Your Excellency,
Greetings and top of the day to you. I would have loved to talk to you in private but I know that I don’t have a chance of ever getting that privilege.
The time it would take to go through the protocol of getting an appointment with you would probably have made my effort belated.
I could, of course, have taken my chance and found a way of bagging into you at one of the social and political functions, which you attended in Lokoja, but I won’t have dared.
I am not a suicidal person and I know that breaking the human security fence around governors is a mightier task than scaling the concrete American barb-wired fence of the average governor’s residence.
Even in the sacred environment of a Mosque or Church, it takes the most tenacious classmate, associate or friend to greet a governor because security agents would have found a way of blocking one away from you. It would appear that one of the fundamentals of security training is the deadening of the sense of recognition and discernment.
Pardon me for allowing my frustration about some of the absurdities of leadership in Kogi to prolong your anxiety about the message I wish to convey to you in this letter. It is, simply, to ask you to make peace with the top politicians in the state and its People;
There is no gain saying the fact that Kogi State under your tutelage is at present, highly engrossed with intra-party quagmires within your party, the APC, and greatly engulfed in a political imbroglio (particularly the party leadership crisis rocking state and the resignation of Rt Hon. Umar Ahmed Imam the immediate Kogi State House of Assembly speaker) which has attracted the attention of the world to our dear State.
To say the truth without mincing words, majority of our people especially the youths are greatly disenchanted and are no longer proud of our dear State consequent upon the interminable political turbulence currently holding the development of the State by the jugular. This indeed, is a gigantic challenge confronting your leadership of the State, and the only way you can surmount this challenge is by building bridges, not walls, and mending political fences within a considerable ambit.
I am suggesting this line of action, not because I consider you the guilty party in the squabble with the People and the political turmoil in our state. On the contrary, I share the popular perception of you as the victim of a power play.
I am sure that you know that most Kogites are not on your side and were disgusted at the crudity of your shenanigans.
Secondly, Sir, I wish to remind you some of your promises after the inconclusive and supplementary election that brought you in specifically the ones you made at radio kogi which you tamed “BAY’S ” (Bello At Your Service) during the calls and to know about your performance on each of the promises so far:
Road: Your Excellency Sir, you promised to open up and construct rural areas roads like Budan, Kupa, Abugi and other towns and local government etc for our agricultural produce to get to major cities. Sir, how many of these roads have been open up since you got to office and where? You promised to dualize all major roads leading to the city.
Sir, how many of our major cities road have been dualized so far and where? You promised to construct most of these roads with direct labour. Can you please state how many direct labour acts your administration employed in constructing these roads? You promised to construct a railway network partnership with Abuja on light rail system. Please sir, what is your administration’s progress report on this?
Economy: You promised to minimize poverty and headship, develop and encourage trading, industrial and commercial activities, resuscitate farm settlements by providing social amenities to encourage youth involvement in agriculture and also transparency and accountability. Sir, though I think your responses on economy are vague, but to what percentage have you been able to reduced poverty and hardships in the state?How far have you been able to develop and encourage trading, commercial, and industrial activities; giving the fact that your administration has increased higher rate of tax to most of our markets and shops without building new ones?
I wish to state clearly here that I’m in total support of your new system of tax levies on shops and markets especially those on the road and others but I believe a responsible and people oriented government should have other alternative for people before enforcing or implementing on such policy.
I want to believe your administration is working against the common people that cast their votes for your party which fortunately made you a supplementary governor after the Audu/Faleke quagmire. Sir, by what percentage has your administration improved the state’s IGR (Internal Generated Revenue) and what are its positive impacts on the state?
Education: Sir, the Kogi State University,Polytechnic, College of Education, School of Health and other tertiary institutions has been on strike for about 5 months over a matter that can be resolved easily and your administration does not feel concerned. Since your children or families are enjoying their studies abroad, your administration can afford to waste the time of these youth until whenever you are ready. What is the present state of Lokoja | and || school and other schools you talked off ? Especially the one in cantonment. I hope they now have chairs and roof? How many teachers have you been able to recruit within the 2 years of your administration? It is so funny that why you were in school, you benefited from quality education provided by the generation before you and yet your administration does not see the need to do something drastically to improve on the status of education in our state.
I appeal to you to be guided by the wisdom that you employed in becoming the governor. And on that note, I strongly advance that education is the future hope for the state. Whatever developmental plans a governor maps out for his state are to achieve little results if education is not given priority.
Education is the fulcrum for social development, mental and creative productivity as well as individual self-reliance and progress. A byword says that with knowledge and wealth, people build their domain; and never had a realm been built with ignorance and poverty. Here, emphasis is laid on knowledge because many unlearned rich or influential people have failed basically because the light of knowledge and wisdom at times is missing.
Your Excellency, though said it is easier to force a horse to a river but difficult to force it drink, you should give Kogites the fundamental opportunity to create a future for and by themselves. Give the Kogi teachers the motivation to make Kogi children drink the pure and healthy water. Rural programmes, schools, hospitals, roads, housing scheme, sports and tourism are areas that need tremendous turn-around. Kogi rural dwellers yearn to have power supply. They need schools and hospitals with adequate facilities. They need infrastructures. They desire portable drinking water and they deserve living homes. They need security and food.
Your Excellency, some Kogi pupils still learn under trees and bare floor. Internal roads in places like, Kabawa Sardauna junction road to anguwan kura, palace madabo karaworo palace etc which is the trunk c of the state are in very deplorable conditions. The sarkin Noma Road is an eyesore. Moreover, the advancement of the “New Direction” educational system can only work by offering a compulsory and free education at both primary and secondary school levels. The Kogi indigenes should be given preferential acceptance in the state varsity in Ayienba and the federal university and polytechnic at Lokoja respectively.
Sir, effective and efficient learning demand conducive environment and competent selfless administrators and instructors. To make teachers more efficient, active and productive, training programmes and seminars should be compulsorily and periodically organized for them while stringent rules that will guide the activities of the pupils and students should be reviewed. There should be annual fiscal and honorary rewards to the best performing teachers at ward, local and state levels while the supervisors should equally be motivated so that they do not play foul as the educational umpires in the state
Security of lives and property: Sir, during a interview you deliberately put this on four different levels. Job creation through agriculture, commerce and trading; social inclusion; social safety net; and security of law enforcement. It is very important for me to commend your administration on the security of Kogi-state especially in your home town “Okene”. At least we can proudly say that the security has greatly improved during your administration than what it used to be during the immediate past two administrations. Thank you for restoring peace in Okene. But sir, apart from this great achievement, I wish to know how many direct and indirect jobs your administration has provided within the 2 years? What have you done about the social safety net? What is going on with the vigilante trust fund you promised?
Finally, before I draw the curtain, I wish to seek clarification on some other related issues: N50billion bond that your administration is again proposing? After having Paris funds and bailout Since your loyalist keep preaching that your administration has not incurred any debt or perhaps I don’t understand the meaning of bond. Please, is bond a debt or a gift?
Your Excellency sir, I wish to state clearly that this letter is not in support of any of your opposition but in sole support of what is good for this state. On your part, we hoped for a better government under your administration, but it now clearly shows that we will get nothing more than empty promises and cheap propaganda. We can only pray that we don’t experience your type of administration again.
In conclusion, some of the questions that will be going through Your Excellency’s minds are why did I write this? And what do I want? I personally believe we have to grow beyond sentiments about those that govern us if we really want to move in the right and new direction; I think your administration has performed below what is expected of you. Since your administration has refuse to conduct local governments’ elections, you have both the state and local government resources at your disposal, yet we didn’t experience massive development.
If other APC governors (not all) can perform relatively well during their first terms in office, I don’t understand why your administration is an exception. Even the primary goals this administration which is beautification and planting of flowers, street light and traffic lights in Iokoja are not properly managed.
We want a government that is based on ethical personal values, understands the true meaning of democracy and has the political will to pursue the about the desired change.
Sir, I believe a good leader is the one that looks beyond the present to the future.
We need a leader that thinks beyond the next term in office and how to build a legacy that the next generation will be proud of. The phrase or idea that you are a “White Lion or Godwin” is laughable.
I believe strongly that this administration is not better than the previous administration except for the highly inflated Kogi Revenue House and traffic lights in Lokoja.
I am very sure you will be exposed to the level of corruption in this administration as soon as another government takes over just the way we do with previous administrations.
Your Excellency Sir, I will be expecting your open reply to my letter.
Yours son,
– Abbas Yahaya writes from sokoto
