsina-Ala which is because of an upcoming accreditation, started since 2014 before you resigned as minister to contest for Benue State governor. Mr Governor Sir, any attempt to cancel these appointments will certainly plunge your administration or Benue State into legal exertions like the Suswam led government which you are fully aware is not a good thing for any state.

His Excellency Sir, there are so many harmful decisions that were taken by the previous administration that are even threats to human lives and properties in Benue. These among others include the indiscriminate citing of filling stations at roundabouts, markets and residential areas. Your administration should revoke such rights rather than start your work on the poor, jobless and helpless Benue youths who were employed by a government who you were hitherto part of, except you are only being strong on the weak, which I believe is not your intention.

My dear Governor, it is not any secret that Benue state is financially bankrupt due to mismanagement of resources by previous administrators amidst dwindling federal allocation and poor internal revenue generation. This situation has resulted to non payment of salaries to civil servants in Benue State for several months. His Excellency, I should believe you were aware of all these before you resigned as a Minister of the Federal Republic to come home and take charge. You even promised Benue youths jobs during your campaigns. Does it mean you were referring to the GEJ/PDP types of jobs where wheelbarrow pushers and motor conductors are counted as employees? If not why should jobs be cancelled? Or are the employees not Benue people?

His Excellency Sir, there are so many states in Nigeria that have and are facing this problem of debts. The ability to handle the situation successfully is what differentiates a progressive governor from the normal PDP governor. For example, when H.E Owelle Rochas Okorocha entered office in 2011, Imo state was in the state of near collapse, Gov. Okorocha reduced his salary and that of his cabinet members in order to have more funds. Okorocha went ahead to forfeit his security vote! Today Imo state is not the same. Take the case of Kaduna State, immediately Gov Nasir Amad El-Rufai was sworn in, he announced 50% reduction in his salary and that of his deputy. President Muhammadu Buhari is also considering reducing his salary and that of his cabinet members. These are the hopes Benue had in APC and voted it.

My dear Governor, Benue voted APC when they saw the progress in Nasarawa, Lagos, Imo, Kano and Edo States. Today, Lagos state has the highest debt in the country (N400bn) seconded by Kano (N300bn) but the new Governors are not cancelling appointments. In his last minutes decisions in Benue, the former governor (Suswam) donated 8 new SUV jeeps to you and you did not reject, Abu King Shuluwa road was renamed and you did not cancel it. His Excellency Sir, you are already a rich man without being Governor, if Benue is indebted beyond imagination as it is been presented, follow the footsteps of progressive governors like Nasir El-Rufai and Rochas Okorocha to cut down your salary, reduce your convey and reject security vote. Please in the interest of Benue Youths, don’t cancel the appointments of Benue people because we even want more appointments.
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--- Comr. Martin Iorsamber is the President General, Concerned Youths for Better Benue.

I was an ardent supporter of Jonathan in the 2011 presidential election against Buhari. Buhari was not even in my white book. I even wore Jonathan’s campaign T-shirt and face cap with his photos and PDP logo on them. In fact, I led a very powerful campaign for Jonathan against Buhari because I felt Jonathan would build his administration on the legacy of late President Yar’Adua and take Nigerians to the Promised Land.

But I was rather disappointed when Jonathan allowed corruption to fester in his government and was committed with impunity.

There are certain areas where Jonathan tried and made impact, but the general assessment of his government’s performance was very poor.

For example, an undergraduate student can have a CGPA of 1.90 on a 5-point scale. Despite this result, the student had “A” grade in two courses out of 12 courses. This shows that although the student performed very well in two courses, his overall result was very poor.

This was the same situation in Jonathan government. His government did well in some aspects but the overall result of his government on the leadership score sheet was very poor and that cost him his re-election and made me to shift my support away from him and PDP to Buhari and APC.

If after four years, Buhari government’s overall assessment is very poor, I will consider him a failure and support someone else until Nigeria gets it right one day.

Just like I have always said, in politics, I don’t have rigid loyalty to any political leader. But I have rigid loyalty to good leadership regardless of where it comes from.

Until we change our perception of political leadership and keep aside bias, ethnicity and hatred, we can’t make the positive difference we ought to make.