• Nigerians hungry, Fayose tells FG
From Wole Balogun, Ado-Ekiti
Ekiti State Government has paid N140 million severance package to some former elected public office holders at the local government level.
Affected are those elected into office in 1999, 2006 and 2008.
Governor Ayodele Fayose, gave the order in Ado-Ekiti during a meeting with the affected persons.
A statement by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, yesterday, quoted him as saying entitlements of those who were dead should be paid to their families.
He also warned local government officials who would effect the payment against playing politics with the exercise.
“Despite the economic challenges we are facing as a state, we feel it is our duty to honour those who have served our state in the past among whom are former public office holders. You have contributed your own quota to the development of our state. Families of those that are dead should be given too.
“The exercise has nothing to do with politics and must be fairly shared. We made some payments some months ago and we are doing this now. If this was done in the past, the backlog would have been cleared now. If not for the financial challenges we are facing, we would have paid everything,” he said.
The governor admonished leaders to let their actions be in the best interest of the state.
Fayose urged the people to expect the best from his administration, economic recession notwithstanding.
Speaking on behalf of beneficiaries, Mr. Akinola Sadola, commended the governor’s gesture.
He said despite the economic recession in the country, Fayose could still think of ameliorating the plight of former public office holders.
“We all know what the situation in the country is. Many states are facing serious economic challenges, even states that are more endowed than Ekiti, but our governor has been indefatigable. He is executing various developmental projects that are confounding critics. Many are wondering how he is doing it.
“As a group, we appreciate the governor’s efforts and we are also pledging our unflinching support for him. If previous administrations were doing like this, the backlog would have been cleared,” he stated.
Meanwhile, Governor Fayose has said what Nigerians desirous of hearing from the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government is the defeat of hunger and untold hardship ravaging the country and not recycled stories of defeat of Boko Haram insurgents, which is as usual, aimed at diverting attention of Nigerians from the fact that there is ravaging hunger at this time of the year.
The governor said it has become predictable that whenever Nigerians cry of the pains and sufferings they are going through, the federal government will come with stories like; “20 Chibok girls found,” “$1 billion found in Mr. A, B or C bedroom,” “Boko Haram technically defeated,” and “We have captured Sambisa forest,” just to divert attention.
In a release issued in Ado Ekiti yesterday by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Fayose said: “It is painful that Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari has become directionless either due to the cluelessness of the president or his old age that has foisted a purposeless leadership on the country.
“This year’s Christmas is the worse in the history of Nigeria. People cannot afford to celebrate and enjoy themselves due to the hardship caused by the APC administration. To make matters worse, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) also created artificial scarcity of cash, such that people could not access their hard earned money in the banks as most banks in the country do not have cash to pay their customers.
“Like I have maintained, the issue confronting Nigerians now is hunger and hunger does not speak the language of political propaganda that is being used by the APC-led federal government. It is, therefore, no longer about diversionary news, it is about preventing Nigerians from dying of hunger.
“The only solution to the myriad of problems facing the country is for those holding power in Abuja to face the sad reality that it was the hard stance of the president, his statements against Nigeria and its people, both at home and abroad, coupled with his demonstration of hatred against some sections of the country and desperation to crush his perceived enemies, that led us to where we are today.
“It was the president that went to foreign countries to de-market Nigeria by calling all Nigerians thieves and dishonest people. He was the one who created atmosphere of economic and political instability in the country by his acts of nepotism and vindictiveness?
“Therefore, for the country to move forward, the president must change his attitude from a vindictive military dictator to a civilian president of all Nigerians.”
He lamented that those cabal in the presidency have hijacked the president and his government, running the country aground, saying: “Things were never like this at any time in the history of Nigeria apart from 1984.
“They are not running the economy of Nigeria by the open participation of Nigerians but by some cabal, who see themselves as superior to others. By their failure to involve those who know more than them, they have succeeded in creating unemployment instead of three million jobs that they promised Nigerians per year. They have taken Nigeria back to the Stone Age and it will take several years for the country to recover, if it will ever recover.”
Governor Fayose, who appealed to Nigerians not to keep silent in 2017, said: “With every means of livelihood of the common people taken away from them, free, fair and credible elections becoming a mirage, Nigerians must begin to speak out now before the country is completely destroyed by this directionless federal government.”