TheCable

Yahaya Bello, governor of Kogi state, says it is only those who are blind that are saying he has not done enough to promote tourism in his state.

Speaking with state house correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, the governor said his administration is doing its best to ensure security.

A reporter had asked him: “What will you say you are not doing enough to promote tourism in your state?”

Responding, Bello said, “It’s only those who are blind that will not see what we are doing… Before you attract tourists to your state, you have to secure it.

“There must also be infrastructure. All these are being taken care of as we speak… Investors are coming in in their numbers. They are so many that are coming. It’s not out of place to say they see that the place is secure.”

Bello said he met with the president to brief him on the happenings in Kogi. He said the state was very stable, except for a “few Diaspora politicians that are making noise in the media”.

He asked the people of the state to be patient with him because “things are hard generally”.

“The only thing is that the good people of Kogi state should continue to be patient with this government. Things are hard generally and we are trying our best, and that is why we are transparent in everything that we do. I’m sure you are aware of the periodic publishing of our accounts, very soon we are going to publish all the salaries that we have paid to workers since inception in newspapers for people to see it. All the noise about Kogi not paying salaries will be in public domain,” he added.

He described workers of the state who are on strike as political civil servants.

Some workers of the state are on strike owing to the failure of the government to pay them a backlog of salaries.

He said he was trying to keep up with the payment of salaries, but that the “economy is biting hard everywhere”.

“Those workers that are on strike are political civil servants; the real civil servants are coming to work. We are trying our best to keep up with the payment of salaries. There is no denying the fact that the economy is biting hard everywhere and you will recall that I met four-month salary backlog, I cleared it and today we are keeping up to date. We are owing August and September as we speak,” he said.

“We are up to date in terms of salaries and those that come to work we shall pay them and those that don’t come to work, the no-work-no-pay rule shall surely apply.”