Anyone who tries to compare and contrast between the exuberant love exhibited by ordinary folks in Kogi State for Governor Yahaya Bello (GYB) with the rabid hatred directed at him and his administration by the class of displaced elites who once ran the state respectively will be confused at the extremes.
At one end of the spectrum is a statewide movement of grassroots supporters comprised of ordinary folks led by a newly minted corps of leaders in each locality. These are young men and women selected mainly from among former ‘nobodies’ by GYB and empowered with the high offices and powers which used to be the exclusive preserve of the former ruling class.
At the other end we find members of the old political elite who appear united across the 3 Senatorial District of the state by a deep-rooted hatred for His Excellency, Governor Yahaya Bello?
One will find it easy to decode why the generality of the masses will appreciate a Governor who is making genuine efforts to transform their state irrespective of perceived shortcomings.
What will task one’s powers of reasoning is finding a reason for the unity of resentment against him by the old elites and their followers.
How exactly has GYB wronged them? What are his sins?
Is insecurity in the state worse now than before he took office? Are there no signs or efforts that he is working to bridge the infrastructural gaps he met?
In three and a half years into his first term, can anyone produce evidence (or even strong suspicion) that the mindless looting which laid Kogi bare in the past is still ongoing under his administration?
Is there then a lack of transparency, a deficit of light or an intentional opacity around the receipt and use of State Resources?
Can anyone honestly accuse GYB of pursuing an Ebira Agenda and excluding the Igalas, Okuns, Nupes from proportional representation in government?
Is there any Kogi tribe, religion or constituency which is denied access or voice in Government, even in the Governor’s inner caucus?
Can we then agree that he is a proprietor of thugs and robbers and kidnappers and death squads stalking the land and eliminating political enemies?
Is it true then that he gave one Edward Onoja, his Chief of Staff and brother from another mother, N3.8bn of state money to import arms and ammunitions into Kogi for clandestine assignments against his adversaries?
Could it be that before coming to office GYB was poverty-stricken and indigent but since arriving Government House, Lokoja he has amassed unbelievable wealth?
Perhaps somebody can prove that the Governor has stolen all of Kogi’s money and siphoned it to Abuja or abroad with black magic?
Ok, maybe the Governor has shown signs that he wants to position his blood relations and biological children to lord it over Kogites like some of his predecessors?
The answer to all of these questions is No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! And No! Till infinity.
GYB is guiltless of all the objective reasons for which God-fearing men may resent and resist a leader.
Why then do the old guard hate him so much they are willing to give anything and spend anything to get him out of office?
I can say that the sins of GYB are simple and straightforward:
He is Ebira and it is written somewhere in the annals of the old guard that God created Ebiras never to lead Kogi State.
He is not in the clique, class or caucus of the ‘Powers that be’ neither is he their mentee or stooge.
He has no Godfather from among the fathers who like to play God of Kogites and they cannot understand why God The Father chose him above all those who consider the office their entitlement.
Like one of those who fancy themselves principalities over Kogi notoriously said on video, the state is an elephant that is big enough for sharing.
Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for Kogi, Yahaya Bello has refused to put the elephant on the butcher’s table for killing and sharing.
He failed to exact revenge against those who can be accused of brutal and selfish marginalisation of others all the time they were in power and instead appointed one of them as his right hand man while ensuring that they held a proportional amount of offices in his administration to compensate for their size and spread.
He is in his early 40s, and they believe he has not been initiated, has not paid his dues and lacks the ‘peculiar experience’ to prioritise their interests.
The most unforgivable sin of all is that he TRUSTS and empowers Edward Onoja, whom they consider the Devil himself and cannot be persuaded or provoked to discard him. The same Edward whom they accuse of owning assets worth hundreds of billions from stolen Kogi money. The same Edward whom they accuse of advising him not to pay Kogi Civil Servants so that they can all die. The same Edward whom they accuse of so many unmentionable crimes is the one His Excellency calls his Siamese twin and vows he will never abandon. Edward Onoja who some call white oracle that has used juju to capture his boss’s soul. The one who is their nightmare and top agenda in their clandestine meetings and who all agencies EFCC, ICPC, DSS, SSARS, FSARS, Navy, Army. Airforce, even Vigilante have arrested. The same Edward who has become the nail which punctures every tyre of oppression or destabilisation they try to roll over the people or the administration.
The above are the 7 Sins of YAHAYA BELLO for which he must be crucified and his government scattered.
But God is not a man and all their machinations have consistently failed and will continue to consistently fail.
Unfortunately,there is deep trechery exhibited by incurable treacherous personality who are jumping up and down everywhere trying to demarket My principal and I. Forgetting that there is Kama who bits the benevolent hands that lifted them up when nobody give a care about them in their drowning state. I encourage all those who they run to see them for who they are: wicked, Treacherous, ingrate, Power mongers, Social climbers, who have no value to add to the society.
Yahaya Bello continues to provide the exact kind of leadership Nigeria desperately needs at this moment in her history, even as we begin day 1 of the second phase of our Democratic Journey under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari.
One Kogi is the ripple which will spread in mighty concentric waves from the Confluence at Lokoja where our journey as One Nigeria began till it carries us to the One Nigeria of true Unity, Peace and Progress that we crave.
That is the sound I hear ringing thunderously in the realms of the Spirit.
If China and India did it, Nigeria can do it in style. The next 20 years shall be explosive and intriguing. A New Nigeria is here. Let us stay alive and live it.
God bless my leader, Governor Adoza Yahaya Bello. God bless Kogi State.
– Edward Onoja
Chief of Staff to the Governor of Kogi State.
