Igala Vanguard’s Letter To Ohinoyi Ebiraland: A Clear Conscience Fears No Accusation – John Ozovehe

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The Igala Youth Vanguard writes to His Royal Majesty, Alh. Ado Ibrahim on the “IMPERATIVES FOR PEACE AMONG THE VARIOUS ETHNIC NATIONALITIES IN KOGI STATE: THE NEED FOR GOV. YAHAYA BELLO TO SHEATH HIS SWORD”.

Below are the pointers highlighted by the group as examples of how His Excellency, Yahaya Bello has “begun a systemic yet undisguised battle to decimate and dislocate the Igala nationality” amidst other accusations “promoted by the Bello maladministration”:

  1. Most of the Permanent Secretaries, Directors and other top civil servants Governor Bello suspended since March are Igalas.
  1. Many Igalas holding sensitive positions in Kogi State civil service have been transferred or rendered redundant by the new Sherif.
  1. We have reasons to believe that the current unending screening and staff verification exercise is targeted at exterminating the Igalas not only from the civil service but possibly from the face of the earth.
  1. The controversial exercise has resulted in the sudden death of many igala sons and daughters who are virtually bread winners of their families within the state. Most of the victims have either been killed in the series of road accidents witnessed in the large vehicular movements that characterized the exercise or while waiting to be screened.
  1. Many of our people have been left without salaries since last December occasioning serious hardship in the land. Perhaps, our numerical strength may have made us more susceptible to these ills. Even at that, it can not be justified.

Specifically, the group accused the governor of his moves “to actualize his threat to witch-hunt prominent Igala sons and daughters who have held public offices in the State” by constituting a Judicial Commission of enquiry whose ToR is to probe the financial activities of the last two administrations. They also identified the “unprecedented achievements” recorded by the duo of Alh. Ibrahim Idris and Idris Wada which is why the probe is “intended to rubbish the hard earned reputation of these statesmen”.

From the foregoing, I would like to posit that a “clear conscience fears no accusation” and that “he who has no grains spread outside has less concern for rain”. In my sentiment, the letter is needless, except that it has set out to insight the Igala ‘race’ against other ‘races’ and to rub in the mud the reputation Yahaya Bello is trying to build. I hope the group is not circuitously attempting to shield their brothers and sisters from rendering accounts of their stewardship when they had the opportunity to contribute their quota to the growth and development of Kogi State?

In the build up to 2015 State Election, we protested the gross marginalization of other districts in Kogi State piloted by kinsmen of the ‘Igala race’. We published a graphical representation of how the Central contributes about 70% of IGR to the state, yet 80% of the state’s capital projects go to the East (Needless to emphasize there were no infrastructural development to support this statistics in reality). We protested, of how the state workforce was dominated by the East; a situation where a combination of both Central and West is still far less in juxtaposition with figures from the East. We protested of how appointments into public offices were marginally done to exterminate the political strength of other districts and by extension, their contribution to major decisions of the state.

Tom Adaba, in his published article “Wada and Marginalization in Kogi” puts the record of Permanent Secretaries at 32, where the ‘Igala race’ occupies 24 and other districts occupy a petite figure of 4 each. It’s a common knowledge that the Igalas will dominate the list of secretaries suspended, not because the Governor has set out to witch-haunt anybody but because they almost turned government ministries to their ancestral homes. Without much ado, one could easily points where the juicy of these positions goes.

Equitable distribution of appointments across the 3 districts of Kogi State both in the Civil Service and public offices was never observed in the previous administrations like we are witnessing now, hence the cacophonous rendition of the demand for power shift, chiefly to balance this lopsidedness.

Let it be known that the Eastern district of Kogi dominates the state’s workforce and ordinarily should be the major beneficiary of both the good and the ugly. Presently, the Igalas has the highest number of government appointments, but not in the usual marginalization of other districts. On this, we must applaud the exhibition of statesmanship by the governor for strengthening unity in lieu of  fanning the embers of disunity.

In conclusion, it’s true that things are not moving in the pace we expected, especially on the irregularities arising from the screening exercise and the fluctuating workers’ emoluments. However, we must rise above ethnocentric cleavages to appreciate where the government has done well while ensuring they deliver on their promises for the greater growth of Kogi State.

– Alabi John Ozovehe


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