By Shaibu Stephen Ojate<\/p>\n
During my secondary school days and as a literature Student, there was
\none interesting book we read for our preparation for the WAEC
\nexamination, titled “Who is to be blamed?”.<\/p>\n
The book gave a detail account of one king who married his biological
\nmother unknown to both. The tale of the story had it that in one society
\nit was the culture of the people that any child born must be taken to
\nshrine to know his or her star or destiny.<\/p>\n
One particular King’s Son was taken to the shrine for consultation and
\ntheir priest told the parent after during all manners of rites that he
\nforesee unusual of the child’s future. The culture of the society in
\ncentered recommended outright abandonment of such children in the evil
\nforest. Such children are left in the forest till hunger starves them to
\ndeath.<\/p>\n
As was the dictate of the culture, this unfortunate Son was left in the
\nthick forest and one Hunter from a neighboring village found him in his
\nhunting expedition. The hunter took the child home and raises him till
\nadulthood.\u00a0 The unfortunate son adopted the culture of the village he
\nwas raised in.<\/p>\n
One certain day there was an inter-village war and the other side
\n(original village) was winning. The villagers where this child was
\nraised keep losing soul in every battle. The village elders could not
\ntake it further as urgent meeting was held and it was resolved that
\nwhoever led the battle and help them victorious will automatically
\nemerge as the village king.\u00a0 The adopted Son led the warriors and wages
\na reiteration war against his biological village and kills many and even
\ntheir king, his real biological father unknown to him.<\/p>\n
When he killed the other king he took over his wife and that was how he
\nmanaged to marry his real biological mother unknown to him. He had
\nsexual intercourse with her and bore him children. As years go by, an
\nepidemic stroke the community and people begin to die mysteriously. The
\nking summoned meeting and the chief priest was made to consult the
\noracle.<\/p>\n
After consultation, the oracle priest told them that someone in the
\nvillage has committed an abominable act which brought this unfortunate
\nincident. The king sermon a meeting again and the Elders unanimously
\npassed a verdict that whoever is found culpable must die.\u00a0 After another
\nconsultation, it was revealed that the epidemic in the society was
\ncaused by the king who married his biological mother.<\/p>\n
The author of the book at the end of the story put a question to the
\nreader that in this case, who is to be blamed? Is it the king, his
\nbiological mother or the shrine or the culture?<\/p>\n
The tale I have given above is similar to the present drama of salaries
\nimpasse in Kogi State. The unexpected in the book which made many to
\nstart apportion blames on who should be held responsible is just the
\nsame way with the unpaid salaries in Kogi State.<\/p>\n
The incumbent has serially accused the immediate past Governor of the
\nState for causing his nightmare and the Capt.\u00a0 Idris Wads is therefore
\nusing all arsenals to educate the public that he is not responsible for
\nhis nightmare in Kogi State even though percentage salary payment
\nstarted during his tenure. The populaces are either apportioning blame
\nof unpaid salaries to either Governor Bello or Capt Wada.<\/p>\n
Thus, the question is who should be really held responsible for the
\nsalary palaver in Kogi State? Is it Governor Bello or Immediate past
\nGovernor?<\/p>\n
My take on the book read is that neither the biological mother nor the
\nking his real biological son who mistakenly married his Mother should be
\nheld responsible. So, also I will equally replicate the same to unpaid
\nsalary saga in Kogi State.<\/p>\n
To educate my readers, Governor Bello and immediate Governor of the
\nState Capt. Wada should not be held responsible. I see the duo as
\nvictims of circumstances.<\/p>\n
I have every reason to say that those insulting the duo are not fair at
\nall.\u00a0 From the story line of Captain Idris Wada, He said and I quote
\n\u2018\u2019 the average monthly allocation during my tenure stood at circa
\nNGN 3.3Bn and the breakdown of how it was spent is as follows:
\n1. Monthly SALARY payments NGN 2.6Bn
\n2. Monthly PENSION payments NGN 400m
\n3. Monthly Impress and subventions to MINISTRIES and TERTIARY
\nINSTITUTIONS NGN 200m
\n4. Total comes to circa NGN 3.2Bn
\nAs you can see, out of our average monthly allocation of NGN 3.3Bn, we
\nwere left with roughly NGN 100m to cater for projects and other pressing
\nneeds. It was the lack of funds that motivated our desire to access the
\nBond market to raise NGN 20Bn for capital projects, out of which NGN 8Bn
\nwas released, Wada hinted\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n
From the piece above, my conclusion is that Kogi State is already broke
\nwhen Wada takeover the office. The administration of Late Prince
\nAbubakar Audu and Ibrahim Idris had already laddened the State with
\nheavy debt and after deduction of loan repayment, little or nothing is
\nleft to perform wonder in the State but out of our ignorance we
\nlampooned Wada and Yahaya Bello for not measuring up to expectation
\nunlike Governor Audu and Ibahim Idri. We even regarded them as worst
\nGovernors in the history of the Nation.<\/p>\n
To buttress again, Alhaji Yahaya Bello is the greatest victim of this
\ncircumstance. I maintain this stance because when i put question to
\nCapt. Wada on what he used the N20Billion bond from Nigeria Security
\nExchange for and he openly declared that it was used to service salary
\npayment in the State. I asked again if he could settle the entire bond
\nand interest before leaving the office and said no.<\/p>\n
From the take of Captain Wada, the administration of Governor Bello is
\nstill repaying N20Billion bond capital and servicing all manners of
\nloans obtained by his predecessor and all past Governors of the State.
\nThere is little or nothing he can do in this case at the immediate time.<\/p>\n
For those calling for the outright ousting of Governor Bello on account
\nof unpaid salaries in the State are not helping matter as that is not a
\npossible solution to the salary impasse in Kogi State. I am saying this
\nbecause there is likelihood that in the event the populace voted against
\nGovernor Bello, there is every possibility that his administration might
\ngo for huge loan at the verge of leaving office just like how Capt. Wada
\ndid for the N20Billion bond loan.<\/p>\n
This will then leaves a heavy debt again for the new incoming
\nadministration and the same lashing we are giving Governor Bello will
\nequally be given to the new government. Then, the complaint on unpaid
\nsalaries will remain unchanged again.<\/p>\n
To me, changing the government in power on an account of one undoing or
\nexcuse had not helped and should not reoccupy our minds. Look at the
\nNation at large, we call for the change of power from PDP to APC on
\naccount of corruption, has corruption ended today under APC led
\ngovernment? We demanded for a change of President Jonathan to President
\nBuhari on account of Billion of Naira spent on fuel subsidy, has fuel
\nsubsidy gone today? Rather the fuel subsidy turns from Billions under
\nPresident Jonathan to Trillion under President Buhari.<\/p>\n
The above illustrations show that there is more to the national
\nchallenges that we a times complained off. Just like I totally condemn
\nan idea of killing the king in the book read so also I condemn the
\nousting campaign of Governor Yahaya Bello from office on account of
\nunpaid salary palaver in the State. It was not Governor Bello deliberate
\nmaking but just suffering from the offences he did not commit.<\/p>\n
When late Abubakar Audu was moving from one part of the world obtaining
\nhuge loan for the State which repayment span 20 years, didn\u2019t we ever
\nenvisage that there is doom period ahead?<\/p>\n
So, the doom period happens under Governor Bello\u2019s administration
\nwhich everyone is suffering for now in terms of unpaid salaries and
\ndevelopmental projects. The doom happened because after deductions from
\nsource on huge loans repayment obtained by past Governors of the State,
\nnothing or little is left behind. So, removing Governor Bello is not the
\nsolution and is tantamount to chasing shadow.<\/p>\n
Shaibu Stephen Ojate is a Journalist and Public Affairs Commentator
\nwrites from Abuja. He is on whatsapp and reachable via phone number
\n09075716236.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Shaibu Stephen Ojate During my secondary school days and as a literature Student, there was one interesting book we read for our preparation for the WAEC examination, titled “Who…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n