When a fly is selfish, arrogant, high minded and does not listen to advice, it will surely follow the corpse into the grave; that is exactly what will happen to Ika South and Ika North East LGAs if the two Chairmen go on to take the proposed N17million car loan to be repaid with money generated from Internally Generated Revenue, instead of paying their workers’ outstanding salaries, especially Ika South workers for 10 months.
How can a good leader watch his workers who elected him to occupy the seat be dying of hunger on daily basis? The workers cannot not even, afford to pay their house rents, feed their children, and pay school fees, let alone buy books for their children and wards. Most of them have sold their motorcycles, cars to make ends meet. They hide away from their houses for the fear of their landlords, money lenders, traders, who now go after them to get their monies borrowed to them which they cannot afford to pay just because their salaries are not paid. Hunger is now pronounced on their faces as if they are ghosts. I was shocked when one of the LG staff, a lady abandoned her husband and children at home just because the husband, a local government staff could not afford to feed the family as salaries have not been paid, even one other staff opted to selling off her clothes to raise money to enable her pay her only son’s school fees of N12,000. It is a shame.
Many have vowed to vote out PDP from Ika South and Ika North East Local Government if their salaries are not paid before the next election. To sympathize with them, if by the end of November, these suffering workers’ salaries are not paid; I will personally mobilize my admirers, the youths, the market women, workers etc to decamp to APC so as to change from starvation, hunger, untimely death under selfish leaders. This will no doubt spell doom for the party in Delta State. No violence, no fighting, no disturbance but very peaceful move from PDP to APC. We want leaders that will promise and fulfill, “talk and do”. Not leaders that will promise and fail again as people are becoming wiser on daily basis; “Enough is enough, our mumu don do.”
We actually need a change. To ameliorate this ugly situation on ground, the Local Government Chairmen should address the press, assuring us that they will drop the car loan or use the money instead to pay workers salaries, But if not, by November ending, I shall personally mobilize workers; no demonstration, no noise, no violence, no disturbance, not even campaigning, but to sensitize them to vote for anyone, who when given the mantle of leadership at the local government level, will have genuine human feelings for the workers, especially, by regular payment of salary and pension.
I am not a civil servant neither am a government worker nor a contractor. I have never benefited anything from the government, money wise or otherwise. But I feel bad when I see workers in the local government begging the public just to feed. It is a very shameful thing that the Internally Generated Revenue which the workers sweat to generate will now be used by their leaders to purchase just one car for N17m, when workers are dying of starvation and cannot even afford to pay children school fees, house rent etc. I am a Yoruba man. I am not an Ika man. This cannot happen in my place. This is the time for the Chairmen to have a rethink, change their mindset and do the right thing by utilizing the N17m for workers’ salary and pensioners. A word is enough for the wise who has wisdom.