Baskadia

AS WRITTEN BY MR. DEME ATARIBO AYAWARI.

We have observed as concerned citizens of Bayelsa State that the current administration of Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State takes pride in fallacies and falsehood. Instead of the Governor to embark on pragmatic and people-oriented developmental projects in the state, he is busy doing "eye service" to attract the attention of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu concerning the ongoing case between him and H.E Chief Timipre Sylva of APC which is still pending in Court. Hence, it is our humble opinion that Mr. President should be very wary of the pretentious character of Governor Douye Diri.

It is indeed amazing that Douye Diri, who in his Easter message, publicly condemned and criticised President Tinubu's short-term economic policy of providing palliatives to Nigerians in order to ameliorate the current hardship being faced by Nigerians as a result of the removal of fuel subsidy, is now suddenly turning around to approve the payment of Wage Award which is supposed to end this month of April, 2024. This is clearly against the arrangement between President Tinubu and the national executive of the NLC and TUC. What an irony?

It would be recalled that sometime last year 2023, Mr. President and the executives of organized Labour sat and agreed on early preparation for the implementation of the new national Minimum Wage which is expected to start in May, 2024. At that meeting, the parties agreed to pay 35,000 Naira Wage Award to all Civil Servants in the federation, pending the implementation of the new national Minimum Wage. In fulfilling his part of the agreement, the President started the payment of Wage Awards to federal Civil Servants in September, 2023, and has sustained the tempo till date.

Many State Governors, including Douye Diri of Bayelsa State had flagrantly violated the President's directive to the disappointment of Civil Servants in their states. The big question is why is Governor Douye Diri pretentiously announcing the payment of Wage Award now that the policy is supposed to elapse this month, April, 2024? In his magnanimity, Mr. President had agreed with, and directed all the Governors of the 36 States of the federation to use the benefits of the fuel subsidy removal to pay the 35, 000 Wage Award to all Civil Servants in their respective states from September, 2023.

It is therefore funny that Governor Douye Diri who blatantly refused to obey the directive has suddenly woken up to implement it all because of the pending election petition to which he has been struggling very hard to draw the attention of Mr. President to intervene and save him from the looming defeat that awaits him.

If there were States that were expected to speedily implement the directive of the President concerning the Wage Award, Bayelsa State is supposed to be the first. This is because of the huge federal allocation that accrues to the state monthly. Bayelsa State has only eight Local Government Areas yet receives between 18 - 22 billion naira every month since the removal of fuel subsidy. One however wonders why Douye Diri is just waking up and struggling to announce the payment of Wage Award which is not only long overdue but also ending this month, April 2024.

In short, if there is any major thing that the Civil Servants in Bayelsa State are currently expecting Governor Douye Diri to do for them; is for him to announce the date for the payment of their 6 months arrears of Wage Awards that the Governor is owing them from September, 2023 to April, 2024, and not this fresh promises that he is promising to begin a new payment from April, 2024 onwards. That is a pure deception from the pit of hell.

If i may ask, what is the usefulness of the purported Wage Award declaration when the new national Minimum Wage is expected to begin by May, 2024? When answering the above question, please consider the rationale behind the Wage Award which started from September, 2023 and is expected to end this month, April, 2024.

Douye Diri is only trying to fool the people of Bayelsa State. But he however forgets that he cannot fool all the people all the time. And moreover, our President is even too smart to be deceived by the antics of Governor Douye Diri.

Thanks you all.

God bless President Bola Ahmed Tinubu!

God bless Bayelsa State!

And God bless Nigeria 🇳🇬!

From: Deme Ataribo Ayawari, a Chieftain of APC in Bayelsa State.