Kogi’s holiday for Buhari

WHEN President Muhammadu Buhari returned to the country on August 19 after spending more than three months in the United Kingdom receiving treatment for a yet undisclosed ailment, most Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief. Although Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had stepped into the saddle in the president’s prolonged absence, a distinct unease pervaded the country while the president was away, and many Nigerians were increasingly worried at the damage that the president’s continued absence might do to the country’s long-term economic prospects.

However, while the majority of Nigerians were simply happy to have the president back, Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State went a step further by declaring Monday, August 21, a public holiday and a day of thanksgiving throughout the state in order to commemorate President Buhari’s safe return to the country. According to a statement signed by the Director General, Media and Publicity to the governor, Kingsley Fanwo, the governor’s gesture was “in line with the support of Kogi people for the renaissance of our nation by Mr. President.” Mr. Fanwo also urged the people of Kogi to “use the occasion of the public holiday to pray for Mr. President as he resumes his responsibilities of repositioning Nigeria.”

There is nothing wrong in expressing support for President Buhari and wishing him a rapid recovery from his illness, as many Nigerians on both sides of the political aisle in fact have. However, the declaration of a public holiday is a tad excessive, and sends the wrong kind of message about how Governor Bello and his closest advisers perceive the task of governance. It could not have escaped the attention of the governor that, on the same day that he had dedicated as a public holiday, the dedicatee, President Buhari, was himself busy at his desk.

But that is not the only irony of this situation. As we speak, the governor is currently at daggers drawn with the Kogi State University (KSU) branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over several months of unpaid salaries and allowances. Having failed to reach an agreement with the teachers, Governor Bello, in a huff and without adequate consultation with his advisers, declared the teachers’ union proscribed. At the moment, the university remains under lock and key.

It is not only university teachers who are being abraded by Governor Bello’s rule in Kogi. Early this year, after going 14 months without pay, the state’s civil servants and pensioners sent a special message to President Buhari, imploring him to prevail on Governor Bello to pay them. In their letter to the president, the frustrated civil servants lamented that “the common denominators in Kogi State today are starvation, depression and neglect which was as a result of the over 14 months of non-payment of salaries and pensions to the workers and pensioners, some of whom are dying almost on daily basis arising from avoidable circumstances.”

We invoke these examples to illustrate the sheer ridiculousness and frivolity of declaring a public holiday in a state that can least afford loss of man hours and need sall hands on deck. Accordingly, we endorse the opposition Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) condemnation of the declaration of public holiday by the state governor as an indication that the state has reached “the lowest ebb in terms of governance.”

The last thing Kogi State requires right now is frivolous public holidays. The governor and his advisers need to show that they understand what is needed to bring the good times back to the state. On current evidence, they don’t.