Kogi state is bedeviled by several pressing problems and the inability of Governor Yahaya Bello to tackle those problems to a logical conclusion creates room for his defeat in 2019.
It was pathetic and unbecoming of Bello and his supporters, who are busy claiming to have achieved a lot in the state when the reverse is the case.
His supporters claimed Bello has turned Lokoja to paradise, even when Ganaja road is a dead trap due to its deplorable conditions and the state only roundabout remain uncompleted.
They said that their government is the best, yet the workers and pensioners were groaning in abject poverty due to non payment of salaries running for many months.
They said they have improved our state economy, when the state remained the most non-viable state with declining Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
It is not clear to me if Bello has real advisers, or if he listens to anyone but his own voice.
Bello who became the Executive Governor of Kogi state in an unusual circumstances that resulted from the death of Prince Abubarka Audu in 2015 has performed below expectations and such sluggish performance has created more room for his exit in 2019.
Who made Bello our governor in 2015? Certainly, it wasn’t the people of Kogi state, It was not even the entire body of APC in Kogi state. It was a small clique of cabals who seized the opportunity and imposed him on the people of the state. Bello has never being our choice of governor, hence, I am not surprised on his state of leadership.
Speaking from the angle of reality, Bello’s government within his few years in office has been exposed to series of criticisms due to his inimical style of governance and myriad of unwanted political decisions that only favoured his interests, not minding whether the interests of our people in Kogi state were being considered or protected.
In any decision you are about to take as a good leader, you must try to equate or measure the negative effects with the positive effects on the people you are governing. If the negative effects are greater than the positive effects on the people, such decision or policy is not suitable and should be aborted, but in the case of Kogi state, Bello doesn’t care about the effects.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “what you do or the decision you take speaks so loudly that I cannot hear a word that you say”
The government of Bello and his decision making created rooms for the critics to criticize his government, everything he does opened an opportunity for criticisms.
For example, a government that was unable to pay workers salaries embarked on a futile project with the aim to recall Senator Dino Melaye. The move failed woefully and millions of Naira was wasted amidst poverty, hunger and depression in the state.
Bello wasted millions in an election that has no significant impacts in our state. I mean the recently held Anambra governorship election that became an obsession for Yahaya Bello and Edward Onoja. That Tony Nwoye lost the election to a competent Willie Obiano is simply because Governor Willy has created much impacts in the lives of his people. Kogi state went to that election noisily and came back quietly, what a shame.
Another bizarre decision was Bello’s masquerades empowerment where he gave two milion naira each to six masquerades and a Venza car valued at five million each. Such kind of misplaced priority must generate lots of criticisms.
Also, the Fatima Sani 34 million scholarship that caused so much contentions in the social media space was yet another clear scenario that created room for criticisms.
Lastly was the highest blunder of Bello’s administration which has already reduced his government to a laughing stock. This is about his inability to pay workers’ salaries after embarking on a rigorous screening exercise that ridicules his regime. Yet, his government is still making mockery of itself by shifting blames in a derisive manner on his predecessors’ regime. He claimed past administrations plunged the state into a huge debt.
We are yet to see the best of Bello after these wasted years of leadership and it is now incumbent on us to continue to bemoan his administration till when all our people realize the damages his government has caused to our state and make a good choice in 2019.
– Itodo Dennis
Coordinator, Voice of the People
