Governor Bello and Kogi striking doctors
Kogi state governor Yahaya Bello recently threatened to invoke the no work no pay policy against the striking medical doctors of the state. This is to me very annoying and wrong of him considering the fact that the he has been unable to clear outstanding salaries and allowances of state workers for up to twelve months as confirmed by his Chief of Staff Edward Onoja in an interview recently.
The governor should pay the state workers their outstanding salaries and allowances without delay. There should be no room for excuses. If the state had no money to meet its financial obligations, the governor wouldn’t have appointed too many special advisers/assistants. It is on record that he has more special advisers than the president and vice president. Even richer states appointed fewer advisers due to economic recession. Kaduna State, for example, has less than fifteen advisers. The president has less than twenty. He misplaced his priority by appointing 63 special advisers in March 2017, in addition to the existing ones that started with him shortly after his inauguration. Ironically, he owes workers twelve months salaries.
The saddest thing is that most of his appointees are having duplicating functions. He should better wake up or prepare his mind to serve for only one term. He should start by sacking all his 63 needless and unnecessary advisers (Mercy Johnson and Co). He should get sound, dedicated and experienced men and women from the state civil service to advise him on key issues especially on ways to increase the states internally generated revenue and boost the economy.
Three to five experienced advisers are enough for him to run the state as it is faced with economic problems. He could also source for free expert advice from Kogi state indigenes who have distinguished themselves in tertiary institutions and other government or private agencies. He is lucky to have two universities in his state. He could easily seek expert advice from learned academicians from time to time instead of appointing 63 redundant aides. I hope the Kogi state governor heeds to this call as I leave him with this words as admonished by The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, who urged all employees to “Pay workers their wages before their sweats gets dry.” The sweats of Kogi state workers have dried up for about twelve months, the governor needs to act fast. Halilu Hassan, Abuja.