₦airaland Forum

GYB, ASUU AND THE VANISHING CLOUDS
ByEnvangelist KingsleyOlorunfemi Fanwo
Many have written a lot about the ascension of Governor Yahaya Bello to the governorship of Kogi State. Raging arguments for or against have burnt many minds, many “heads” and many fingers.
To those who decided to test the legality in the law courts, the Governor never saw them as enemies. Beyond the rhetorical macabre dance of political orchestra, Governor Yahaya Bello is a refined politician, leader and fearless agitator for the connectedness of the system which was bedeviled by a chemistry of idiocy, corruption, mediocrity, ethnic jingoism, religious bigotry and a people who have developed into failure mentality.
Kogi needed a Yahaya Bello and they got one. A few days after his inauguration, Governor Yahaya Bello instituted a staff verification panel to ascertain the actual strength of the state’s workforce.
I remembered receiving many calls from far and near, advising that the Governor should have waited for the outcome of his tribunal cases before venturing into such a “dangerously sensitive” venture. What made a simple exercise to ascertain the actual strength of the workforce dangerous and sensitive?
They were right. They know the enormity of the rot and the calibre of people behind the filthy lucre. They beneficiaries of ghost workers are established forces with rocky connections within and outside government. They tell every government staff verification is a no go area. And the rot kept robbing us of where we should be as a people.
He dared to tread where giants fell. He held on to his belief. He believes the need to save the State which was surviving on oxygen when he took over was more important than political exigencies. A dehydrated state began to wax stronger.
Before the tribunal judgement, many postulations were advanced. Rightly so, the case was novel. It was on a legal pseudopodium which direction was unknown. Beneficiaries of ghost workers syndrome, cankerworm of eminence, defeated and deflated political fiefdoms and other categories of exasperated political gangsters mounted a ceaseless campaign against the divine government.
And the judgement day came. Governor Yahaya Bello recorded unabatedly, electoral victories from Monday to Friday. What he didn’t fear didn’t kill his aspirations for a better Kogi State.
After the judgements, attention shifted to the screening exercise. He was called names. He was misconstrued. His patriotic zeal to serve was put to test. But he stood his ground. He remained adamant on doing that which is right. Despite the challenge of the screening committee, the determination to succeed made him set up a back up committee of people with unbroken integrity to ensure the exercise is successful. Today, we have recorded a huge breakthrough that will shock the people.
Let me state here that Governor Yahaya Bello is not insensitive to the plight of the people. On many occasions, he lamented the hardship the people went through during the period of the screening when salaries were put on hold pending when a clean payroll was ascertained. He felt the pains of the people. He cares. Behind the steely look of the bespectacled Governor is a human affection and care.
A surgery is aimed at saving lives. Kogi needed one and that was done. In surgery, there is usually so much pain. But the end justifies the means. I saw what the people went through and I applaud their patience and perseverance. It was tough. But the odd days are going away. Whenever surgery is on, rights are suspended. The decisions to use both Zenith Bank and Access Bank to pay salaries before a new database is built, is aimed at controlling the system before the workers may choose to go back to any bank of their choices. The administration of Governor Yahaya Bello believes in the rule of law and constitutionalism.
With the thousands of ghost workers that have been discovered, Kogi State will be able to save hundreds of millions of naira for infrastructural development. We are aware many were unjustifiably removed from the payrolls. We also know some were erroneously cleared. Someone who claimed to hold employment letter purportedly issued in 1983 was cleared. All of these are currently receiving the attention of the back up committee.
Through our feedback mechanism, we have also discovered more complaints. The Governor has directed the banks to resolve those challenges. The banks will even be working on weekends to ensure genuine workers are not made to suffer.
On Monday 25th July, 2016, the report of the back up committee. To ensure transparency and defeat the fallacies of distractors, the Governor has directed that the presentation should be broadcast live on television and radio stations around the country. This is in line with the premium importance the Governor attaches to getting the Kogi people informed about his efforts.
Having won another of his battle against ghost workers, labour leaders in the State went on strike to demand for salary payment, even as the State had paid over 60% of the MDAs before they went on strike. Though the strike failed as a result of workers' revolt, it is instructive to know that the people of Kogi State have keyed into the New Direction Agenda of the present administration.
Except in few cases of omission, every cleared worker has been paid arrears of salaries ranging from three to four months.
While the failed strike was in its skeleton, the long drawn leadership tussle in the House of Assembly was resolved. Concerned citizens of the State, led by the Peace Ambassador, Comrade Oladele Nihi and Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan waded into the crisis and got it resolved through cooperation from all parties involved.
A lesson here: when a good leadership is enthroned, the citizens start to take their place. With the court victory, screening success, Assembly peace, cleaner and safer Lokoja, better Lokoja township roads and the mechanism against graft; detractors were washed to the last bank of the river which was the ASUU strike.
ASUU members were owed salary arrears before the present administration came on board. On assumption of office, the Governor assured the academia that he would defray salaries as soon as he was able to secure bailout. But even before the bailout , the Governor paid the lecturers two months salaries within his first 57 days in office! This is a clear declaration of respect for the academic community.
But to the Governor’s surprise, ASUU went ahead to declare strike when students were preparing to start their exams. The Governor appealed to them to resume and consider the plights of the Kogi students. But they remained adamant and unyielding. On securing bailout, the Governor paid the lecturers four months salaries.
And when they refused to resume, the world knew the strike had other intentions. The Governor should be applauded for standing by the economic rights of the Kogi people. No one should go on strike to demand tax exemption. It is an affront against equity and justice.
Again, a listening Governor said he would look into whether they were overtaxed in the past. But he remained determined not to be stampeded into mortgaging the future of the State despite his unimpeachable desire to get the students back to their classrooms.
Even when the students were misguided to storm the street, government acted responsibly by defending the rights of all. This is epochal, honourable, commendable and worthy of emulation.
As we speak, the last cloud is gone as the lecturers have agreed to go back to the class.
Light has come. The Governor has shown how a leader should react. Together, we are moving forward.
The key to excellent leadership is the ability of the leader to take decisions based on the common good.
From now, we know that Kogi cannot be taken for granted anymore. We now know that every force against good will get bad. We now know that responsibility is the mother of greatness. We now know that Kogi is in safe hands.
Fairplus has shown that he is courageous enough to defend our values and interest.
With Fairplus, all Kogites have won fairly.
Envangelist KingsleyOlorunfemi Fanwo, a journalist, is the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Kogi State.

Where were you when the 1966 coup took place?
I was inside the house when the coup took place. The military men came in around midnight. Their leader happened to be Sardauna’s boy, Chukwuma. It was Sardauna who took care of him and looked after him in his house. Sardauna was a sports-loving person. He usually went for training in the evening if he was less busy. He trained around Kingsway in Kaduna. That’s where he discovered Chukwuma who was one of three boys who normally assisted with their balls. The boys developed the habit of waiting for him at the sports venue whenever it was five in the evening. That was how he enrolled them into primary school. When they passed out, he took them to England for further studies. After their graduation he took the Nupe boys to Gusau as agricultural officers while Chukwuma said he wanted to be a military man. That was how he was sponsored and after graduation he was commissioned an officer. He was always at Sardauna’s house even after his wedding. Chukwuma’s father was a former military man but he was residing at Abakpa.
The unfortunate thing for Sardauna was that Chukwuma was the leader of that coup. We heard some disturbance in the house in Unguwar Sarki. Before we got there, they had already surrounded the house with heavy weapons. The coup plotters gained entrance into the house and met Sardauna with his three wives with one of his close confidants popularly called Sallama. Sardauna was about going out to check what was going on but his eldest wife popularly called ‘Gwaggon Kano’ pulled him back. Chukwuma had a gun. There was confusion in the house and it was in the course of a struggle that Sardauna was shot. On seeing what happened, we rushed out where we sought refuge with one of his brothers, Aliyu Maga, who was later killed. I also sustained bullet wounds as a result of gun shots
Read more at http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/encounters/late-sardauna-used-to-call-me-village-man--driver/156453.html?platform=hootsuite#7ugytoP8IiwCRlUw.99

Brooklynsouth:
Nigerian military is a true definition of useless ....imagine parading mechanics and hungry thieves as avengers ....these men are hopeless infact I believe in catholic boy's scout than this useless men,tufiakwaaa liverless mofos in the face of armed Children

Please how do you expect them to look like,oh you expect to see them with muscles,looking like van dam,arnold schwazenenger

The northern youths are protesting against corrupt leaders from their place,last time it was a senator now this one but please when will the southern youths rise up against the corrupt from their place. It shows the north youth are tired of corruption can we say same for the youths down south?

When did failing becomes an offence, but she never gave up and at least she is a law school graduate.

Posting pictures on social media is not what governance is all about,wake up Bello,Leadership is all about impacting the lives of those you lead

so people should die before then

i concur this administration has no economic direction, Nigeria is in for a long thing

I am begining to belive that the diversification of the Nigeria economy is simply a lip service and the aim of Nigeria as a nation to feed itself is a mirage with the type of rubbish the government representatives are spewing out of their mouth.
A country complaining of forex and thinking of importing grass from Brazil for the cattle rearer and commissioning 1000 security personells to protect the cattle rearers,while been silent about herdsmen killing farmers and destroying their farmland, with no paliative for farmers to increase their output,rather they want the farmers to pay for security to government.WHAT A SHAME APC.
I believe for a man who took twelve years to prepare to be President and became the President after several trials should be abreast of the problem facing the nation and thus must be armed with cut edge solutions.

Does this make sense, where are all the economist The APC led government need help

i love this political calculation by APC at least Ribadu will Checkmate Atiku in Adamawa. I love this game

Pathetic,Kogi in the hand of a tyrant of two men Yahaya Adoza Bello and Edward Onoja

What will they tell and promise the people of Edo who are presently suffering, and Femi Adeshina is saying they are not suffering. Maybe Edo people are in another country

Nigeria and the black race must look inwards to solve its own problems, You cant insult them (CNN) and come back to celebrate the politicians who misrule the nation and stole the treasury and celebrate there misdeeds

Tell us your economic policy and plan or keep quiet, its your responsibility to keep us informed

This is madness of the highest order,This people are seeing Nigerians as gullible people,they incresed the first time with the aid of Fashola and no one is complained and they want to try it again,, i get a bill of 13000naira every month for light i dont see

ALVA001:
Those of u accusing Islam and muslims of this gruesome act. Be carefull God is watching u.
'verily the unbelievers wishes to extinguish God's light with their mouth but nay Almighty God has perfected his light, even if the unbelievers hate it'.
Slander, rant, spite, curse all you like paradise is 4 d muslims alone.
May Allah's curse be upon the perpetrator of this evil(taking a forbidden soul).

The muslims are nothing but blood sucking vampires, what is different from the murder of the pastor wife in kano,the attack by muslims on a non fasting christian in kaduna,the murder and beheading of the christian man in kano

By John Akubo, Lokoja | 29 June 2016 |
Piqued by the Kogi State Government’s new policy, stopping patronage of some banks in the state, 14 commercial banks yesterday, suspended services to customers as a form of protest.
The Guardian findings revealed that the affected commercial banks took the decision in protest against the state government’s decision to open unsolicited salary accounts for civil servants in Zenith and Access Banks.
The action, it was gathered has put the affected banks in difficult situation, who lamented that the decision would make it difficult for them to recover their facilities from civil servants who hitherto banked with them.
Many customers were stranded when they came to do business at their various banks yesterday, as they were turned back, leaving only Access and Zenith Banks attending to civil servants.
The organised labour had earlier embarked on strike on Monday over alleged “imposition of strange and unsolicited salary bank account on workers by the government in utter disregard to established civil service rules.”
Other grievances leveled against the government include, “imposition of new PAYE regime on workers, non payment of salaries to local government workers, pensioners, core civil servants and non implementation of 100% minimum wage to primary school teachers.”
When The Guardian went round the capital city the banks; GuarantyTrust, UBA, Sterling, Fidelity, First Bank, EcoBank, Union, WEMA, Skye Banks, Diamond, FCMB, Unity and Stambic IBTC were all under lock and key.
Customers with their ATM cards queued up to try withdrawing from the machines that were bogged down by network issues.The combined strike of labour and the commercial banks has practically grounded both government and commercial activities in the state.
A customer in one of the banks, Joel Usman said the strike was justifiable on the grounds that a lot of civil servants whose salary accounts were in those banks had collected facilities using their salary accounts as security or collaterals with the knowledge and consent of their employer.
At a forum recently where the issue came up, Governor Yahaya Bello explained that the bailout fund received by state governments was the result of the Federal Government standing surety for them to approach deposit money banks for facilities.
In other words, against the generally held impression that the Federal Government has always doled out these funds from its coffers, it essentially provided a guarantee for the loan facility to would-be lenders, in favour of the state government.
According to him, “Due to the prevailing economic situation, cash reserves of commercial banks domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria, were currently competing for so many pressing needs simultaneously, making it increasingly difficult for the banks to finance loan facilities, especially long-term ones.
“Access and Zenith Banks were however able to step up to the plate when the state approached them. They made the first tranche of the state’s bailout funds available, but on one condition. The condition was that the funds remain domiciled in their banks.”
The organized labour had directed workers to stay away from work. But in defiance, investigations showed that workers reported for duty and signed the mandatory attendance register ordered by government.
The Commissioner of Information, Muhammed Away Imam disclosed at the secretariat that the workers came to work, adding many of them were suffering from divided loyalty.

bigboss80s:
This is not about payment of salaries. If you have been reading the news lately u will see that there are very serious corruption allegations against this man.
I think that is what this is about.

Of course the allegation are clear,even the recent withdrawal of ecological fund solely by himself without recourse to the house and without executive and all the allocations and bailout including his abuse of power

Bello is a shame to the youth in this country, a man who has collected the bailout of 20billion according to him and yet failed to pay civil servant and pensioners in the state, Ruling with impunity and dividing the house of assembly and using soldiers and thug to harass members who failed to do his bidding. Minority group of Five persons led by a thug and criminal from odolu local government are the house members he is using. His Chief of staff Edward Onoja is encouraging him to continue with this evil line.Infact Fairplus government is nothing but an student union government.

Dont politicise it,its nothing new in military and palamilitary, one your junior head the force all the senior goes,tafa balogun,okiro onovo,hafiz ringim and many where picked above there seniors and the seniors had to go.

There is only one genuine human right activist that has ever been in Nigeria and is now late, after him all others are pretenders fighting for their own right. And that person is Late but alive in our hearts, Chief Gani Fawehimi (SAM)(SAN)

tempest01:
What is this one saying?

You think they just wake up and "drill" oil anywhere?

To you know the process involved in exploration and appraisal before finding recoverable reserves?

please tell him the guy thinks drilling oil is that simple even drilling of water borehole requires a lot of procedures,that tells you the level he operates

If Buhari wears cap in church you all will flood hear on how he lacks respect for christianity

Its in the nature of the Nigeria politicians, anyone remember the story of that honourable in the last assembly who died in Abuja after a randy brunch with the female account officer?

Its quiet pathetic that a lot of us Nigerians are schooled but yet uneducated,we fail to read in details. The Federal Government is investigating the funds meant for Military weapons meant for the Boko haram Insurgents and it was discovered that the funds was been used for the election.That is called missappropriation of fund

where is the list with the names?
Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has ordered the retirement of 40 of the army's most senior generals.
They include the commanders of the five divisions of the Nigerian army.

Nigeria has been ruled by the military for 30 of the 47 years since independence but a coup is no longer likely, a BBC correspondent says.

Mr Yar'Adua was sworn in in May - the first time one elected leader had handed power to another but the elections were widely condemned.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered a similar purge of the army shortly after his inauguration in 1999.

Mr Obasanjo, himself a beneficiary of a 1975 coup, said he wanted to rid Nigerian military of its penchant for plotting coups.

But the military says Mr Yar'Adua's motives for approving the retirement of 40 top generals are different this time.

"We are now following due process and trying to go back to the best military traditions," Nigerian defence spokesman Col MD Yusuf told the BBC News website.

"There is nothing abnormal about that number of officers being retired. If they joined the army at the same time, isn't it normal that they'd attain retirement age at the same time too?"

Mr Obasanjo became Nigeria's first democratically elected president after 16 years of military rule in 1999.



Obasanjo's aides are preparing a list of hundreds of officers – out of a corps of perhaps 6,000 – to be retired, said a Nigerian military source who asked not to be named. The military is estimated to number 80,000 soldiers, although Nigerian and Western analysts say thousands probably are "ghosts" – troops who don't exist, but whose paychecks are collected by corrupt officers.

"All officers who served for six months or more in political posts" – as ministers, state governors, heads of government agencies and state-owned companies – will get retirement orders, the source said. Lower-ranking officers who served as aides or assistants to those men will get them, too, sources said.

Obasanjo and his new military chiefs are expected to conduct the purge quickly. "I would be surprised if we don't see this weeding out done within two months," said Anselm Okolo, an editor in Abuja, the capital, for the Nigerian weekly news magazine, Tell.

Nigerians' worries of a military coup have eased with Obasanjo's inauguration. After Abacha's death last June 8, his successor, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, retired Abacha's closest aides and led the shift to elected rule. More senior figures from the Abacha years resigned on May 29 with Abubakar.

Within hours of taking office, Obasanjo named chiefs of the Nigerian army, navy and air force who never had held political posts.

The new president – who ruled in the late 1970s and then handed power back to civilians – declared in his inaugural address that, "as a retired officer, my heart bleeds to see the degradation in the proficiency of the military. A great deal of reorientation has to be undertaken" including "retraining and reeducation . . . to ensure that the military submits to civil authority and regains its pride, professionalism and traditions."

where is Sen Ben Bruce,his state need the same help he intend giving to osun state,i guess charity begins at home(Bayelsa) .

i think these APC propaganda has been taken too far, this is absurd stupidity. a large number of person have lost jobs since APC came to power in every sector of the economy.I have lots of person who lost their jobs after the minister for trade and investment stopped the legal meterology contract for crude preshipment in the department of weights and measures of the ministry of trade.APC PLEASE WAKE UP AND BE RESPONSIBLE THE TIME FOR CAMPAIGN AND MAKING EXCUSES IS OVER

You dont like an Edo mother inlaw but you like an edo husband,why dont you marry an Ibo man,Madam yo also will be a mother in law one day.Too much of home videos is affecting your psyche

The guy has been so quiet,the ministry has a total budget of 16,734,729,961

TOTAL PERSONNELS 8,312,576,171
TOTAL OVERHEAD 1,089,530,533
TOTAL RECURRENT 9,402,106,704
TOTALCAPITAL 7,332,623,257

1.
0233001001
FEDERAL MINISTRY OF SOLID MINERALS DEVELOPMENT - HQTRS
3,794,181,873

2.
0233002001
COUNCIL OF NIGERIAN MINING ENGINEERS AND GEOSCIENCES
87,628,015

3.
023300300
NIGERIAN GEOLOGICAL SURVEY AGENCY.
3,106,545,987

4.
0233004001
NATIONAL STEEL RAW MATERIALS EXPLORATION AGENCY, KADUNA
1,965,134,692

5.
0233005001
NATIONAL METALLURGICAL DEVELOPMENT CENTRE, JOS
691,813,191

6.
0233006001
METALLURGICAL TRAINING INSTITUTE, ONITSHA
638,532,151

7.
0233008001
NATIONAL IRON ORE MINING PROJECT - ITAKPE
1,600,392,645

8.
0233009001
NIGERIA INSTITUTE OF MINING AND GEOSCIENCE
349,293,078

9.
0233010001
NIGERIA MINING CADASTRE OFFICE & CENTRES
393,083,538

10.
0233011001
AJAOKUTA STEEL COMPANY LIMITED
3,911,632,391

11.
0233012001
SOLID MINERAL DEVELOPMENT FUND OFFICE
196,492,402

If they cannot agree on ordinary name ,how do they hope to leave in biafra