Featured, Politics
THE South East Governors’ Forum (SEGF) owes its staff over three Million, Five Hundred Thousand Naira (N3.5m). This sum is the six months’ salaries of the Directors of the South East Governors’ Forum Secretariat. The last time these Directors received salaries was in January 2021. The
SEGF was set up by the South East governors in August 2017 to run the Forum – provide administrative/secretarial services, be the policy hub in the South-East region, churn out research-based ideas which will help the governors o execute projects that will make for the rapid development of the region.
Since 2017, only five persons have been running the SEGF Secretariat – a Director-General, a Deputy Director-General and three other Directors. Each of these officials was selected from one of the five states which make up the South-East region – Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi, Abia and Imo.
Over the past four years of its existence, the SEGF has not earned the respect of Ndigbo who populate the region. Some people have argued that the governors have been indifferent and insensitive to the welfare of their people while hobnobbing with the government at the centre with a view to cornering personal and political gains from the Presidency.
Others have opined that some of these governors are far more interested in clinching the Presidential position (a position which the Igbo have been agitating to occupy come 2023) than working to improve Igboland and its people who elected them into office.
In comparison to their counterparts, the Northern Governors’ Forum and the South West Governors’ Forum – the SEFG has been unfocused, insincere and jittery. Supporters of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) simply perceive the South East governors as cowardly.
They hold that the Yorubas defend their own people and organizations (Sunday Igboho, the
Odua Peoples Congress, Aferifere, etc), while Igbo governors cast IPOB, MASSOB and Ohanaeze Ndigbo overboard.
According to some commentators, the Northern Governors’ Forum as well as the North East and North Central Governors’ Forums usually rise to the occasion whenever the need arises.
They justify and support actions taken by their people without caring whether these actions are defensible or not.
Their immediate reaction to such issues as the proposed anti-open grazing law, the activities of Boko Haram and Bandits are cases in point.
The staff of SEGF have not been paid a dime as salaries since February, 2021. Nor have they been provided with any form of support to cushion the excruciating pains they have been subjected to by those who employed them (the governors). What is more, no apology or explanation has been offered to them by their principals (the governors). But these governors have been receiving their own salaries and Allowances.
They have been spending public funds on frivolous issues – to obtain patronage from political hirelings, judicial officers women and the like. What has happened to the idea of constructing a Ring Road across the region which was mooted some time ago by the Governors’ Forum and lauded by Ndigbo the world over? How about the promise of improving Heathcare, the purported partnership with e-Health Africa and other programmes?
What is perplexing is why the governors have decided to kill the very body which they set up in the first place. Or how does one explain the bizarre actions of some of them? Why did the Governor of Enugu State appoint the Enugu State representative in the SEGF and the Director-General of the SEGF Secretariat as the Secretary to the Enugu State Government and insist that he should also retain his position in the forum? A similar action was replicated by the SEGF Chairman and Governor of Ebonyi State who appointed his State’s representative as Commissioner of Finance and Strategy and insisted that he must not relinquish his position as Director of Finance And Administration in the SEGF Secretariat.
Why is it difficult for the governors to provide funds for running the forum, but they have funds for running party affairs, and embarking on unimportant ventures?
What is the position of these governors on the current terrible security situation in which the South East has found itself? What action or actions have they taken to address the disastrous challenge of Corona Virus, the detention of Nnamdi Kanu and the unprecedented killings in Orlu and other parts of Igboland? Ogbodo, a commentator on current Affairs, wrote from Enugu.
– July 25, 2021 @ 13:16 GMT |
Tags: South East Governors and six Months Unpaid Staff Salaries By Ikenna Ogbodo
