Gov Bala Mohammed’s Anti-Corrouption War I

………….restoring sanity in civil service

By Umar Usman Duguri
When Governor Bala Mohammed took over the mantle of leadership as governor of Bauchi State, many thought he would not stand firm to fight corruption in civil service of Bauchi State that retarded progress and productivity in yielding optimum results.
Let me quote Governor Bala Mohammed’s promise to sanitize the government’s system if given the mandate to govern Bauchi State in one of the local government areas of the state. “I promise you, I will sanitize our civil service system, and no stone will be left unturned”. Also in his acceptance speech at the historic moment of swearing-in ceremony at the famous Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balawa Stadium, Bal said “our new government has come to set a paradigm shift in governance for others to follow.”

Indeed, there’s no doubt, from May 2019 to date Bauchi State has changed its odd system of life and governance, from the inherited system ravaged by gross-abuse and violation of regulatory acts. The attitudes of ‘I don’t care’ have been reduced to the minimal ebb. Sanity has been restored now in civil service, favoritism is no longer in place or displayed in service to humanity; qualification, competence are the parameters considered in appointing government aides; for instance SSA media is a veteran journalist and a unionist, Dr. Rilwanu Mohammed, head of primary healthcare development agency, for the first time professional and experienced commissioners were appointed, mature brains and brawns as elders advisory council, youths were offered key positions in government.

In fulfillment of campaign promise, ministerial briefing was conducted in order to ascertain and reposition the states civil service. The Ministries, departments and agencies briefing reveals mindboggling upshot. Shady deals, bogus arrangement by few unscrupulous civil servants and corrupt politicians beyond comment. This is the reason why Governor Bala Mohammed mandated sensitization exercise to civil servants in the state on the need to be fair and just in service delivery for optimum results and avoidance of founding wanting in corruption. Also in justification of oath of office, Governor Bala Mohammed did not waste time in studying the sectoral result and after careful study, he directed relevant constituted heads of every MDA to review the leakages and punish whosoever was found wanting of any malfeasance of ghost workers and deprivation of staff, lack of productivity in achieving desired goals.
A month after the official directives by the Governor, the then head of service, Adamu, was fired resulting in many outcomes of his involvement in an unbecoming attitude being the goose neck of the states’ government engine site. Now, a year gone by after discovery of inflated figures of the states’ salary from 5 billion to close to 7 billion without agreement in emoluments and other essential services or new employments, a revelation that consistently draw criticisms from all and sundry especially the leading opposition party APC in the state. It indeed gives different impressions from many quarters of the state.
After many vows and Bala Mohammed’s determination to cleanse the civil service, restore probity and transparency, jokers and unpatriotic elements didn’t believe until the recent disclosure by the Nigeria Police, Bauchi State command through its spokesperson Ahmed Wakili, saying that after a complaint was lodged by the PPS to the Bauchi State Governor, the following were arrested: Musa Bappayo Auditor of local the government pension board, computer operator, Samaila Musa and three staff of the local government pension board. They were accused of involvement in inserting several names of pensioners and fraudulently siphoning millions of naira for many years. Accordingly, one Yasir Sulaiman has been receiving N320,000 monthly, Garba Bala has been receiving 10, 800,000 monthly, Umar Mohammed Madara N120,000 monthly, and so forth, the line is endless. As at the time of writing this piece, both the state government and intelligent security agencies are investigating other suspected corrupt civil servants, especially those preparing to run out of the state.
Desert Herald authoritatively discovered that this is just a tip of an iceberg in the state, as for instance former speaker of the 8th National Assembly, Rt Honorable Yakubu Dogara, boldly said “I challenge Bauchi State government to explain the issue of ghost workers in the state and I have proven to justify my claims”, during the 2019 gubernatorial campaigns.
Virtually, one and half years today, the present government of Governor Bala Mohammed is yet to explain the measures taken to address the alleged fake ghost workers inherited from the past governments; though, we have seen series of same verification exercises conducted to ascertain the exact challenge. It will be good if such uncalled for attitude of dishonesty is stopped in order to shop for new intake of thousands of university graduates roaming the streets looking for survival. And that can only be achieved if Governor Bala Mohammed replaces the existing vacuum with same indigenes of the state.

Though the steps so far taken in bringing down the culprits to book at this time did not only silence the opposition members who used the salary increment issue as a single point of campaign, that also raises hope to the electorates who believe in mediocrity; things can never be good. Just like what the former Governor used against the then SSG, Special Advisers and some PDP members for allegedly diverting over 400 million naira received during the Yuguda administration for campaign, and the threat forced them to join the APC, and now recently, they returned to the ruling PDP, though we have not seen or heard of same threat by Gov. Bala Mohammed yet.

Based on findings, the real perpetrators and architects of the funds diversion or insertion of fake names are in the state’s treasury; the top ranking directors who are overdue for retirement or overdue for replacement from the state’s purse against the civil service rules. Permanent secretaries also contributed in perfecting the shoddy act. A patriotic civil servant in the state, who prefers anonymity, said “advisably Governor Bala Mohammed should extend the ongoing tempo of sanitizing the civil service in the state, especially the state treasury, Hospital Management Board, state internal revenue office, department for local affairs, RUWASSA, SUBEB, Ministry of Health and Agriculture respectively, should be thoroughly investigated as more dirty things would unveil itself”.
Reminder , Governor Bala Mohammed should not forget the issue of Nafisa Abdullahi of ministry of health for her alleged involvement in the issue of faking appointments, Ibrahim Lele and Yusuf Gokaru for alleged diversion of funds from the treasury, Tijjani of establishment and service matters bureau for alleged involvement on salary issue, ex Director of Operation in Accountant General’s office who until recently obtained unprofessional certificate among others who retarded or bogged down the progress of the civil service in the state.
As Governor Bala Mohammed kick started his anti-corruption war, he need maximum support and prayers from the masses, as more hidden deals will be disclosed soon with the names of the architects.

To be continued next week………………