KOGI GUBERNATORIAL RACE 2019

*...IN APPEAL FOR H.E IDRIS ICHALLA WADA, IMMEDIATE PAST GOVERNOR OF KOGI STATE*

If H.E Yahaya Adoza Bello had done well or better than H.E Wada Idris Ichalla, his predecessor, there would not have been any reason whatsoever, for bringing the latter back.

Kogi is in a very precarious state now with a bastardised economy and a hanging *debt profile of over #94 billion.*

From my elementary understanding of finance, *this will impact the credibility of the state negatively in accessing credit facilities*. To make matters worse the debts are none performing which are not likely to be paid back (pay for itself) since, as purported, they were spent on salaries and allowances instead of capital projects. Invariably, the productive sector of the state remains in a comatose state.

Removing the incumbent, Yahaya Adoza Bello, is not negotiable because even the days remaining from now till 17th of January set out for handover will be like passing through the proverbial *"valley of the shadow of death"*. Kogians and residents of the state can't stand Yahaya Adoza Bello till that unadjustable date if given the choice of otherwise.

*The closest point to the mortuary is usually the ICU cum emergency  room. May our dear bleeding state not end in the mortuary.* Amen/Ameen/Ase

*You don't find student doctors in ICUs and Emergency units of hospitals calling the shot. There, it is the Consultants that take charge because of their specialized knowledge and expertise*. It means there is no room for experimentation in such critical situations but meticulous attention to procedures and details, no risk taking of any sort, no room for error or the patient is lost.

H.E Wada Idris Ichalla's prudent management of resources should be viewed as an advantage over other aspirants. In four (4) years as governor all he took as loan was #8b. This shows clearly that he is not a spendthrift in spite of meeting a huge #28b debt when he came in. He is also a low profile person, not one given to kleptomaniac accumulation of wealth.

His ability to weather the storm of dwindling oil prices in the period he was governor cannot be ignored. Even the national economy was adversely affected by world recession at the time, yet he kept the state afloat. H.E Wada Idris Ichalla managed to keep paying the state workers and did not owe them throughout his administration save for December 2015 which allocation was not released to him because of the self serving posture of the Buhari administration. It was later released to Yahaya Adoza Bello along with January 2016 allocation.

In the case of the Local Government Councils, His Excellency admitted his errors which were in no small measure exacerbated by the then Chairmen of those Councils. Their diversion of funds released to them for salaries for other purposes such as thrift contributions running into millions and eventual confiscation of staffers' cooperative contributions (borrowing) under the guise of borrowing it for salary payment augmentation contributed in no small measure to difficulties experienced in paying LG workers their due. 

This attitude H.E Wada Idris Ichalla frowned at which was why he is believed to have tactically supported the court case against them. This was why they left enmass to work for the late Abubakar Audu in APC to their eventual regret.

H.E's failure to secure a proposed Diamond bank loan proposed to him to defray LG salaries because he felt he could get lesser interest flying loans from the bond market proved damaging. It must be noted that Diamond bank's proposed loan by the Consultant, was because they found his administration to be credit worthy and noted the prudent management of the state's resources.

His resolve not to take the facility was premised on the fact that he didn't want to increase the state's indebtedness. He decided instead to take advantage of the more lenient loan conditions of the bailout offered by the Buhari administration in order to offset the LGs salary arrears. 

He got approval for #50.8b which for self serving reasons the Buhari government refused to release to him but which has now been totally abused by Yahaya Adoza Bello and his APC henchmen. 

As things stand the LG workers and pensioners for whom the bailout was sought in the first place by H.E Wada Idris Ichalla have now being deprived, while Workers are still being owed across the state and LG civil service and state and LG pensioners are not left out of this malaise while others have been unceremoniously thrown out of service for no verifiably cogent reason(s). The endless screening of workers has left more questions than answers in its wake, given that most of the work force are still without computerised records till date in spite of the billions expended on the legion of exercise.

It is now common knowledge that the Buhari administration has put in place the National Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) ostensibly to check the arbitrary withdrawals from LG accounts nationwide. It appears the unit.

However, Yahaya Adoza Bello and his team of Administrators are yet to comply with the directive to ensure full salary payment to LG workers. It is still the same regime of less than 100% salary to the LGs in spite of increased allocation from the federal purse. This is one of the areas H.E intends to correct when he takes the mantle come January 2020.

H.E disbanded the team of technocrats that designed the first ever Kogi state Blue print on the advice of someone who played a major role in his emergence on the grounds that those who worked for his emergence would not be allowed to enjoy the fruit of their labour. This H.E has admitted was an error but, could he have successfully fought his godfather? This was the beginning of their problem. 

H.E Wada later discovered a #300m monthly water treatment contract already signed for four years and being handled by one of the proxy firms linking a son of the godfather. Also discovered was a road maintenance contract signed for another four years as well as the purportedly money used to fund elections. These were some of the albatrosses H.E Wada groaned under.

 

As things stand, he has broken ties with the godfather, thereby freeing himself of all encumbrances. He is now fully focused on the realisation of the dream of the masses for an egalitarian society where the greater good is the focus and not the selfish interest of an oligarchical class of oppressors masquerading as saints when they are actually not. He looks to return for just four constitutionally allowed years after a *SAVE KOGI'S SOUL operation* has been successfully conducted and concluded.

You will agree that as a person and  RESPONSIBLE person who has plied a road and fell into a ditch or ditches, you  won't fall a victim of such ditch(es) again. He now knows where the landmines and traps in governance are planted and in particular in Kogi state.

Distinguished great stake stakeholders ( delegates/voters), *there is no time for our great party to start selling a new candidate between the proposed PARTY PRIMARIES from September 3rd to November 26th when the general election will hold*. 

Let us bear in mind that there will be about a week or more for petitions on the primaries and then the party will immediately try to embark on RECONCILIATIONS. The question is, *do we have the time to sell a fresher?* We do not have a clear month..., No we don't, please calculate!!!

Furthermore, when we are confronted during the campaigns with questions such as, ' *what is the assurance that he (fresher/new candidate) will do well?*' 

1. How do we answer on behalf of a new candidate who has not even been an LG chairman(executive that executes policies)? 

2. Where will we say he or she has being a governor before?

3. And what will we say he or she has done? 

*Will we be saying he or she will or can do it or please let us test him or her* will it not be more easier to say, when he was a governor, he did this and that and he  is better than the incumbent.

Clearly, in the case of H.E Wada Idris Ichalla, *we all know where he had performed well, fairly and where he came up short*. The fact that he does not have the encumbrance of a godfather, now makes him free of any yoke and baggage. As such, he has no excuse and would have emerged on the strength of the masses and not the bourgeoisie.

Conclusively, *Peter Green in his 48 Laws of Power says* "an enemy has a point to prove" and the elders say *"a known devil is better than an unknown angel".* 

We already know H.E Wada Idris Ichalla and how much he values human life, respects humanity and as a compassionate fellow, has not imported unknown strangers into our  midst to occupy our lands and  cause us many deaths.

Kindly, let us help this state and ourselves  as well as the future of our unborn generation by throwing our *weight of VOTES* behind H.E Wada Idris Ichalla as governor of Kogi state, so that,  come January 17th, 2020 swear-in date after the next governorship election in Kogi state we shall use the (WWW) Win With Wada