What breeds and encourages corruption, abuse of power and leadership recklessness in a society is the shyness, failure and unwillingness of the public to hold their leaders accountable. The “he’s our son” mentality has eaten deep into our fabrics as a people that elected leaders always hides under ethnic cover giving them the audacity to misbehave because they have the unflinching support of their kins. Our society is such that we always fail to speak against or criticise a leader, either elected or appointed just because he is a “son of the soil”. Shamefully, people are quick to rise up or hold protests in favour of their son who is being tried for corruption or may have committed one evil act or the other. We are fast to criticise a leader who isn’t of our tribe or ethnic group but rise is defense of our tribal man even when the allegations against him are obvious and damning. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong in rallying support for one of your own but that shouldn’t mean supporting his atrocities and misdeeds. Speaking out to condemn evil is a duty we all owe to the society, no matter who is involved.
For us in Ebira kingdom, our joy knew no bounds when for the very first time in over twenty four years of the state’s existence, an Ebiraman was finally sworn in as executive governor of kogi state. To the elders and opinion leaders, the inauguration of Yahaya Bello was a chance and an opportunity to right the wrongs of the past in terms of skewed appointments into the state civil service and lopsided sitting of developmental projects done by past administrations in the state. To an average Ebira youth, the take over of office of a youth was an answered prayer that was expected to benefit them through the execution of policies and programs that would create employment and open more job opportunity to the teaming unemployed in the state at large.
Unfortunately, one year into the administration of a governement which tags itself “New direction” a state that was “crawling” before yahaya Bello came into power is now stagnant and would soon start retrogressing if elder statesmen and opinion leaders in Ebiraland refuses to speak out and lend their voices into happenings in the state and how best they should be tackled. The right things to do by any sane people are to speak against anything that is inimical and contrary to the wellbeing of all and sundry, no matter who is doing it.
When a part of the state held sway as chief executive of the state, prominent Ebira men and women were vocal and virtually turned into activists, it is however sad that those people have chosen to be mute and turned deaf ears to the misdeeds, atrocities and recklessness of the incumbent govenor. Could it be that they are afraid to critisize or speak against the government for fear of being attacked? It is true that people have been arrested and detained unduely, harrassed, threatened, intimidated, and even kidnapped for daring to speak against or having contrary opinions with Governor Bello.
Fear have been instilled on the people of Ebiraland by Yahaya Bello’s miscreants so much so that people are scared to ever speak or condemn any of the Governor’s misdeeds publicly. People are being “marked” for elimination and tagged “enemy of Ebiraland” just for constructively criticizing the number one citizen of the state. Our people now prefer to die in silence than speak against tyranny, executive corruption and recklessness. It is appointed unto a man to die once, our people should feel free to rise and condemn the atrocities of any government whose policies and programs are anti-people, for that is the benefit of democracy and freedom of speech as enshrined and guaranteed by the Nigerian constitution. We owe it a duty to Ebira kingdom to show to the world that the fact that Alhaji Yahaya Bello happens to be an Ebiraman doesn’t mean we are condemn to support and approve of all his policies and programs, good or bad.
– Hussain Obaro
oseniobaro@yahoo.com
