SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY, GOVERNOR YAHAYA BELLO OF KOGI STATE AT A STAKEHOLDERS INTERACTIVE SESSION HELD AT GOVERNMENT HOUSE LOKOJA
PROTOCOLS
INTRODUCTION
I welcome you all to this interactive session. It is a timeout for heart to heart talk amongst stakeholders in the Kogi New Direction Agenda. Everyone here is a leader at one level or the other in the State and while the buck stops at my table as the Governor, I choose to govern by only democratic precepts which require that consultations such as this one be frequent and frank. I called for this meeting because there is a need for us to tell ourselves some home truths.
Ordinarily, we should be slowing down for Sallah and allowing the muslim ummah to focus on their devotions and last minute preparations. However wisdom and good governance demand that we respond quickly and decisively to some recent events. I am therefore glad you could make this meeting despite the short notice. Your selfless response to this invitation is, in my opinion, a signal of your commitment to the prosperity and progress of Kogi State.
Chief among the ‘recent events’ I referred to above is the fact that our state is under attack from wicked people. Some of them are hiding in plain sight among us while others steal in from outside to wreak their havoc and vanish. Some act personally, others by proxy. In all cases, their main aim is the distortion of the actions of both the government and the governed in order to to cause mischief and disaffection. Their chief weapon has been lies and deliberate falsehoods.
We have handed them defeat after defeat and we will not stop. At the polls, they failed, some twice. At the Tribunals and courts, they failed a record 9 times in one week. In their brand of petty politics they have failed innumerable times as again and again as their stratagems collapsed. As you can all attest, ours is a divine mandate safeguarded by the Hands of the Almighty and our own iron will to contend with anyone or anything that tries to foist on us anything less than the Will of the Almighty. For as many times as they are foolhardy enough to come after us by any way or means at all, for so many times will they continue to lose with ignominy.
We have therefore summoned you today assure you that you are on the winning team and to arm you with the weapons of truth. When you leave here your questions will be answered, your worries assuaged and your capability to answer the questions of your constituents strengthened. After this speech, several key functionaries of the Administration will brief you on aspects of our governance that impinge on their portfolios and you can ask questions, any questions.
CIVIL SERVICE AND PENSION REFORMS
In my Inaugural Speech, Civil Service and Pension Reforms were a key promise. We knew the system had become very rotten and criminally bloated. The monthly wage bill was outstripping the monthly Federal allocations at a time Crude Oil dependent economies like ours were suffering from a global crash in prices. We set up the Screening Committee to tackle the menace of ghost workers, clean up the Civil Service and free up valuable funds for the business of governance.
We ensured that Labour had a front row seat in that Committee and we have treated them with the requisite respect up till now. At a point they reported problems with the first Chairman of the Committee and after we looked into their complaints, we found reasons to change him and fill his position with another candidate almost unilaterally chosen by Labour. The screening exercise is gradually winding down and I give you my words that it was worth every effort and resource we put into it.
There was no way our Civil Service would not have collapsed under the weight of the fraudulent outgoings it was overloaded with in past Administrations. It was only a matter of time before total non-payment of salaries and emoluments or the tiny part-payments which had become the norm in successive past administrations would have erupted in a massive uprising by suffering Civil Servants that would have crippled this state.
Our disappointment is that as we speak, the Labour leaders seem to have turned their backs on the spirit of camaraderie with which we started. There is supposed to be a strike ongoing in Kogi State called by the very same Labour leaders who we placed in the forefront of the screening exercise and who saw firsthand the corruption that was unearthed nearly everywhere by the exercise. I am glad to use the word, ‘supposed’, to describe the ill-fated strike because our workers turned up for work as usual while those not physically in the offices could be found at the screening centre or the participating banks putting their houses in order.
Frankly, we do not frankly understand the motivation of our labour leaders for trying to instigate an industrial action at this critical point, and we have tried really hard to understand their motives so that we may empathize and perhaps make amends. As at this moment, we still cannot find cogent reasons for it. Maybe they can help us clear that up today. I trust the Labour Delegation who were duly invited to this emergency meeting like everyone else will enlighten us on what we have done wrong as an Administration at any time during the Screening Exercise to provoke their anger.
Many Questions come to mind but we invite them to address these few:
1. Should we not have conducted the screening at all and let it be business as usual for the godless and gutless looters who have masqueraded as our leaders in the past? Should we have left these heartless murderers to continue in business at the expense of our people while workers and pensioners continue to drop dead from avoidable sufferings?
2. Should we have overlooked the daylight robbery we uncovered and pretended that we did not find all those conduits for siphoning the resources of our state through ghost workers by inhuman people who basically turned our Civil Service into personal ATM Machines for themselves, their wives, concubines and other privies?
3. Or maybe, like some ‘leaders’ tried to advise us, we should have learnt from the bitter lessons Labour taught past administrations and let sleeping dogs lie so that having discovered these acts of unpardonable criminality we should have taken our cut, looked the other way, and allowed the rape and dispossession of our people to continue unchecked?
Well, anybody who knows Yahaya Bello will also know that I cannot do any of these things. I was threatened, I was the subject of highly toxic calumnies but I choose to remain intrepid. I am undeterred and I cannot run from my duties, no matter the obstacles. I swore to always act in the best interests of Kogi State and by the help of God, that is what I will continue to do.
I will try to set the records straight and let our assembled people judge for themselves.
It is the sad situation of Kogi State, like most other states in Nigeria, that the monthly FAAC Allocations constitute the major bulk of our income. The money is almost entirely made up of the Federal Government’s Crude Oil earnings. The result is that now the global price of crude has slumped, there is also the inevitable slump in the monies that accrue to the constituent parts of the Nigerian nation. Everyone is feeling the painful pinch including Kogi State where the monthly salaries of about 24,000 Civil Servants is nearly twice the current monthly allocations – technically leaving nothing for the rest of our 3.5m residents.
A comparative analysis of the January to June allocations to Kogi State in 2015 with what we have received over the same period in 2016 paints the bleak picture more. In 2015 it came to a total of about N22.06bn while in 2016 it is just over N13.1bn. Our Local Government Areas got about 10.8bn in 2016 as against N15.1bn received by Captain Idris Wada for the same period in 2015. Anyone can see the harsh realities. The situation will suggest that we would be justified if we do only half of what those before us did, no matter how bad, but our mindset at all times is to not only do our best, but to make sure that our best answers the challenges of the times.
Do not think the temptation was not there to hide under the dirty skirts of the past PDP Administration in the state to start paying minor percentages of salaries or none at all. I certainly had the precedent left by Captain Idris Wada and others and could have had a field day at the expense of the workers. I just did not have the hard-heartedness required to do it. I sympathized with the plight of our workers while campaigning, promised them as much welfare as our resources could provide if I ever made it to Government House, how could I turn around to worsen their sufferings as Governor? That is certain to draw God’s punishment on anyone and his posterity.
Shortly after my swearing-in I started paying full salaries, even multiple times in a given month while we worked to get the bailout funds. Happily, our efforts paid off and we were able to access 40% of our Bailout funds a little above one month ago. Between Zenith and Access Banks we have been able to commence draw down on N20bn out of the N50bn approved for us by the Central Bank of Nigeria. As at today, there is no Civil Servant who will say he or she has not received salary payments. Some have received 3 or more.
To be more specific, we started payments with the the Judiciary and the Tertiary Institutions. They received 4 months salaries leaving only one month outstanding. All the Local Government Areas have paid staff 3 months salaries and are currently in possession of funds to pay another 2 months once the formalities are done. All MDAs have also been paid as at today. That means we have paid every category of cleared workers. Some may be in the bank waiting to access their monies but as an Administration we are done with our end and what remains are the normal banking processes between workers and their bankers.
Only Zenith Bank and Access bank stepped up to fund the bailout for Kogi State. Like we have reiterated many times before, the bailout funds are not a grant of money from the Federal Government to be spent without obligations. It is a loan which must be repaid to the financing banks within stipulated terms. What we do with it has implications for our future generations. This means the funds must be judiciously applied to purpose. For the records, we too do not completely like their conditions one hundred percent, especially the requirements for account openings, but everything dovetails into the Screening Exercise, and that is our priority.
Of course we could have rejected Zenith and Access and looked to other banks for the money but that means we may still be looking for now. It also means that as no other bank has indicated interest till now our workers may still be waiting endlessly for their money. Additionally, the Labour leadership could not guarantee that the long-suffering workforce was willing to remain patient if that were to be the case till we found other financiers, if at all. We did what we believed was best in the circumstances. We will keep trying to renegotiate the terms as the conditions change.
While genuine worker have their money in their hands, there are people who will never get our monies again. These are persons who have posed as staff, some for many years, who had no business collecting our monies even once for the simple reason that they are in the system fraudulently. They know that any attempt to show up for salaries after now may spell the last time they enjoy liberty for a while. Many of them have voluntarily disappeared but the security agents are on their trails. It is this category of people and their sponsors who have been scandalizing the Administration and trying to throw a spanner in the works. We are however undaunted and will continue to work till they are apprehended, reveal their accomplices and regurgitate what they have stolen and swallowed.
As an aside:
It has come to our notice that some banks operating in Kogi State lent active support to the failed attempt at strike action last week. Some of them actually ordered their workers to stay home in misguided attempts at solidarity. They also went so far as to illegal reprogramme ATM Machines in their premises to reject cards issued by certain other banks thereby throwing the populace into unnecessary suffering.
Their said actions amounted to an undermining of the apparati of State, as well as deliberate breaches of the Banking Regulations and operational codes of conduct applicable in Kogi State. Every other category of business in the private sector opened as usual, and remained unmolested by Labour. They are therefore without excuse. We shall definitely have a hard talk with them soon but in the meanwhile, I hereby direct any financial house still engaging in such ill-advised misconduct to retrace her steps immediately and desist from a repeat in the future.
May I also remind these banks that they have profited for long from doing business in Kogi State including carrying salary and other state accounts and the least they can do is give back in these difficult times. That will certainly be more proactive and profitable than sulking and instigating revolt. Our doors are open and we are willing to hold conversations about how to move forward together.
We also believe that Labour can help here by leveraging members’ mass market appeal to pressure some of these banks to do their bit for Kogi State. They ought to be initiating competitive products of their own which the Administration can access on the right terms to improve the lot of our workers and the generality of our people.
MATTERS ARISING
1. Tax Rebates: We have been approached to grant tax rebates and reduce the taxes payable across board but we have had to say a firm NO. Taxes are the way forward globally, and more particularly so in the present socioeconomic challenges in Nigeria. It is the the heart of our reinvented Internally Generated Revenue Policy. Anyone who loves the progress of Kogi State will not ask for tax rebates or exemptions of any kind now. Our position has not gone down well with some people and they have it clear. Their displeasure is noted, but the answer is still NO.
4. Continuing Strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), KSU Branch: This is very unfortunate to say the least, especially as Tertiary Institutions were the first line charge in the disbursement of the bailout. They have received 4 out of the 5 months of salaries outstanding, but they keep asking for preferential treatment which we cannot accommodate now. Other sections of the service need to be considered too. Happily, we have only accessed only 40% of the bailout funds approved for us. We will continue to proportionately revisit ASUU members’ entitlements as we access more, but right now I urge them to return to the classroom. Our children need to be taught. Money can be paid but lost lives and opportunities cannot and our students are in danger of both each day they remain out of the classroom.
5. 2015 IMPROMPTU EMPLOYMENTS: The past Administration does not cease to amaze us with her fecklessness in governance. How a government that could not pay her existing workers could find wisdom in further bloating the workforce in the twilight of her tenure is a major puzzle. All employments made in 2015 remain suspended till further notice. We will dispassionately review them in the light of the current realities and decide way forward with compassion.
6. LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTONOMY: We have granted autonomy to the 21 LGAs of Kogi State and there is no going back on that. Every lobbying to reverse this should be deemed a failure from inception. We have a firm handle on the Administrators and their Teams and will know if they embrace corrupt practices and we will deal with them appropriately.
CONCLUSION
This meeting was conceived to bring all participants of goodwill up to speed on the activities of government so they can interpret current happenings in the light of the facts and inform their constituents appropriately. By giving you information today, we expect you will be better positioned to make informed decisions about the programmes and efforts of government and communicate same clearly to your constituents so we can combat the pernicious lies peddled by our detractors together.
Thank you once again for coming.
God bless Nigeria.
God bless Kogi State.
God bless you.
HIS EXCELLENCY
GOVERNOR YAHAYA BELLO
4TH EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR
KOGI STATE
4TH JULY, 2016.
