In this last installment, we wish to state that the Plateau Government hasn’t yet come out to declare how much it spent on that so-called fumigation of the ENTIRE STATE. As a result, speculations are rife that they spent a whopping N2 billion!!!

Well, you can’t blame citizens for bandying such figures. When a government is too secretive regarding sensitive information about the way their monies are spent, it gives room for speculations. And government wouldn’t have any moral justification to blame concerned citizens for purvaying fake news!!

The Lalong government is bound by law to not only tell citizens how much they spent on the fumigation, they must explicitly explain how the exercise was carried out throughout the state and the benefits we are deriving from it.

For the benefit of doubt, anyone who is in contact with ordinary Plateau citizens knows that there’s intense suffering all over the land. In fact, many citizens will simply not be able to feed themselves during this second lockdown. Yet, they are vaguely aware that their government is perhaps squandering billions of naira that should have been used to assuage their suffering at these dangerous, trying times.

There are also hushed mutterings, especially in government circles, that there are state funds being administered by the office of the Deputy Governor meant to be disbursed to the masses as part of the paliatives. But, again, the people have not been told anything about this because government is perhaps trying to also hide this the way they have done in the fumigation case.

In its rush to corner the huge resources that have materialised as a result of this pandemic, government appears to have lost touch with the fact that such funds are meant to be equitably distributed to needy citizens, irrespective of political affiliations.

Lastly, government must realise that if they don’t effectively and transparently allocate funds to the needy being forced into quarantine, this will surely open up the state to this deadly contagion because hungry citizens may be forced to defy government by going out to seek alternative means of survival.

God forbid!!! A stitch in time saves nine.

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COVID-19: BEFORE PLATEAU GOES INTO ANOTHER TOTAL LOCKDOWN (2) – CHRIS GYANG