Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello recently took a facility of N10 billion to pay workers’ salaries without the approval of the state House of Assembly. The speaker of the assembly, Mr Matthew Kolawole ‎argues that Bello does not need the lawmakers’ approval for the loan. He spoke with journalists in Lokoja. Yekini Jimoh was there and presents the excerpts:
How far has the state’s house of assembly gone with the passage of the budget?
We planned to pass the budget in the month of March after we return from recess by February 28th but the executive arm of government wanted to commence the implementation of the budget immediately. This compelled members of the assembly to quickly return to the house to attend to the budget defence by ministries, department and agencies.
Apparently, when we looked at the 2018 appropriation bill , we discovered that some areas in the budget needed to be reviewed upward. Actually the 2018 budget as presented to the house on December 21st, 2017 was a little above N147 billion, but during budget defence we have to increase it to over N151 billion for obvious reasons.
For instance, the sum of N100 million was appropriated for Kogi State University for accreditation exercise and during the defence of the budget the management of the institution complained vehemently that the sum allocated to the university would not be enough for the accreditation. After realising the importance of accreditation of courses to the institution, being the only state university we have, we don’t have any option than to increase the allocation to N500 million.
Similar consideration was given to the college of nursing Obangede which also had its budget increased. The house also considered and increased the sum allocated for road construction from Okengwe to Ayere due to some bridges involved.
So we have passed the 2018 appropriation bill and the state governor Alhaji Yahaya Bello had assented to the bill. The budget is ready for implementation.
There is the rumour that the state government planned to sell some of the state’s properties to finance the 2018 budget, what is the position of the Kogi State House of Assembly on this?
Am not aware of the rumour. Besides, there is now no way I can believe what is being posted on social media. Again the house has not received any letter from the executive arm of government to that effect and if the rumour is true definitely the house will be infomed, but for now it is still a rumour.
What is the position of the house on the contentious issue of local government autonomy?
Yes! The alteration bill emanated from the National Asembly and we have fifteen alteration bills sent to the state’s house of assembly. In fact, at the speaker’s conference we have looked into the bill critically and discovered that out of the fifteen items, the issue of local government autonomy is contentious.
We are not against it, I am a product of local government because the votes that took me to the assembly came from the local government. I represent Kabba/Bunu state constituency and I want the local government to enjoy autonomy, but in a situation where we want to pass a law and we discovered that there is a petition, we have to hold public hearing on the issue and that is exactly what we have done, but some people see our action as throwing away the bill which is not true.
As I have said , the NUT sent a petition demanding that it should be separated from the local government autonomy. Its grouse is that the local government chairmen do not pay their salaries and allowances as at when due. The NUT also demanded that its pay should come directly from the federation account..
Even at the speaker’s conferences, we resolved that the bill should not be passed until the contentious issues from the petition are resolved and the only way to resolve them is to hold public hearing where the NULGE, NUT, civil society organizations and the general public will sit down and discuss the issues involved. As soon as we return from the recess the public hearing will commence.
The state government took a loan of N10 billion without the approval of the house. Isn’t the approval of the house required for such transaction?
The loan was taken by the state government through a consultant which does not require our approval. The aim of the loan was to augment what the government had, to pay the backlog of unpaid salaries of civil servants in the state.
I was part of the committee that mediated between organised labour in the state and the state government before labour called off their strike. One of the resolutions during our joint meeting was that government should pay the backlog of salaries it owed the workers and what the government needed to pay the salaries was N16 billion.
But the state government only had N6 billion from Paris Club refund and to be able to pay the salaries, government had to quickly source funds to pay the salaries before Christmas and end of the yea. So a consultant was contacted and the state government borrowed the sum of N10 billion.
Before the repayment, the executive will have to write to us for the regularisation of the loan. That is when we will come in because the fund is a loan not a grant . We thank God today that the noise about the non payment of salaries have died down in the state. I have to mention it categorically that Kogi state is among the few states in the country that pay minimum wage which makes the salaries and wages very high in the state.
There is a general outcry over the plan to establish cattle colony in the state, what is the position of the assembly?
In Kogi State the issue of cattle colony has been politicised to distract from the good intention of the government on the best way to solve the herdsmen and farmers’ clashes.
In fact cattle colony is a policy of the federal government to find a lasting solution to the incessant clashes between the Fulani herdsmen and farmers. The federal government only asked the state government to key into it for the realization of the policy.
Obviously , the Land Use Act has been existing for long in this country and the Act empowered the state governors to either approve or revoke any land as the case may be. The claim that the colony was targeted at taking people’s land is not true and the House of Assembly has no power to revoke the Act.
The Fulanis and our parents have been living and doing businesses together without any crises. So if there is a problem today I believe that it is better to solve the problem through dialogue which Governor Yahaya Bello has been preaching at many fora so that people of the state can live harmoniously in peace.
I am optimistic that the steps taken so far by the governor for the establishment of ranches will go a long way in solving the problem and will also boost the economy of the state.
In the last tow yeas, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been enmeshed in crises. What are members of the party in the assembly doing to resolve the crises?
It is highly unfortunate that the crises in Kogi chapter’s of APC lingered till now. The crisis is within the executive of the party and I believe that whatever has a beginning must also have an end.
Sadly, even when some stakeholders made effort to wade into the crises , the utterances of some of the executive members of the party in Kogi state did not help matters.
On our part as members of the party and with the governor as the leader of the party in the state, every problem within the party will be resolved so to make the party stronger to face the 2019 elections.
What are the achievements of the Kogi State House of Assembly in 2017?
The house in 2017 decided on some bills , some motions were also raised on the floor of the house and resolutions were passed. One of the bills passed last year was that of the administration of criminal justice which was passed by the house and assented to by the governor of the state.
The bill is significant to the country and it has been domesticated in Kogi state to quicken the process of dispensation of criminal justice .
Also in 2017 we had six bills that had passed through public hearing, some of the bills had to do with traffic law, hotel and tourism , energy , water and pension reform. As soon as we return from recess we will attend to the bills by passing them into law.
Quote
The Fulanis and our parents have been living and doing businesses together without any crises. So if there is a problem today I believe that it is better to solve the problem through dialogue
