By Joseph Edegbo
Kaduna ( Nigeria) — It all began last month (October 2017) when Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, north central Nigeria invited Kogi East Elders Council to a meeting in Lokoja through a letter dated 17th October 2017.
The invitation was in response to a communique the Elders issued after their emergency meeting in Abuja on 20th Sept 2017, regarding the crises bedeviling the State.
At the meeting at Government House Lokoja, Governor Bello briefed the council’s delegation led by its Deputy Chairman, Gabriel Aduku on government policies and programmes, the general state of polity, the State’s income including the Paris Club refund and bail out funds.
Unfortunately for the Governor and his team, they had failed to realize the adage that says “There is more than meets the eyes.”
So, not convinced by the Executive briefings, the Elders then decided to apply their elderly wisdom by deploying binoculars directly at the State’s Vault, resulting in the revelation that huge revenue totaling One hundred and Sixty- Seven billion Naira ( N167Bn) accrued to Yahaya Bello’s Administration from 2016 to Sept 30th 2017.
Now that the Elders have come out with these startling facts and figures as shown in the excerpts below, the Governor should now be able to explain to the people of Kogi State how his Administration spent their monies.
“We consider it ironic that the government is feigning the lack of resources to pay civil servants and pensioners their emoluments in spite of the huge funds that accrued to the state and local governments from the federation account and internally generated revenues since 2016. Our findings have shown the following inflow of cash into the coffers of Kogi State government since 2016.
1.     FAAC Allocations to the State                                     60,500,000,000.00
2.     FAAC Allocations (LGAs)                        49,300,000,000.00
3.     FG bailout                                     20,000,000,000.00
4.     Paris Club Refund (1st& 2ndtranches)              17,200,000,000.00
5.     Internally Generated Revenue (estimated as at September 30, 2017)  20,000,000,000.00
Total                                            N167,000,000,000.00
From the above figures it is apparent that the average monthly inflow or receipts of funds by the Kogi State Government for 21 months is, on the average, N8 billion. In terms of expenditure, below is an outline of civil servants and pensioners salaries and emoluments between 2012 and 2015 before Governor Bello took over:
1.     State workers’ salaries/pensions                                 2,600,000,000.00
2.     LGAs Staff Salaries/Pensions                       847,800,000.00
3.     LGAs Teachers’ Salaries/pensions                  1, 300,000,000.00
Total                                             N4,747,800,000.00
The average monthly emolument to workers in Kogi State before Governor Bello’s tenure (including those of the so-called ghost workers) was ofN4.8 billion.
At present, the excess after wage bill is put at N3.2 billion, therefore, the total surplus that has accumulated from January 2016 to September 2017 is N67 billion. This amount should be available for infrastructure development, but the projects which might have gulped this sum are not on ground for the people of Kogi State to see.
If the government is not engaged in the construction of vital infrastructure in the state, why has government been unable to pay the salaries of even the ‘cleared civil servants’ as at when due? Why did the state government embark on a borrowing adventure from commercial banks, and what has government used the borrowed money to service?
The government wasted millions of naira on newspaper advertisements to showcase the number of employees who have been cleared and paid, but it shamelessly admitted that in spite of the funds accruing to the state, government still owed the salaries of some ‘cleared workers.’
It is nothing short of wickedness for the Kogi State government to deny workers their salaries and pensioners ’stipends in the face of such abundant financial resources.
The excuse of refining the civil service system or of running a digital administration does not hold water, as every improvement on an administrative system is supposed to produce a positive result, not a negative one that leaves the people in anguish and penury.
The condition of Kogi State has degenerated to a situation in which federal lawmakers had to donate bags of rice to Kogi State workers, when the state government has stuffed workers’ earned salaries under its armpit”.
Excellent report.