This Goje plays bad music
According to media reports which Governor Muhammad Danjuma Goje has yet to deny, he awarded himself and the former Governor cheques worth N200,072,505.00 (almost £1 million) and N100,025,388.00 (almost £500,000) each to his deputy, Dr John Lazarus Yoriyo, and the former deputy governor Joshua Lidani. Governor Goje claimed the sum was the monetised amount for a befitting house in any location of their choice within the state, based on schedules I and II of the Gombe State Executive Pensions Laws 2007 and 2008 as amended.
The Governor also reportedly approved for himself and his deputies pensions equivalent to their current salaries, a retinue of government-paid personal assistants (who will be placed between grade levels 8 and 10) to serve them after their tenure in office expires, two vehicles to be replaced every four years, two drivers to be recommended by the beneficiary, free medical treatment for the beneficiary and his immediate family, 30 days annual vacation outside Nigeria with estacode for him and wife, and one direct telephone line with internet services. Rather sadly, the Governor ascribed his payout to recommendations of the National Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission to State Houses of Assembly in Nigeria and approval by the State House of Assembly. No wonder our politicians do anything including murder to cling to power.
When will Nigerian leaders stop behaving like conquering war lords who grab resources that should be employed in the task of bringing sustainable development to the poverty-ridden people they claim to be representing? Gombe State, with a population of around 1.8 million people, was created on 1st October 1996 by the regime of the Late General Sani Abacha. The majority of Gombeans are farmers and cattle herdsmen. There are no major industries except a few agro-based concerns- a tomato company, a cotton ginnery, and groundnut oil mill. The only other significant enterprises in the State include a cement company, furniture and block making companies, and small scale enterprises.
Yet the State Governor's and the lawmakers' consciences never bothered them once when they were doling out money that should be used to alleviate the mass poverty prevalent in the State, generate employment, and encourage its largely agrarian population to establish small-scale and micro-finance enterprises. It is rather amazing that while many citizens of Gombe State are hungry, Governor Goje and his wealthy collaborators who do not lack roofs over their heads see nothing wrong in spending public money to buy cars, build houses for themselves, and pay for their public holidays after their tenure expires. How much does the Governor pay Gombe pensioners who have served the state longer and better than he could ever dream of?
Governor Goje and his colleagues should immediately refund the money in question to the state's treasury. However, if the Governor and his comrades-in-arms who are obviously on a collision course with the people of the state insist on appropriating these perquisites, it is only proper and just that every retiree and pensioner in Gombe State be given large sums of money to build befitting retirement houses. In addition, every pensioner in the state should be guaranteed donkeys, camels, bicycles, motorcycles and cars as well as paid holidays in Nigeria and abroad depending on their status before retiring. Governor Goje's acceptance of the Greek gift from the Gombe House of Assembly is nothing but a confirmation of the disdain with which the oppressive political leaders we have in this country hold their people despite their proclamations to the contrary.
In a State where thousands of young men, known as 'Kalare' or 'Kalare Boys' (area boys), roam the streets as members of killer criminal gangs, the Governor and his colleagues are only concerned about living in palaces when their terms of office expire. Like the rest of Nigeria, the State is home to large numbers of unemployed young men who have little or no access to legitimate sources of income, employment or socio-economic advancement as a result of which they turn to violent crime to make a living. Rather sadly, most of these young men are used as canon fodder by those very politicians who take the state to financial dry cleaners. Governor Goje has no plans whatsoever to rehabilitate these unfortunate youngsters who daily commit politically-related and other forms of violent crimes, including assault, rape, harassment, murder and extortion. According to the findings of a research conducted by local doctors in the State who were commissioned by the Gombe Elders Forum, between December 2003 and April 2007, at least 115 people were killed and scores more injured as a result of Kalare violence. Yet the Governor would rather divert public money into private pockets on the excuse that the State's House of Assembly approved the disbursement. Such an act is nothing but a conspiracy against the people of Gombe State. It is bad music to the ears.
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