§ OJU-
AWAJIR ROAD IS IN THE 2017 BUDGET.
§ PERMANENT
SECRETARY, TWO SSA; ONE IN OJU AND OBI LGA TO BE APPOINTED IN IGEDE LAND.
Excerpt from the Speech of Executive Governor Of Benue State,
Chief Dr. Samuel Ortom Occasion of Igede Positive Youth Visit To His Excellency, On 11th
September, 2017.
Culled by Ogi John
Leader of the
delegation, distungusidged leaders of Igede nation who are here in their
numbers, and very distinguished youths of Igede nation, Igede Ihio, ihio (applauds)
Let me start by
appreciating God for this unique and uncommon gathering that we have today. I will appreciate this gathering at this
critical time that some youths feel it is only to insult and spread lies that matters
but when you have youths coming out in their larger numbers to send words of
encouragement to me and my government, to me I am deeply touched and encouraged.
When we have youths coming out in their
number to encourage me I am grateful and I appreciate it, for coming to support
my government. I want to also appreciate the support given by the elders to the
youths, the speech given by the leader of this delegation and the support by
the elders have captured everything; you have appreciated me and encouraged me
and have sought things to be done for the Igede Nation . I want to assure you
that I have absorbed everything you have said here and appreciate you for
everything. click to read more
Like someone said Igede
people are unique people and he qualified me to be an Igede man, I am very
happy that despite the falsehood carried around there are still few people who still
appreciates the truth, and want to live by it and walk with it. The Bible says
we shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free that’s the only thing.
For me, I remain committed to the same Samuel Ortom that came to you to seek
for your support, you recall that I told you that by the grace of God if you
make me the Governor I will live with the fear of God and I will ensure
truthfulness, equity, fairness, justice , transparency, accountability, integrity,
selflessness , discipline, love, forgiveness with restitution and reconciliation so that we will be united as a
people and once that happens , once we are united as a people, once you have
you faith in me as a leader and I have faith in you as a people and we work
together as a team and we working together as united for the course of Benue
State, development will become inevitable. Because when that happens there will
be no stealing, no shortchanging, funds that are meant for development projects
will be channeled towards them.
Permit me to say that
my government is a government of transformation, transformation from the
kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light (applauds) from evil to
righteousness and so many facts abound because not many people are willing to
say the truth and speak the truth like the Igede Nation (applauds). Out of the
77 billion naira stolen from government, Igede people are not involve and I salute
their integrity and you hardly see Igede man amongst kidnappers and armed robbers.
There is no hiding place for any evil man or woman in this administration
because we have dedicated this state to God. About salaries I will tell you
everything, people who insult me and criticize me that this and that, people
talk about this salary as if Ortom kept this money somewhere and did not want
to pay, I will give you this information. Having listened to the speech by the
coordinator I am convinced that you need no other information but on salaries I
will give you information so you are better informed.
I want to commend you, continue
with your life, back in the days in Abuja you will find Igede people pounding
yams in hotels and restaurants and doing all odd jobs but today because of the humility
of Igede people and their dedication to service you hardly find Igede people
doing those kind of jobs nowadays. Now it is my Tiv brothers, if you go to
Abuja you see security guards everywhere and they will come and greet in Tiv: Upandever
( goodmorning), remember we were told that humility is when you humble yourself
God will bless you. I want to appreciate Igede people and task both our Tiv and
Idoma brother from across the state to emulate the character of Igede people
and I encourage you to continue and don’t be carried away with destroyers who
are living high life, remain in your life and God willing you will get to that
level, Igede people are well educated, there cannot be any greatness without
travail, when that time comes greatness must come.
A man who was going to loose
the gubernatorial election was here, but they were not God and I told them that
a man cannot receive anything except it be given to him by God so people should
not intimidate me if God wants me to be there I will be there, so I want to
appreciate you for what you did for me during the election. From one party to
the other Igede people supported me and I will never forget nor do anything to
undermine Igede nation. I see you as part of me, In Zone C I see Igede Nation
as my backbone, I want to implore you that:
§ This
issue of Head of Service that brought a lot of concern to an average Igede man
or woman should not bother you, I will do everything adequately possible to
bring a closing gap. I have decided that another Permanent Secretary should be
appointed in Igede land in addition to other appointments that will be made.
§ SSA:
we will appoint two other Senior Special Assistants , one in Oju and another in
Obi Local Governments respectively to close the gap.
Other
things you have mentioned like the road, people like Hon Owulo Owulo, Chief Ode
Enyi, Bar Pat Kupchi will never allow me to rest about Oju road. I understand
these things, I want to say that am very pained about the Oju- Awajir road because during my campaign I made a promise
and if I can open my heart for you to see, promises are very demoralizing things
because when you make a promise you should do it. I am a politician that
respect and fear God so when I say a thing I love to keep my words. For the Aliade –Obarike Ito road it will interest
you to know that the money for that road was paid and somebody collected it and
the people are suffering, I wanted to take the contractor to court and the
contractor said he will not want to tarnish his image so we decided that we
terminate the contract, we handed the issue to EFCC but the process is very
slow and so it is a big challenge but I have decided that as soon we get some money
we will rearward the contract to another person. We have contractors who
offered to do the road and have us pay afterwards but we said no. I appreciate
your understanding and my attention is also drawn to the non- presence of
government in Obi LG, I want to assure you that I must make impact in Obi. The Oju-
Awajir road is in the 2017 budget as soon as we get some allowance we will come
there. The Oju- Obusa –Utonkon road we have already mobilized the contractor
and they are back to site, recently out of the 107 billion to be recovered from
52 persons we have recovered 4.5 billion and that is the money we have used to
pay the contractor to go back.
Electricity
projects in Oju and Obi, they are all in budget and as soon as there is financial
backup we will work toward all that, I want to assure you that am with you at
all time, I want to thank the leaders of Igede Positive Youth and the elders
who have come to support them. This has shown who the Igede people are, if it
were the kind of support some people do and put their hands behind for money it
would have shown clear but this one is very genuine and I deeply appreciate
this kind of support and I want to assure you that if there are any issue and
you want to see me , please communicate to me or if they are any creative ideas
for suggestions for development you can come to me and a group or individuals
so we can work together to make Benue State greater. I am very committed to all
this and I want to assure you that we will continue to pray and the Bible admonishes
that we pray for our leaders.
About
the local government staff who were sacked as ghost workers, after the
screening exercise and we clear the problem I can assure you that we will look
into the matter. I received interim reports that there are a lot of ghost
workers discovered in different places, salary anomalies. Each local government
is having a Chairman and Councilors, they are elected by the people and must do
something to show. Government has a responsibility of paying workers as at when
due, it should be. What we are doing is to try and pay salaries and so once
that is done anything left should be used to do something no matter how small
to show the people that somebody was elected.
On
unemployment and request for loans, we have Bank of Industry and Bank of Agriculture,
we have secure loan from Central Bank and we are giving it out at 5 % so that
our people can be able to access and service it. People can form cooperatives
so that the youths can access loans, for those in urban areas, we have decided
to reduce the cost of our C of Os by 50% so that people can easily get land
titles and use them as collateral.
I
have heard about what you said about a bus. Things are tight but we look
forward to better days so we can do that.
Let me assure you that , as one who listens to
God I will not have made it, God directed me to contest this election. When I was
thrown out of PDP and people came to me crying, I told them not to worry except
God did not send me but if He did, they should come to IBB Square come 29th
of May that I will be sworn in and it came to pass. The Bible says the test of
a true prophet is that when he says a thing it must come to pass. I also learnt
from David in the Bible that the way to anything is to ask God, and if God says
yes who can say no. the Bible said better is the end of a matter than the beginning.
Despite
the challenges we see today, if we have faith everything will be fine, I have
done several things in life but I have never failed in anyone, I dropped out of
school but God gave me education, started work as a motor park clerk but see
where I am today, I served in the local government and federal before I came
back to be Governor. Before I became Governor my business was doing well, up
till today the industrial layout was vacant until I came in the other
industries started coming up. My political life I have succeeded. I have learnt
to work hard and God has always protected me, by the grace of God this assignment
when am done God will help me and I will succeed.
By
early next year, I believe political activities will start and am praying that
by that time God will lead me to re-contest for Governor of Benue State but if
He dosent that will be a different thing, but the voice of the people is the
voice of God so if God confirms the voice of the people then I have no option
than to respond (applauds)
The
issue of salaries is a major issue in Benue State but this is not peculiar to
Benue State alone, 24 states of the federation are not able to pay salaries as
at when due because of the economic recession. We appreciate the fact that oil
that was sold for 140 Dollars before is now less than 50 Dollars so what comes
into the federation account have dropped to an unreasonable level and our IGR
is a major big hurdle, instead of IGR complementing what we get from the
federation account it is nothing to write home about. We have average of 250 million a month but
since we came in we have increased it to 500 million per month, because there
was a huge cry from traditional rulers, stakeholders, and clergy and pleaded
that we reduce the generating points and today we are back to 250 million so we
dropped. What comes from federation account
is an average of 6 billion naira, when we came in we inherited a wage bill of 8.2
billion and this was excluding minimum wage for teachers, it was we that
decided that teachers should be paid. If you put that together it get to 8.5
billion and on the average what you get from IGR and federation account is
around 6 billion so on salaries alone you talking about 7.8 billion and that is
where we are today. On salary alone we have a shortfall of 1.8 billions every month,
taking it that you are paying salaries alone , for security you must use money,
every police car you see is funded by government, if you don’t fund their cars
they are not ready to move. A commissioner must travel and must use money, running
everything about government is money and there are other critical needs.
Because
of the shortfall , we have over 40 billion arrears on salaries and gratuity ,
for the Local government their wage bill
including 120 million pension was at 3.7 billion and what comes in should be
around 2.7 billion so we discussed with Labour Unions and we agreed that at
local government one month you pay teachers and the other month you pay local
government staff so for every category of worker in Benue every two month they
are paid one month.
Thank
You
Thank
You
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