What Should Kogi People Expect as Gov Bello Begins Second Term On Monday?

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By Isah Bala.

As all is set for the second term inauguration of Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello on Monday January 27, 2020, there is no reason for a repeat of what characterized the governors first tenure, best governance should be the hallmark of the second tenure.

Yahaya Bello whose first tenure is largely flayed by screening of the state civil servants and internal wrangling amongst his party men such that the people of the state had to bear the blunt of undue embarrassment on national media when the fight between the former Kogi West Senator, Dino Melaye and the feud between his deputy, Elder Simon Achuba degenerated into media war and Kogi State was constantly on the news for the wrong reasons.

The screening exercise which governor Bello termed as the only means to sanitize the state civil service showed many workers exit door. In the screening report presented to the governor, the state Auditor-General, Alhaji Usman Yusuf Okala had noted that the screening exercise was able to detect 25,103 ghost workers and would save the state 1.4 billion naira monthly which he said would amount to amount N16,387,296,713.88 per annum that would have been used to pay ghost workers.

The Peoples Democratic (PDP), however, flayed the exercise, said Yahaya Bello’s government mass sack of workers in the state public service under the guise of screening is most inhuman, wicked and unfortunate.

PDP had lamented in a statement issued by the director of Research and Documentation, Dickson Achadu, that the trauma and confusion the state worker’s screening report caused citizens of the state sent many citizens of the state to their early grave, describing the exercise as superfluous and prolonged screening, adding that the sacking of about 70 percent of the state workforce was the height of mischievousness by Yahaya Bello’s government against the citizens of the state.

By and large, the governor was able to win his second term bid against all odds in a contest that will go down in the history of the state as one of the most intriguing, and one that failed all political analysis, one that made Kogi Central with the highest votes for the first time in the history of the state.

Irrespective of the political games that made the governor to win his second term bid, the outcome of the election proved Bello to have known his onions and one that showed he understands the nature of Nigeria version of democratic politics and he never failed to use it for his victory.

At the build up to the election, Kogi was on the national burner of Nigeria media space when the former deputy governor of the state, Elder Simon Achuba appeared on all national TV, giving the detailed account of the total income of the state since governor Bello took over, the expenditure and the expected money that supposed to remain as a left over for the state.

Achuba had alleged that the governor maltreated him by not paying him his emoluments for two years which he said started when he dared the governor with the truth of the suffering of the state civil servants as a result of the screening exercise he said was not handled properly.

On the other hand, the Kogi State government denied the claim of the former deputy governor, describing it as frivolous, bogus and borne out of mischief and an attempt to embarrass the Kogi state government by generating sensational headlines in the news.

Bello was able to beat every analysis; one that he came from a minority tribe in the state, too many oppositions he had to fight to win his second term bid.

At a point, grapevine had it that Bello was ready to dump his party as the only solution to win his second term which the carriers based on the disappearance of the APC flag in the Government House, Lokoja.

The governor’s victory and the too many circumstances that led to it is one that political pundits never envisaged.

The fight with Senator Dino Melaye is over; the fight with Elder Simon Achuba is over and they are gone with its alleged distractions. The screening of the state civil service is over and it’s gone with its many controversies, there is no reason for complaint as the governor set for his second term inauguration on Monday and govern the state for another four years if the post election litigations favour him.

What the people of Kogi State is expecting is nothing short of ideal governance and justify the fact that, Kogi State is governed by the youngest governor in Nigeria.


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