Saying there is no love lost between the new government of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State and the immediate past administration of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is stating the obvious.
Barely three weeks of assumption of office, the new APC government in the state has up-turned nearly all the last-minute policies made by the PDP administration of Samuel Ortom.
The popular local expression of “government is a continuum” may no longer make meaning, particularly if such policies are believed to have been made with malice. This aptly describes the situation in the Food Basket of the nation, where most of the policies made by Ortom, particularly at the twilight of his administration, are being reversed by the current administration of Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia.
Shortly after the March 18 governorship election and with the imminent change of baton, Ortom had embarked on certain policies to which the then opposition APC raised the alarm that the outgoing government was only trying to set booby traps for the incoming government not to have a seamless take-off.
But the then outgoing PDP administration had insisted that its party had the constitutional mandate of governance till May 29, hence, would continue to make policies until it exited government.
Parts of the last-minute actions of the immediate past government include massive recruitment of workers, promotion of staff, deployment of staff, initiating executive bills passed into law and assented to by Ortom, among others. One of such laws places ex-governors and their deputies on huge gratuity, pension, and other benefits, among others.
But hardly had the new governor assumed office that it nullified all recruitment, promotion, transfer of staff and other policies made by immediate government. The Catholic priest turned politician also set up a committee to recover all government properties the Ortom-led administration had carted away, including vehicles attached to government house. At the last count, no fewer than 15 vehicles ranging from sport utility vehicles, ambulance, trucks, coaster buses, press crew bus, pilot vehicles as well as office furniture and TV sets were reportedly taken away.
Though, the former media aide to Ortom, Terver Akase, said that governor and his deputy have the right to go away with their official vehicles, in order to stop the recovery process, the former governor and his deputy, Benson Abounu, had approached the court to restrain the asset recovery committee. The case as of the time of filing this report was yet to be assigned to a judge.
Governor Alia, in his Democracy Day broadcast, while advancing reasons for reversing the policies of his predecessor, stated that it was not a witch-hunt but to correct the wrongs made by the last administration. He revealed that almost 15,200 workers were brought in by the past administration in form of recruitment and replacement and submitted that the entire exercise did not follow due process.
He said further in his broadcast, “As we mark Democracy Day in Benue State, we owe you all explanations about the few key decisions we have taken so far. On the issue of recruitments/appointments, we noted that it was full of irregularities.
“Specifically, the civil service secretariat through the out-gone administration recruited 2,194 persons. The State Universal Basic Education (SUBEB) employed 3,028 against the approved number of 2,500 only, while replacements made were over 5,000.
“Teaching Service Board (TSB) employed 2,500, that is… in the entire exercise, due process was not adopted.
“In addition, the employment was lopsided in favour of few local government areas and did not take the principle of state character into consideration; also, no budgetary provision was made to cater for the recruitments, just as there was no advertisement in any medium as required by the provisions of the rules guiding the service on the matter; and no interviews were conducted to determine suitability or otherwise of candidates.
“Above all, the Solicitor-General of the State was not involved at any stage of the recruitment process.”
The governor added that the appointment of persons to the post of permanent secretaries from January, 2023 to May, 2023 were politically motivated as due process required was not observed. He further hinted that the eventual postings of the appointed permanent secretaries were mainly for cover up making the appointments, adding that the State Character Principle was not observed.
Mixed feelings have continued to trail the reversal of Ortom’s last-minute policies, while a majority of people of the state have applauded the steps taken by the new government, the steps seem to have unsettled the opposition PDP.
In his reaction, the state chairman of Nigeria Union of Teachers, Levi Akume, was diplomatic in his response to the nullification of the recruitment exercise carried out by the past administration. The union leader explained that with the shortage of teachers both in primary and post-primary schools across the state, no fewer than 20,000 teachers are needed to fill vacant positions.
He said that the previous administration had long promised to recruit teachers to fill the positions but regretted that the former governor did not fulfill the promise until the twilight of his administration.
Akume also explained that though the past administration gave approval for the recruitment of 2,500 teachers at primary school, the procedure for the recruitment was shrouded in mystery.
Akume said: “You know we made several appeals to the former governor, Samuel Ortom, who promised to recruit 5,000 primary school teachers and also in secondary schools. Unfortunately, he didn’t do that immediately.
“By the time he gave the approval for 2,500 teachers to be recruited, they advertised and people were interviewed, but by the time they (past government) began to recruit about 10,000 people were employed instead of the approved 2,500.”
Akume though welcomed the nullification of the recruitment so as to correct the ills that characterised the exercise, he appealed to the new government to expedite actions and bail the primary and secondary schools out of the challenge created with the shortage of teachers.
“We are expecting that as soon as the new governor puts the house in order, he will recruit more teachers.”
The state chapter of APC, while justifying the continuous reversal of policies by the state government described the eight years of previous administration as a waste.
Speaking on behalf of the party, the publicity secretary, Daniel Ihomun, queried what the past administration did with the over N700 billion income that accrued to the state in the eight years of their leadership, when salaries and pensions were not paid and with no infrastructure built for the state.
He said: “The PDP should rather cover its face in shame that members of their party who were entrusted with the state resources are being held to account for their eight years of misrule, misappropriation, and outright misappropriation of the Benue people’s common wealth.
“The PDP should rather apologise to the Benue people for its failures and seek forgiveness for their eight years of the locust, where poverty, hunger, lack and death reigned supreme in the land.”
On recruitment made by the previous administration, Ihomun faulted the exercise querying why a government which could not pay salaries and pensions of workers for a year suddenly in the twilight of its administration embarked on promotions of selected people and recruitment of many people into the service.
But in his reaction, the acting chairman of PDP in the state, Isaac Mffo, who described Alia’s actions as unlawful, insensitive and callous, said that the affected civil servants were given lawful appointments into the state civil service, having fulfilled all statutory requirements and until this directive were entitled to all the rights, privileges and protections guaranteed them under the labour laws of the state.
He said, argued that the state governor had started his government on a wrong note with the sack order without following due process of consultations and interactive engagements needed.
“We condemn all the misguided, arbitrary and unpopular actions so far taken by Governor Hyacinth Alia and we call on all who mean well for Benue State to do same. This arbitrary sack order on Benue civil servants and those issued earlier to heads of Agencies and Parastatals in the state only opens the gateway to possible litigation which will not be in the interest of the administration and the state at large.
“Governor Alia should, therefore, without delay rescind the sack order he has issued to the thousands of civil servants in the state, as to do so will be to save his administration and the state as a whole the ill wind which the action is bound to generate which will surely do no one any good.”
If the main opposition thinks that its threat of litigation could deter the present administration, the events of Wednesday, June 21, 2023, may inform the PDP that the new government is forging ahead to unearth all perceived ills planted by the previous administration.
On that day, the State Assembly recommended the suspension of chairmen and councillors of the 23 local government areas of the state to pave the way for investigation into the alleged financial maladministration in the past eight years.
The recommendation came on the heels of scrutinising the three months report of income and expenditures of the 23 local government areas of the state. Having adopted the recommendation of a three-member ad hoc committee set up by the house to investigate the report of three months of income and expenses of the council areas, the house unanimously resolved that both the executive and legislative arms of the third tier of government in the state be suspended.
“In order to conduct the review without any interference, the committee recommends the immediate suspension of executive council chairmen in all the 23 local government councils and also the legislative councils for conniving with the executive councils to mismanage public funds put in their trust.
“The council chairmen are hereby directed to hand over the affairs of the local government councils, all government properties in their possession, including official vehicles to the DGSAs with immediate effect and proceed on suspension pending the completion of investigation into their books of accounts and other related matters.
“The governor should proceed to set up caretaker committees in line with the Benue State Local Government law,” the house resolved.
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