By joshua 
KOGI WORKERS DESERVE DIGNITY, NOT EMPTY PROMISES: A LABOUR DAY COVENANT FROM REV. ZACCHAEUS JONATHAN
Labour Day Message to the Great Workers of Kogi State, and Especially My Brothers and Sisters in Kogi West Senatorial District
May 1, 2026
To every farmer in Yagba, every teacher in Lokoja-Koto, every health worker in Kabba-Bunu, every artisan in Ijumu, every market woman in Mopamuro, every civil servant in Kogi West and across our dear State:
I see you. I salute you. I serve you.
Today, on Workers’ Day, the nation pauses to celebrate labour. But I know that for many of you, this day does not feel like celebration. It feels like another reminder of unpaid salaries, of pensions that never come, of promotions denied, of roads that swallow your produce, of hospitals without drugs, of schools without chairs, of promises made in campaign seasons that vanished after elections.
I will not insult your pain with empty slogans. Despair is real. Discouragement is real. Poverty is real. But hear me: Despair is not your final address.
As a servant-leader, my first duty is not to rule you, but to hear you. And what I hear from Kogi West is the sound of dignity fighting to survive — the farmer who still tills the soil though fertilizer is priced like gold, the teacher who still shows up though the chalk is bought from his pocket, the nurse who still runs night shifts though her own children are at home hungry.
You are the true wealth of Kogi State. Not the limestone in Obajana. Not the iron in Itakpe. You are the wealth. And any government that forgets this has lost its reason for existing.
So here is my covenant with you, not a campaign promise:
Your Labour Must Not Be in Vain.
A worker deserves his wages without begging. We will fight for a system where salaries, pensions, and gratuities are paid as a right, not as a favour. God Himself said, “The labourer is worthy of his hire.” If God honours labour, no government has excuse to dishonour it.
From Survival to Dignity.
Kogi West is blessed with land, with brains, with skill. We will open access to cooperative financing, modern tools, and guaranteed markets so that the cassava of Yagba, the yam of Kabba, and the craft of Ijumu become wealth, not just subsistence. Poverty is not your identity.
Government as Servant, Not Master.
I do not come to sit in high places and forget the low places. I come to wash feet. Every policy will pass one test: Does this lift the burdens of the common man, or does it add to them? If it does not lift, it will not stand.
Hope With A Plan.
Hope without strategy is mockery. So we will rebuild primary healthcare centres ward by ward, equip technical schools in each LGA, and open up farm-to-market roads so that what you labour for reaches the people who need it. This is not politics. This is justice.
To Kogi West in particular: You have been the corridor of history in this state — from the resistance of our forebears to the intellectual capital you produce today. You will not be the corridor of abandonment anymore. The era where your loyalty is taken and your development is forgotten is over.
My charge to you this Labour Day:
Do not give up. The same hands that have tilled, taught, healed, and built in hardship will yet harvest in joy. Psalm 126:5 says, “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.” Your tears have watered this land long enough. The season of reaping is coming.
So hold your head high. Your labour is not forgotten by God, and it will no longer be forgotten by government.
I am not coming to be served, but to serve — and to serve till Kogi works for the Kogi worker.
God bless the workers of Kogi State.
God bless Kogi West Senatorial District.
God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Signed,
Rev (Surv) Zacchaeus Inubiaraiye Jonathan
A Servant of the People, A Voice for the Worker