The former governor of Kogi State, Capt. Idris Wada has reacted to Kogi State governor’s Independence day broadcast, saying, Alhaji Yahaya Bello was grossly incompetent in governance in the last five years.
Wada’s reaction followed the governor’s claim that he inherited State workers’ salary arrears to the tune of N50 billion which distracted him from developing infrastructure in his first term of office.
But the immediate past governor who didn’t find the claim funny stressed that Yahaya Bello’s blame game in the past five years which has virtually grounded the State was a sign of incompetence.
Governor Yahaya Bello’s broadcast, to celebrate 60 Anniversary of the country said: “let me inform you that this administration has had to clear over N50 billion in salary obligations inherited from previous administrations’, but Wada while describing the claim as lies reminded the governor that the bail out fund which his administration applied for was paid him to governor Bello.
The ex-governor further explained that, not withstanding a drop in Local Government allocation during his tenure of office, all local government workers were owed N46 billion with State workers’ indebtedness of N5.2 billion, a total of N50.2 billion which the bail out would have liquidated it before his exit from office.
Wada revealed that his administration was using two allocations to offset one month workers’ salaries based on advice of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Kogi State chapter, which he noted, his administration owed only two months salary before he left office.
“The bail out fund was to clear salary arrears of Local government workers but was not released during my tenure but was released to Bello which he refused to use for the purposes for which it was meant for”.
He expressed surprise that the governor continue to trivialise issues and getting involved in folly when important needs were begging for attention in Kogi State.
“When I hear that vehicles, travellers and residents are stranded in Ganaja not being able to cross, I feel bad and I think that should be the major concern of any government, not to be engaging in frivolity of blame game and outright propaganda.
Wada further revealed that Kogi State indebtedness stood at N120 billion, bemoaning that the State lack capacity to incur such debts.
On how he managed debt issues, before he left office in 2016, he said:
“Every action we took when I was there concerning the finances of the state were subjected to serious scrutiny and debate unlike the present scenario when they just take decision without proper analysis”.
“We know our limitations in terms of exposing the state to debt burden. We knew we cannot compete with Lagos or Rivers in terms of borrowing, that was why we limited ourselves to what we have the capacity to borrow, but the present administration have gone ahead to expose the state beyond her capacity and that is unfortunate”.
According to him, he meant to solve part of the flood ravaging Lokoja his administration was working on the Bye pass, the kabawa embarkment, noting that if the project had been completed, the agony people are facing now would have been a thing of the past.
