By Promise Emmanuel
At a cushion of intellectual carefulness and clinical projections, some of us have held camp. Yahaya Bello is not everything happening now. He is a let-down even, if you match the expectations that greeted his emergence as a governor. He is young and looks bright, my female friend also wanted him to be Governor in the climax of who would replace late Audu because unlike his predecessors, he is handsome. Very fine for the camera. And you know how handsome men are required to have handsome intelligence. He was game for me and many Kogites.
Now see. Kogi State is a lazy state. Lazy to diverse economic activities due to the mediocre leadership that has rented the cruise of Lugard House for years in succession. The people were configured to believe in Civil Service jobs as the best thing after God and sex. The youths were developed in thuggery, armed in street political consciousness- a path of seeing politics as an ideal career or future. That has been the structure- the political-system.
Yahaya Bello comes in. Relaxes old nerves in political relevance. He embarks on emboldening his own political architecture, what local politicians call “structure”. He saturates the rooms with young men. These ones have average education or a bit below. They are young, vibrant and don’t care about old people. The new order was born. It injured the old order. The crows perched to see a weakness, but the Abuja fallout and PDP’s overtures withdrew their voices.
Yahaya Bello installs his government from those who sponsored his pick as Audu’s successor. In some quarters, rumor has it that Sen. Dino Ajekun Iya Melaye picked the Secretary to the State Government, amongst other nominations. Dino Melaye was the vociferous pantheon in the project of enthroning Governor Bello. He held his hand at the green grounds of Lokoja and declared him “God’s chosen mandate”. Infact, he was ready to fight anybody: traditionalists or Atheists who dared remove the “divine and God” factor in his assertion. A model of his CCT support for the Senate President, Bukola Saraki was replicated in Kogi State.
Into his administration:
Governor Bello appears like a man who isn’t completely wicked like the governor from North East Nigeria who said his people were been ravaged by Meningitis because of their many sins and sexual immorality. He may have the mind of people like Donald Duke, however, lacking in the political sagacity of people like Oshoko, the Great Ayo Fayose. But as a complement as a wise man, he elected himself a Chief of Staff, Edward Onoja, who’s his personal assistant in political strategy and bullet proof in political missiles. According to some people, Edward Onoja has an overbloated ego- a regular definition of a defiant Igala man. He is not as bad as they make him appear, he just happens to offend proud people who think him proud. Rumor has it that an average Igala man pendulums between pride and ego, then many times a generous heart, something we are all yet to verify scientifically.
Edward Onoja is the complement of Yahaya Bello in making the strong decisions. He appears to understand the political climate of the state- the local politics. He just gets in the news all the time because he may try to do “everything” by himself. Sometimes, he even complicates the media mess for his already haemorrhaging media team which is at constant pelt of vitriolic and mass-anger from the disgruntled populace over issues of salaries (their best friend) and then some people complain of executive recklessness.
Let me not pretend, Kogi State isn’t a fire power throttle like we all expected. But it is not as bad. If we sustain the mediocre yardstick of using the past to compare the present, the only difference is that salaries were regularly paid to all- the real staff on government payroll and the “dominant ghosts staff” on the government payroll. Infact, rumour has it that a particular “private” Radio station on the top of a popular mountain in Lokoja, have her salaries bankrolled on government funds. This stifles my heart.
Edward Onoja leads the pack in the GYB administration. He attempts to appear as making all the decisions, something I can’t be sure of. He is actually an enemy of the dominant Igala political congregants who see him as the energizer of the Governor who is the first minority and non-Igala to rule the state. In a backward democracy, sorry, nascent democracy like ours, such arguments retains on the lips of even our Kogi intellectuals. Absurd.
What is this story I am talking about without gisting you about the Dino Melaye angle?
Come with me,
The rumour mill in Kogi State has it that, when the Governor was in the thoughts of conducting local government elections, the most “vulgar”, sorry, “vocal” senator in the red chamber, Ogbeni Dino Melaye, who released a comic tape on the Ajejkun Iya ni oje which became a hit track, brought a long list of political demands. He wants ALL the local government chairmen slot in Kogi West, according to the rumour mongers. They keep saying it was to perfect his plans of delivering Kogi to Saraki in 2019. How can you not even think about this rumour? Saraki is an ambitious man just like Dino. Remember, 2019 can still have the Senate Presidency retained in the North Central. Ogbeni Dino is that ambitious.
What is my own sef? As a young Kogite, less than 30 (yes I am), one car of Dino Melaye’s trade-fair of garage can pay the 8 million Masters in Media Psychology my soul and family has been praying for in the United Kingdom. A Onetime benevolence from Governor Bello Personal Assistant can also change this story. Do both part care? Is there a state scholarship for me to access? No. So, I have no stakes anywhere. I shall give you the gist in the bravest form of objectivity.
Dino Melaye is actually fighting for his political fallout with the Yahaya Bello government on those items I listed and more. Forget the ajekun iya story of salary payment and closure of Kogi state tertiary institutions. Unfortunately, he has a weakness to mask his personal drive with, which are those challenges.
Without pretense, Governor Bello and his coterie of advisers have had kickbacks of decisive decision making. From the epileptically managed workers screening exercise which took more than a year to his adamant stature which snowballed into offending the intelligentsia community in the state. True to my pen, those gentlemen are angry for his reneging on their last signed Memorandum of Understanding, (MOU), which carries comfortably their “earned allowances”, which the government promised to defray gradually from N50m Monthly to an increment of N100m from January 2017. The last they received was in December 2017. There’s also issue of non-payment of salaries or selective payments. The salt on their open wounds also stems from the argument that those (lecturers or workforce) employed in 2015, under Governor Wada was based on “political patronage”. That’s very absurd. The academics explained that educational workforce cannot be too much, but only little. However, those recruits were based on “Needs” to pass accreditation for new departments like the expansion of Faculty of Agricultural sciences, faculty of Education and Medicine. These are new faculties with Faculty of Agricultural sciences having more departments.
The same yardstick used in screening the academics like other member staff of the civil service is the greatest blunder made on intelligence. I’m sure, he would have learnt that there’s a Stick, there’s also a Carrot on it.
But again, you need a clue. Aside the story of his improper handling of the tertiary institutions, there was massive sabotage. Some disgruntled tribalists and beneficiaries of the old system constituted an assembly to wage war on his administration, unfortunately, it was easy as they’re seen as opinion leaders. Another revelation is that most of those academics in this bandwagon are of People’s Democratic Party, PDP’s coven. They just lost power. They also lost influence.
In further demystifying the salary/ strike issue, a Lecturer in kogi State University, Austin Obaje, wrote on the 22nd July, 2017, in a Facebook discussion thus: “Asuu vs Government: I have heard many conspiracy theories about the strike. Some claim that Yahaya Bello’s intention is to destroy KSU because it is not in Ebiraland. I honestly find that ridiculous. Some say the governor does not give a damn if institutions are on strike or not and I question their propensity to dissect the complexities of the times. While discussions are ongoing,I think two fundamental mistakes made by the government is largely responsible for the delay: (a) The undefined screening criteria from the outset (b) The emphasis on the stick while excluding the carrot. Let me state it here that Staff are being owed differently. I believe the difference emanated from the irregularities during the screening. The least owed, to the best of my Knowledge is two months (June excluded). I gathered that some are up to 15 months. I however cannot confirm that. I also cannot ascertain the ratio of those that are owed 2months against other months. So in that case, I cannot objectively rate the government on this one. As long as some are owed longer, expect the longest ones to be at the forefront of the anti-Bello non-salary-paying –campaign”. (https://www.facebook.com/promise1?fref=nf). This is insightful to any objective mind. None-the-less, salaries have not been paid up-to-date.
The AYB Vs Dino gate exacerbated when Senator Dino Melaye, weeks ago, led a political entourage into the state capital on a working day, to protest against his RECALL by members of his constituency which he claims were being sponsored by Governor Bello, without police permit or monitoring to stage a protest in the front of the Kogi State Polytechnic, Lokoja; chanting anti- Bello songs laced in biles in the process disrupting economic activities and gathering students in a rent-crowd which is the penchant of most politicians in sponsoring their political battles. Unfortunately, a student of the institution lost his life in the process. This thuggish attitude resonates how political jobbers recruit innocent youths in the country whom are given handouts to fight For and Against enemies of some politicians. It is a sad situation.
Senator Melaye appears vocal on the floor of the senate, however, he has been inconsistent with his public behaviour, it is mostly absent of decorum expected from an intellectual. More importantly, this constitutes as one of the reasons many Nigerians and Kogites of Western senatorial districts find him unfit to represent them. However, a modicum of truth may reside in his accusation of state sponsoring of his ordeal, a validation can be found in the docility of Nigerians. Nobody fights for anything until they have something directly to gain. Even at that, Dino Melaye coasted his way into the abattoir for slaughter based on his theatrical personality and penchant for controversy.
What are his options?
1. Instigate the State Assembly to impeach the Governor: This may not work for him. The governor has long ago secured his political commitment in the state assembly after the prolong crisis in 2016. Dino Melaye seems not to enjoy the support of his constituency member as well as he is largely accused of rigging himself into power. It is also surprising to observe that about 111,000 persons voted him in the election but about 188,000 have submitted signatures for his recall.
2. Instigate the State’s APC against him to involve those at the National hierarchy: Dino Melaye seems not to have the backing of the APC hierarchy especially with his romance with Senator Bukola Saraki. He also offended Tinubu when he jettisoned Falake in opting for Yahaya Bello, whom many Kogi West indigenes see as a betrayal of the West. The pockets of APC leadership in his team in the state seem to also be poor in finance and connection. They’ve only resorted to expectations from 2019 elections. He is also largely alone.
3. Saraki’s Influence: Saraki doesn’t have much of influence in Kogi state to help Dino, except on a national front. The Federal Government have also appealed his CCT case which would also reintroduce his trouble.
4. Presidency: The camp of Buhari seems to be with Yahaya Bello on this due to Dino’s truncation of Magu’s EFCC leadership and the trouble generated from Custom’s Boss, Ahmed Alli’s screening. On the Osinbajo’s side, the betrayal of Faleke is still fresh on their minds.
5. Public Opinion: Dino Melaye is largely not well perceived by Nigerians due to his exotic and affluent display of his luxurious lifestyle in the face of a marjorly suffering population. In Kogi state, the sector of support he enjoys also comes from those who are angry at the inability of Governor Bello to Pay workers’ salaries and the continues closure of all tertiary institutions in the state. That leaf has been temporarily plucked as some workers have started getting part payment of their salaries, medical association in the state calling off their industrial action and also the temporary suspension of industrial action embarked upon by the tertiary institutions in the state which country houses an MOU that gives the state government a window of 4 weeks to settle their agitations.
Conclusively, barring any last minute compromise from the Yayaha Bello’s camp to give Dino Melaye a soft landing, Dino seem to be alone at the moment. Although, some surprises are expected, but currently the Governor Bello’s camp is in control. The media team of the government is also handling the crisis a level above mediocrity with the projection of some positive changes which is fast swallowing the voice of the opposition which has been loudest in previous months. For watchers and those keen on how these issues unfold, stick around as I bring you my analysis of the unfolding situation.
– Promise Emmanuel is a Kogite. He writes from Abuja. He can be reached for more rumour leaks on:prodigypromise.emmanuel@gmail.com
