Issues in Ortom’s N100m to APC

KULA TERSOO, in this piece, raises critical issues on utilization of the controversial Paris Club refund, state civil servants welfare, among others

The issue of workers welfare in Benue state has reached the unfortunate stage as indices at the moment clearly show that it has not only been politicized but equally treated with utmost eye service.
The Governor Samuel Ortom –led administration which ascended the seat of power almost two years ago rightly met a not- too -healthy situation of welfare of the Benue workforce.

Ortom’s predecessor, Gabriel Suswam -led administration is widely believed to, while he reigned as governor of the state give Benue workers the best treatment ever. He so endeared himself to workers by firstly implementing the N7,500 minimum wage his predecessor, Mr. George Akume allegedly blatantly declined to implement thereby leaving the workers at N5,000 minimum wage before leaving office. Suswam who succeeded Akume gladdens the heart of workers by on two occasions, without prompting from any union, he increased the welfare package of the civil servants in 2007, 2009 and eventually was one of the very first state Governor to implement generously the N18,000 minimum wage.

He as a result, got awards from national labour leaders.
However, towards the end of his last tenure, workers started feeling the heat, and abnormality in their welfare, a development he consistently blamed on the dwindling economic fortunes of the country especially the drop in the prices of crude that ultimately affected subvention to the states. Eventually, he could not maintain the healthy treatment of workers and left without paying four months which Ortom administration inherited but cleared perceptibly using bailout funds sent by the federal government.

It was expected that the Ortom administration will commence on a clean slate, but that would not be, as many other issues, especially certain agreements entered into by the previous governments remained unattended to by the new government two years after.
Perhaps, out of excitement or absolute diplomacy to buy time, the incumbent who was adequately briefed of all such agreements had assured all the unions that he would attend to all their issues in his very first year in office.

Today, apart from incessant protests by pensioners in the state whose pay is already in the arrears of 11 months according to Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), months, four unions at the Benue State University Makurdi (BSU) have shut the school in an indefinite strike action that is already almost a month now.
Local government and teachers in the state are in the arrears of nine months while the state workers are daily lamenting their arrears of four months. This is even as already medical workers and other unions are already threatening to tool down any moment from now.

Double standard
Recently, following the total tool down by all categories of staff at the state own university, governor Ortom called a meeting of the union leaders in government house and pleaded with them to suspend the industrial action and give him time to find ways to take care of their grievances.

Probably a coincident, it was same day, while the unions’ meeting was held at the old banquet hall, the governor, at the new banquet hall held a meeting of candidates of his party for the forthcoming local government elections where he splashed over N100m as refund to losers at the primaries of his party and purchase of forms for 23 chairmanship aspirants as well as 274 councilor candidates across the state.
This, pundits continued to wonder why the governor would continue singing the familiar tone of no funds but would prefer to attend quickly to financial issues of his party, the APC.

A public commentator, Tim Nyor stated that, “I am obviously not comfortable with the double standard of this government on very important issues that touch on the daily life of her citizens. Why would government continue to introduce politics and outright falsehood in anything they do?
“Inasmuch as it is not a new thing for the government to attend to its political platform’s financial needs, there is everything to worry about when government would invite a very crucial sector in the state as ASUU and other unions and verbally plead with them to shelve an industrial action but at the same time use huge amount of money to splash on his party for an election.
“First, we have to doubt whether such government know the importance of a sector like education. Secondly, we have every reason to question the sincerity and otherwise of this government over the usual chat of no money”.

But, during the stakeholders meeting where it was alleged over N150m was packaged in envelopes as fare to individual invitees and groups, the governor urged stakeholders to “mount pressure” on striking workers to shelve the strike and resume work.
Moreover, the state government rather blamed unions like ASUU for being insensitive to the realities on the ground.

The Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mike Onoja Jnr, while responding to the allegation that government was more interested in attending to political party issues said, “The insincerity is from the BSU ASUU, their insensitivity to the plight of the state and country at large.
“The governor has given his position; he has political responsibilities, economic responsibilities and social responsibilities. If the governor holds stakeholders meetings or promotes his party on whose platform he became governor they are also his responsibilities.

“BSUs problem is the case of an over pampered child that now feels he is over and above his siblings. BSU must know that they are under the government and not the government under them; they are government employees and not government overlords. Appeals where made by stakeholders for the sake of the children who will suffer the most and not that they were called to mount pressure on BSU.
“BSU is not the only responsibility government has. The damage was done starting from long ago. Unfortunately, this government inherited the accrued negative effect.  Therefore, we all must make sacrifices together to climb out of this hole we have found ourselves”.

The politics
Like the propaganda machine of Napoleon in George Orwell’s satiric ‘Animal Farm’, Ortom’s government, already two years is still blaming his predecessor on why his government could not properly tackle and successfully too, issues of welfare of workers amongst other things.

Ortom till date is still chanting what many have come to describe as a swan song. He consistently use any opportunity he has, be it at church service, state broadcast, town hall meetings and other very insignificant gatherings such as naming ceremonies and weddings to inform the audience on how his predecessor looted the state to a point that he is finding it very difficult to attend to other very important issues including the welfare of state workforce.

Just recently, during the stakeholders meeting at the Government House, the governor’s godfather, Sen. George Akume blamed Suswam for embezzling funds that would have cleared all the problems his godson in facing today. He pointedly admonished Ortom for not publicizing enough, the Justice Kpojime report that indicted Suswam and 51 others of embezzling, misappropriating and not accounting for over N107bn naira of the public funds.

But, critics have continued to question what has become of over N54bn the government already got as loans from banks for the purposes of clearing arrears of salaries, completion of ongoing projects as well as payment of sensitive counterpart funding in some agencies and parastetals in addition to the N12.7bn Paris Club refund.
Barnabas Zenke in his words, “Ortom need only to be sincere to himself, the Benue public and stop the politics of vendetta he is playing by consistently blaming everything negative on Suswam. Let him agree either that he has a cabinet that is so corrupt to his taste or he hates it but lacks the capacity to detect and correct the monumental pilfering of the public till under his watch”.

Remember, when he came, he claimed that if he has just half of the money he concluded his predecessor and others looted, which according to him was about N107bn, he would have performed wonders for the state. Today, what we know he borrowed and the Paris Club refund, it is almost N67bn. This is outside the monthly subvention and the IGR. So, what is happening to our money?”

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