Your Excellencies,
With due respect to your offices and the authority vested in you by the people of Kogi State, this letter is written not in hatred, but in deep pain, concern, and patriotic responsibility. Silence in the face of injustice is betrayal. The cries of Kogi Central, particularly Ebira land, can no longer be ignored.
Under previous administrations dominated by our Igala brothers, Kogi Central had stronger staff strength in civil service, education, and health sectors than what we have today. Today, our presence in government institutions has thinned dangerously. This is not progress; this is regression.
During the administration of His Excellency Alh. Yahaya Bello, thousands of Ebira sons and daughters were retrenched from the state workforce. Till today, there has been no meaningful replacement, no fresh recruitment, no deliberate effort to heal the damage done. Families were thrown into hardship. Homes were broken. Young graduates were condemned to the streets. This wound is still bleeding.
Your Excellencies,
Since the exit of the previous government, not a single school in Kogi Central has been rehabilitated to the standard of the GYB Model School, Adankolo, Lokoja. Not a single recreation centre has been built in Kogi Central to match the standard of Muhammadu Buhari Square, Lokoja.
Are we not part of Kogi State? Are our children not citizens of this state? Do we not deserve dignity, opportunity, and hope?
Your Excellency, Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo, in the last two years of your administration, we acknowledge the construction of roads and some Primary Health Care centres. But we ask with heavy hearts:
Where are the jobs?
Despite huge monthly allocations coming to Kogi State, there has been no recruitment of teachers, health workers, or civil servants.
Today, our undergraduates roam the streets jobless. Our hospitals are short of workers. Our schools are empty of teachers. The youth are frustrated. Hopelessness is spreading like wildfire.
Does it ever occur to the Governor and his political godfather that power is temporary? Does it occur to you that one day, another tribe may take over leadership in Kogi State? What legacy will you leave behind? What will history write about your era?
We remember with pride the era of Alh. Adamu Atta of blessed memory.
Count the number of schools he built. Count the road networks he constructed. Count the water projects he established. He governed with vision and left visible footprints of development.
If this current government claims it cannot build new structures or recruit workers, then why not rehabilitate existing schools and hospitals?
Why not introduce part-time teaching and temporary employment schemes to absorb our roaming graduates? Why must our youth be punished for political calculations?
We recall that Governor Idris Wada recruited teachers in his last year in office, hoping for re-election. Though he lost, the action itself showed responsibility to the future of education. Sadly, those recruitments were dismissed by the Yahaya Bello administration and labeled “political appointments,” yet no new recruitment was done to replace them. This is governance by destruction, not by building.
Your Excellencies, a stitch in time saves nine. Ignoring the cries of Kogi Central today may lead to consequences tomorrow that no amount of power can contain.
We appeal to your conscience, your sense of justice, and your place in history:
Recruit teachers, health workers, and civil servants.
Rehabilitate schools and hospitals in Kogi Central.
Restore dignity to Ebira land.
Give our youth hope and a reason to believe in government again.
Leadership is not about power; it is about legacy.
What legacy will your administrations leave behind?
May history remember you kindly — but history only remembers those who act when it matters.
Signed:
Dr. Okatahi Michael
Leader, Ebira in Diaspora (UK)
