By Oladele John Nihi
[I] appeal to Mr. Godwin Emefiele, to save us and help avert this calamity that is about to befall Kogi State by withholding the release of these bailout funds till all court cases challenging the victory of the sitting governor are over. The good people of Kogi State woke up on the morning of April 28th, 2016 to the news of a fresh approval of the bailout fund applied for in September, 2015 by the immediate past governor of the State, Capt. Idris Wada.
Mr. Asiwaju Asiru Idris, Special Adviser on Finance, Economy, Commerce and Investment to Kogi State governor made the announcement of this fresh approval in Saudi Arabia where himself and Governor Yahaya Bello were on a hajj. Ordinarily, this news calls for celebration, especially at this time when Kogi State civil servants are owed four month salaries, local government staff are being paid in percentages of their salaries, pensioners are not paid their pension, projects are being abandoned for lack of funds, among others, but releasing bailout funds to Kogi State at such a critical political period when we are counting down to the ruling from the electoral tribunal is totally unacceptable and unwise. The fact is that such release at this time is capable of being diverted to shop for justice or cause possible distraction to justice. A similar situation led to the withholding of the state’s bailout funds last year, due to the fear of the then state governor Capt. Idris Wada diverting the funds for election. One would recall that the attempts made by Capt. Wada to secure the bailout funds then were met with strong opposition from the All Progressives Congress (APC), insinuating a possible diversion of the funds by the People Democratic Party (PDP).
The first and major concern of Kogites right now is the fear of a secret and unholy deal between Yahaya Bello, Kogi State governor and Godwin Emefiele, Central Bank governor due to the working relationship of the apex bank governor and Mr. Asiwaju Asiru Idris. This is even more worrisome considering the revelation of Mr. Emefiele’s role in the recent secret CBN recruitments that makes people question his integrity and capacity for following due process. Mr. Asiwaju Asiru Idris, who is a Special Adviser to Kogi State governor and currently on sabbatical leave as the Zenith Bank Obajana branch manager, must have used the Zenith Bank structure to seal a deal with the Central Bank boss who up to the time of his appointment was Managing Director of Zenith Bank. It is surprising and of great concern hearing from Mr. Asiru that the said fresh approval was given via a telephone call from the Central Bank to the Kogi State governor, whereas the same CBN has released a statement claiming that approval had already been given to Capt. Idris Wada last year before the eventual withholding of the funds on political grounds.
With all sense of concern, and judging from the ugly incidences that followed such bailout funds being released to some states, and which were diverted into private purses and generally mismanaged, leaving the state poorer than it was initially, as a result of the monthly refunds of the bailout, I would wish to once again appeal to the CBN governor to stay action for now. Otherwise, the Central Bank of Nigeria should handle the disbursement in its entirety by setting up a tripartite committee consisting representatives from Central Bank, Kogi State government and labour unions in the State to supervise and make public all details relating to it disbursement to the last kobo. Oladele John Nihi, a political scientist writes from Lokoja and can be reached through Talk2deleonline@yahoo.co.uk.
