End Of An Era As Kogi Governor, Beginning of An Era in National Politics

By Ozumi Abdul

 

Today , Saturday, 27th January 2024, Governor Yahaya Adoza Bello’s stint of eight years as Kogi state governor according to the dictates of the Nigerian constitution will come to a halt.

 

 

Then, the epithetic cognomina of “former governor” will be attached to his name, and the curtain on his eight-year reign will be brought down. He would later become an intermittent visitor to the Lugard House, where he had presided over the affairs of the confluence state for close to a decade.
What a strange irony about power, so alluring but very transiently ephemeral.

 

He will of course be bowing out and ushering in a new government with his shoulders high in the sky after doing due diligence to the progress and unity of the state that was hitherto badly hit by ethnic irredentism.

 

Verily, it’s a journey that has been riddled with several positive takeaways, and giant strides, except for a few administrative lapses here and there, which are understandably and unavoidably inevitable. After all, no human or administration is flawlessly infallible or impeccable, only the supreme being – God, can stake the sole claim to the exclusive bragging right of impeccability and infallibility.

 

He has by all standards made his marks, improved the fortunes of the state, and moved the state forward from her initial pitiful and pathetic situations where it met it, especially In the area of infrastructure, where his achievements are unparalleled, in the annals of Kogi’s existence.

 

The governance style of GYB has truly fostered the accelerated development of Kogi, and then, the socio-economic growth of both the residents and indigene of The Confluence State, in a manner that supplanted the legacies of his predecessors in office.

 

His administration has since remodeled Lokoja and other towns in The Confluence State, gave them flamboyant facelifts, flagged off, and commissioned several impactful capital projects that are already attracting both foreign and local investors to the state. Needless to say, his administration has given Kogi people a specialized tertiary institution called Confluence University of Technology, another new state university, christened as Kogi State University (KSU) in Okunland; while also engaging in aggressive construction and rehabilitation of both Trunk A and B roads, across the state.

How about the Kogi Revenue House, in Lokoja, and Kogi Rice Mill Factory, situated in the Ejigba town of Yagba East local government? Do we even need to mention the Muhammadu Buhari Event Centre in Lokoja, and the Ganaja Junction Flyover, also in the State capital?

 

Away from infrastructure, when we talk about insecurity, and for the the records, one of the states that has been in the eyes of the storm in the recent past was Kogi.

Before the whirlwind of insecurity shifted to Niger, Zamfara, Katsina, Benue and Kaduna States, some communities and roads in Kogi were dreaded because of the rates of crimes that were prevalent there.

Passing through some areas in the

state then was like passing through the valley of death. Kogi, the Confluence State, was gripped by all sorts of crimes, ranging from kidnapping to armed robbery, terrorism, herders-farmers pogrom, internecine violence among rival communities, and political assassinations.

 

But GYB has changed the narrative, which has since seen the state as a safe haven of sorts. This was made possible only by the singular act of overhauling Kogi’s security architecture, no sooner than he assumed office on January, 27th 2016.

Governor Yahaya Bello’s efforts at combating crime began yielding results such that in 2017, a report released by the National Bureau of Statistics, indicated that out of the 134,663 cases of crime reported, Bauchi, Kebbi, and Kogi states had the lowest rate.

 

That same year, Kogi had no case of burglary while the state with the highest level of crime had 1,213 cases.

It is apt to posit that Governor Bello’s approach to tackling the menace of youth restiveness in Kogi revolved around using a homegrown solution. He first united the people of the state, jettisoning their religious, cultural, and political cravings.

 

Then, he provided relevant security agencies in The Confluence State not only moral support but also logistic materials that would enable them to discharge their work efficiently.

In his attempt to generate revenue internally for the state, Governor Bello constructed the first-ever Kogi Revenue House in Lokoja, which is now shoring up the State’s IGR.

Also, the state’s health sector has grown exponentially too under his careful management. Hundreds of its primary healthcare centers have been renovated, and have ultramodern secondary and tertiary hospitals springing up in all the senatorial districts.

 

All these are already equipped or in the process of being equipped with state-of-the-art equipment. The state under GYB’s stewardship has also set up a health insurance agency and facilitated free registration for thousands of citizens. The state’s endgame is to make Kogi the number one Health Tourism destination in Nigeria.

 

In general, GYB has tried to provide good governance across the board, and these success stories are to a great extent replicated in agriculture and other sectors. For the first time, perhaps, the presence of the government is felt by the widest cross-section of Kogi people under one administration.

Readers, and perhaps even GYB’s critics only need to visit The Confluence State to be dazzled by the wonder Kogi State has become, under the exemplary and transformational leadership of the White Lion.

 

But what must be addressed is the farrago of misinformation and barefaced distortion of facts as it concerned not only the glittering personality of the outgoing Kogi’s State helmsman, but his exceptional performance in almost eight years as Governor.

 

Outside Kogi state, in eight years of Governor Bello’s voyage as the occupant of the popular Lugard House, he has no doubt endeared and thrust Kogi state to the epicenter of national political reckoning, the state that was hitherto languishing in the obscurity of national political discourse, despite bordering over eight states. He has been able to carve a positive image for the state and project her in a positive light to other Nigerians.

 

When the name “Yahaya Bello” is mentioned today by Nigerians in several fora, what readily comes to the minds of others is Kogi state, a secured Kogi state, that geographically positioned itself as the gateway to other northern, and several southern states.

 

The state’s name, now rings a bell in the ears of many Nigerians for positive reasons, thanks to Governor Yahaya Bello’s interventions in some national critical issues, such as his timely intervention in facilitating an agreement to end the blockade of food supply from north to the south, by the Amalgamated Union of Foodstuffs and Cattle Dealers of Nigeria (AUFCDN), in 2021.

In fact, stepping out to douse tension in such a period of national crisis implies patriotism at its peak. His swift decision to call to dialogue the warring parties was timely and helped resolve what would have become a protracted national crisis.

 

Also, in the year 2020, when the global scourge of coronavirus was on the upward rise, biting harder, and subsequently enforced total lockdowns of businesses, and shut down the economy, Governor Yahaya Bello stood his ground, resisted the urge to lock his state down, while also raising the cautiousness of Nigerians towards the clandestine motive behind the highly politicized, ‘over-bloated’ and ‘over-hyped’ of the scourge.

 

According to him, the lockdown imposed on the country led to the loss of lives and livelihood, as the pandemic had been politicized.

On the second wave of the pandemic, the Governor urged stakeholders not to create panic among Nigerians, calling on the media to probe into the political economy of COVID-19 in Nigeria.

 

“When we were told that there was COVID-19, I warned against spreading fear and panic. See what has happened. If they had listened to my advice, this economic recession would have been avoided. But we were playing politics with the whole thing.

 

“People lost their sources of livelihood. If we cannot provide for the people, we should not take away what they have already. But that was what happened. People lost their jobs. Even the media industry was affected.

“I am calling on those managing this pandemic to have the fear of God. President Buhari is a good man and he means well. He works with the system. This is why I am calling on those who advise the President to do that with the fear of God. We cannot have another lockdown.

 

“In Kogi, we did not give in to fear and we were able to successfully manage the pandemic because COVID-19 does not pose any threat to life as is being rumoured. It is like malaria and we have to see it that way”, he said then.

 

Governor Yahaya Bello was later vindicated, because when the PTF mulled another lockdown in December 2020, Nigerians vehemently opposed it, warning the government against shutting down the economy again. According to them, the impact of doing so will be deadlier than the effect of COVID-19 itself, as economists, financial analysts and scholars also agreed that another lockdown in the face of COVID-19 second wave would hurt the economy and Nigerians.

 

Again, recall that Governor Yahaya Bello, alongside former governors, like Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, Kaduna state, Dr Umar Abdullahi Ganduje, Kano state, and Bello Matawalle of Zamfara state were the very few Nigerian governors who were at the frontline of rebellion against the last administration of President Buhari’s naira redesign decision, that plunked millions of Nigerians into quantum and monumental hardships.

 

The trio of them dragged the then-Buhari led Federal Government to the Supreme Court over the naira redesign and cash withdrawal policies, following tension in the country resulting from the deadline issued by the CBN for the stoppage of the use of the old notes.

 

Governor Yahaya Bello specifically cited then that the policy was “ill-managed, ill-implemented, and ill-timed”, and that it is ravaging the country, affecting the common man, and everyone in the country, as well as affecting the economy.

 

These and more have been how Governor Yahaya Bello had pedestalled himself as a die-in-the-wool patriot, exuded the rare leadership qualities, bravery and sagacity, at the very top echelon of national politics. His brand of politics is in the national interest and service to the country.

 

At his seeming young age, Governor Yahaya Bello possesses rare, uncustomary, atypical and precocious political maturity, equanimity, candor and diplomacy to bring and sundry to equal terms and same political age in during the time of political differences and grievances.

 

He is young and vibrant. He is a man of rare courage and impeccable credentials. He is a man who detests mediocrity, hypocrisy, and double standards.

Governor Yahaya Bello Yahaya Bello is a game changer in Nigerian politics, and Nigerians should expect a bounce back to the national limelight of the gap-toothed Agassa born phenomenal, especially now that the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) national chairman seat will soon be up in the air, and the contest will be within North Central, according to the party’s zoning arrangements.

 

The APC’s constitution stipulates that the former National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu’s replacement should have emerged from the North Central zone, instead of Abdullahi Umar Ganduje from the Northwest.

 

The next national convention of the party is around the corner, and the rumours making the rounds now have it that the stakeholders of the party in the north-central have decided to compensate the outgoing governor for his resilience and efforts in stabilizing the party in kogi and North Central.

 

As it stands, all the factors, the arithmetics, the political calculations and manipulations appear to be conniving to favour the outgoing Governor Yahaya Bello. Then who says the diastema grandson of Pa Ochi, from Lilliputian Agassa cannot be APC National Chairman in matters of months after his tenure as governor.

 

Indeed, there will be an end of an era for Governor Yahaya Bello as Kogi state governor, from January 27, 2024, the obvious beginning of an era in national politics.