A recent report released by the Nigerian Guild of Investigative Journalists (NGIJ) on Tuesday in Abuja shows that the Kogi state government is insensitive to the welfare of civil servants in the state.
The report also revealed that residents of the state interviewed as part of the assessment find it difficult to list five projects initiated by the Yahaya Bello-led government.
The report titled 2019 Democracy and Governance Assessment Report on Kogi State was presented to newsmen at a World Press Conference oganised by the guild.
The report is coming less than four months to the governorship election which the governor aspires to contest should he win the All Progressives Congress (APC) primaries ahead of the November governorship election.
The state government has been in the news for refusal to pay workers in the state, with some claiming the state government owes over two years backlogs of salaries.
The government has insisted that those who claim they owe for such period are ghost workers and those who fell short of the controversial Verification exercised conducted by the state government to fish out ghost workers and fix leakages.
However, NGIJ in the report said that the “APC government in Kogi state has tackled insecurity, revamped agriculture sector, improved on healthcare services delivery, provide infrastructure in schools and increase internally generated revenue of the state.
“But the inability of the governor to pay outstanding workers salary resulted to bad press and downplaying of Yahaya bello’s achievements in other sectors.
The group also stated the their findings revealed that many Kogites have benefited from the government projects such as water, rural electrification, good roads and opportunities created in agriculture and health sectors.
According to the NGIJ report, the Kogi government was also rated low in transportation and housing sectors while it stated that the Yahaya Bello’s administration improved infrastructural development tremendously with 57.4% respondents while 36% responded otherwise.
The report also stated that the governor performed well in tackling security challenges in the state with 7950 of the 9224 (85.1%) of the respondent commended the governor.
Also in the area of healthcare 73.2% believed that the governor improved the healthcare service delivery in the state while70.8% hold the opinion that the government created jobs in the state.
Meanwhile, a total of 3221 ( 35.0%) believed that the government provided little or no quality welfare for students, artisans, physically challenged and Senior Citizens in the state with only 2803 (30.4%) were positive in their response.
While revealing that the activities of the group including the Kogi assessment project was funded by grants from international donors, the President of the Guild, Olawale Abideen said that the group is a member of International Consortium of Investigative Journalism based in the United States.
“The Guild is a member of International Consortium of Investigative Journalism in the United State, we have foreign donors and we have foreign support,” he said.
Abideen also explained that the report is not the view of the government stating that the report was gathered based on the guilds engagement with critical stakeholders including labour unions in the state.
