To me, this long note is not just a quick reaction to the plenty and widely peddled rebuttal those who have been feeding fat from playing errand boys, errand men and even errand PhD holders in the present Kogi state government have crafted out to keep their pay masters glue to their pocket.
But a larger effort to make it public that some of us might not be at the forefront of the recent “Igàla agenda” as beautiful and harmless as it has been justified, but weather “Igàla agenda” or not, the Yayaha Bello led government is a total failure in every sense or definition and no body in Kogi state with his conscience and common sense still intact that will ever support the reelection of such a failed government.
Most times I hide my head in shame and heavy pain when I see some grown men, youths and certain elites come online to write pages of notes defending this obvious failure.
Off course I know how far people can go to protect certain friendships that gives them kick backs than they can ordinarily provide for themselves, but what I don’t know is why the vehement efforts to make an obvious failure a success story.
Why the strong effort to make it look like certain persons, or a certain tribe don’t just like the present government because the number one person is not from the tribe.
Let me put it clear, may be for my self and for those who share common grounds with me that “nobody hates Yahaya Bello”
Rather, we are not just comfortable with a governor that took 16 good months to conduct a civil service screening that still led to unmerited retirements, dismissal, demotion, suspension and even unmerited conviction of over thousands of staffs across the state.
The people of the state are not just okay with a government that was given more than one trench of the bail out funds and yet workers have not been paid for 22 months.
The people of Kogi state are tired of a government that has folded its hand and watch the crippling of its workforce because of the continuous strike from ministry to ministry.
Every body is not just comfortable with a government that has not been able to provide the smallest basic amenities for the people. Up till the time of writing, at least out of every ten communities in Kogi state, eight does not have a source of drinkable water, not to talk about roads or even health care centres and when they people complain those who have sold their conscience will say they just hate the governor.
The people of Kogi state are just tired of a government that consider the building of Mosque and churches and a loud achievement worth being shared on national dailies.
When was the last time pensioners were paid,we have retirees dying on daily basis because they don’t have money to fare for themselves.
Look at education in Kogi state, virtually all the government owned secondary schools across the state including Lokoja are in their worst conditions, some don’t have classrooms, others don’t have desk, some don’t even have chalk boards, there are even schools that pupils and students are taught under trees and when people complain they tag it “hate”.
There is a high level of insecurity in the state presently,; kidnapping is on a widespread, Fulani herdsmen are rampaging, thuggery is on the increase and all sort of abduction is on going.
In my last article, I spoke about the dilapidated conditions of the state capital. I highlighted what an eyesore the state capital has become and I challenged the present Kogi state government to show us one successful gutter in Lokoja, the state capital has turned to a complete glorified local government area or am I the only one seeing it that way.
In the last three years the state has ran into debt over “23 billion” that is if we are to go with the rumoured figure, there is no on-going project in Kogi state, what we have are just contractors asked to go to site and pretend to be working to get the people to support and vote them come November, aside the building of the Revenue house in Lokoja which other tangible project can we identify in Kogi state that the IGR, bail out and state allocation is not always enough that we have to loan money every day.
We don’t know how our state funds are been spent, where the are being spent, yet every day Kogi state is in debt, every day there is no money to pay salaries, every day we are writing to the Central Bank or Senate to allow us source for loan, still when the people complain about this,they say it is born out of hatred.
Do we talk about the “half bake” and “eye service” projects the state has been trying to deceive it’s citizen with, like the “confluence rice” a project that was built only on Facebook, what about the so called rehabilitation of roads in Kogi east, a 10 – 18km road that they have been snapping from different angles and sharing online to deceive the people.
Sentiments and sort for favour, might have clouded those who have eating fat from this government, but one thing is for sure there is no way they can ever ever deceive us to believe that the Yahaya Bello led government has been working when there is absolutely nothing to show for it.
Like I told a professor friend of mine yesterday, I do not need to be igàla before I know the Yahaya Bello led government has failed in the last three years. The people of Kogi state does not even need to bother themselves preaching any “Igàla agenda” for the people to recognize the need not to support the reelection of such a government. The failures are so clear, the lapses are so obvious, the shortsightedness are so visible that no amount of damage control can erase it.
It is not just about the “igàla agenda” even the Ibira, the Okuns, the Nupes, the Bassa, Berom or even the Jukuns, know a failed government when the see one. They know some one who can address the issues faced in Kogi state and in the last three years the Yahaya Bello led government has proven to us beyond all forms of doubt that he is not the right person for the job.
So let those sorting the reelection of the present government not hide behind “they hate him because his not their tribe” to score cheap points that can never erase the failures scattered every where.
If Yahaya Bello led administration has done well some of us still have a strong conscience and statesmanship that can never be shattered on the altar of tribalism or nepotism and would have written out volumes of articles to ensure his reelection.
But so far and so bad the Yayaha Bello led administration has failed and his reelection is one mistake that Kogi state will never want to make.
– Jacob Unekwu Agada. Author, EBULEJONU, writes from Idah, Kogi state.
