The Deputy Speaker of Kogi State House of Assembly, Hon. Aliyu Akuh,
has called on the state Governor, Alh. Yahaya Bello, to thread softly
and ensure that the rule of law prevails in the nearly one year old
Staff screening and verification exercise in the state.
Akuh made the call in Lokoja during an interaction with some journalists.
He
noted that the current economic recession ravaging the country has
created enough problems for families and that what should be paramount
in the mind of leaders at all levels should be how to create palliatives
and not to enforce policies that can further pauperize and traumatize
an already bewildered populace.
“The government needs to be more
human and realistic. How can we have as many as three or more results
from one screening exercise? What I mean is that you said you have
finished and bring out result. Tomorrow again some people will come.
Today someone may be in the cleared list, tomorrow he may find himself
in the uncleared list. These are serious confusions. We have also seen
people being punished for easily correctable offenses like lack of BVN
and cases of premature retirement. Those of us in the House are
grassroots people. People come to us for complaints. Sometimes we even
follow them to the screening committee to identify them. But at the end
of the day, they are not cleared. We are calling on the government to
look at the complaints more critically so that people are not unjustly
thrown into the labour market.” Akuh advised.
The
Deputy Speaker opined that the current economic recession has brought
much suffering and hardship in the land and that government should
deliberately pursue policies that will reduce the suffering. “in Nigeria
of today, people are suffering a lot and we should not unnecessarily
send them into the labour market. That may create more problems for the
society.”
While speaking on the activities of the House of Assembly, he noted that the lawmakers are united and forward looking.
“The
House is vibrant and determined to be on the side of the people that
elected us. We lost some grounds to infighting in the past. But thank
God we have put that behind us and we are focused on making laws for the
good and general welfare of the people..”
On the emergence of a
minority APC member as Speaker of the PDP dominated Assembly, he pointed
out that a leader must always keep and see the bigger picture which
will sometimes involve making sacrifices.
He admitted that under
normal circumstances, it would have been an aberration for the minority
to produce the Speaker, but that in the public interest diplomacy must
be allowed to thrive.
“Probably history is being written now in
our state. Changes are taking place everywhere now. Perhaps that is one
aspect of change that has started in our state. May be Kogi will now go
inti history where minority is the Speaker of the majority. Kogi has set
that record. Under normal circumstances,that is not suppose to be. But
when there is a give and take and the interests of millions of people
are involved, then you have to ignore personal interests.” Akuh
explained.
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