New occupants of offices are usually said to hit the ground running. For Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, however, it has been more of hitting the ground fighting, given the controversies that have dogged his administration since he assumed office in 2016. Not a few people would adduce the development to his ruling style, which more often results in negative perception of his administration by followers of events in the Confluence State.
From the beginning of his administration, Bello, whose admirers fondly refer to as the ‘white lion,’ has been embroiled in a dark struggle to assert himself.
Having inherited votes won by the party’s flag bearer, the late Prince Abubakar Audu, at the November 21, 2016 state governorship poll, Bello faced an uphill task of taking control of the state’s political machinery.
Measures taken by him to establish his leadership, however, incited the ire of political associates, resulting in an unending war of attrition in the state.
Notwithstanding the challenges before him, Bello surged frontally, taking the battle for the control of Kogi’s political machinery; through his New Direction policy agenda and other measures, including his political chess battle at the Kogi’s House of Assembly, which saw no less than two speakers replaced, Bello has been in the news for controversial reasons. Other contentious actions taken by him include the prolonged staff verification exercise and his tiff with organised labour in the state.
His lingering war of words and supremacy with Senator Dino Melaye, however, assumes more sordid manifestations, even as his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), battles internal crisis in the state. Bello’s alleged non-recognition of the Haddi Ametuo-led APC exco and formation of a parallel one reportedly aggravated the acrimonious tussle within the party. It alienated the ruling party into rival factions. It would be recalled that Ametuo claimed that the governor got his mandate through the grace of God after the demise of Abubakar Audu, the candidate of the party, who was already coasting to victory before his sudden death. Ametuo reportedly contended that all the party members who worked and spent their resources during the election were sidelined by the governor.
He alleged that most of the appointments made by Bello’s government were done by his Chief of Staff, Edward Onoja.
“This governor appointed over 200 aides – from commissioners to SSAs and out of the 286, only 43 are original APC members. You can imagine that the rest are PDP. That is the crux of the matter. Over 80 percent of those in Bello’s cabinet are a mixture of the PDP and non-party members. It cannot be sustainable for APC’s continuity in 2019,” said Ametuo. In the wake of the impasse, the parallel APC faction loyal to Bello scornfully referred to the Ametuo group as the Diaspora APC, because they allegedly took a wide berth from the state. Other controversial actions of Bello include his rationalization and layoff of over 150 lecturers at the state-owned university and proscription of unionism in all tertiary institutions in the state. The governor also incited criticism and bitter opposition to his ceding of land for cattle ranching.
His controversial proposal to sell Kogi properties, volte-face on dissolution of state and LG excos, among others, provoked widespread dissent to his administration. Speaking with The Nation, a retired local government employee said from his base in Idah, that workers there were paid 25 percent of their salary. “I can tell you authoritatively that the workers got 25 percent for their February salary”, he said. Amidst outcry from various interest groups, Bello was the first to embrace the Federal Government’s cattle colony initiative. The governor allegedly said, in response to critics, at a stakeholders’ meeting with the people of Kogi Central: “People cannot offer us reconciliation with one hand and try to stab us in the back when we embrace them. “It does not matter to them that Kogi State belongs to all of us.
Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred,” he said, adding that the fortunate aspect was that the antagonism “merely gives his government more reasons to work harder in order to prove them wrong.” The governor is certainly not a stranger to theatrics; few hours after he announced the retirement of his political advisers and dissolution of executive councils at the state and local government levels, Bello rescinded his decision thus enacting the fastest policy somersault or cold feet. As at the time of filing this report, the governor is grappling with a sprained ankle following an accident during a recent function in Lokoja, the state capital. Bello subsequently appeared in crutches at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja, in the wake of the mishap.
Credit: The Nation
