Between Peacemaking, Governance, Job Creation and Development: Open Letter to Yahaya Bello by Oyigu Elijah

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AN OPEN LETTER TO KOGI STATE GOVERNOR-ELECT, HIS EXCELLENCY, ALHAJI YAHAYA BELLO

By Oyigu OnucheOjo Elijah                                                 

Your Excellency,

BETWEEN PEACEMAKING, GOVERNANCE, JOB CREATION, AND DEVELOPMENT

I want to heartily congratulate you on your emergence as the Governor-elect of our beloved Kogi state. May the Almighty God give you the required wisdom to pilot the affairs of the state within the duration of your tenor. It is hope that, in your regime, the people of Kogi state will rejoice as efforts will be channeled towards the rebirth of the state’s destiny. 

  As a fellow ABUSITE, as graduates from the great Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria are addressed, you would have been groomed with the prestigious attitude that always distinguishes and makes one to be naturally ahead of others especially in the discharge of your statutory duties. I have no doubt that you will perform greatly and rescue our noble state from shackles of poverty, chains of unemployment as well as infrastructural decay through effective leadership and people oriented governance. Once again, I congratulate you on behalf of other fellow ABUSITES.

Your emergence as our governor has both divine and legal backing since no one can enthrone himself. Throne of leadership is a direct gift of God and only Him (God) determines who ascends and occupies it as He deems fit per time. Your victory is the victory of the Youth and the triumph of the elites with fine-tuned cerebral contents to facing the governance challenges of the 21st Century. It is hope that, you will make the best of this golden opportunity to showcasing your leadership dexterity.

Your Excellency, It is pertinent for you to be guarded against distractive tendencies and remain focus with unwavering and dedicated attention to the clarion call of rebranding of our noble state by uniting the eastern, western and the central regions of the confluence state together without allowing regional and ethnic discord to hold sways.  Uniting the entire people of the state should be one of your core priorities.

On 27th January, 2016, you will be sworn into the highest office in the land as the fourth democratically elected governor of the 25 years old Kogi state. As a governor of the state, it is incumbent on you and your team to map out visionary modalities to make your reign more of a statewide than a region by talking to your Kinsmen, The Igbiras on the need to stop insulting and casting unnecessary affront on the sensibilities of other tribes in the land as we have noticed both in their online and offline conversations.

  Some concerned Kogites of like mind, are not comfortable with the duel of words going on in the state with some unprintable words emanating from the lips of your kinsmen, making people wondering if they felt you were only elected to be the governor of Igbira people.  On two different occasions, I spoke with one of your close aids for you to caution your kinsmen so as to forestall gratuitous ethnic explosion and lubricate regional harmony towards avoiding ethnic acrimony to enable us enjoy our collective patrimony.

That myriad of challenges are presently facing the state, is no longer news.  However, you are coming to the throne at the time that the state is in acute need of effective leadership.I’m aware of the fact that most of the challenges confronting the state predate your administration but I’m also convinced that effective leadership is aimed at either alleviating or totally obviating the hardship of the people that the leader leads through strategic and realizable policies regardless of the age of such hardship. When people talk about Late Prince Abubakar Audu today, the first thing that comes to mind is Kogi State University.  When the next generations of Kogites shall talk about you, let your administration be synonymous with positive and developmental monuments.

Sir, you may have gathered intelligence and necessary information about the deployable condition of our state. Despite not being the poorest state in Nigeria, Lokoja, the state Capital may not have been far from being the dirtiest State Capital in the country. The ancient city of Lokoja whose central location should have attracted the attentions of tourists owing to its endowed natural resources, is today wailing, lamenting and existing in the mere shadow of its old glory as some ornamental infrastructures which were once built and constructed especially during the regime of Late Prince Audu were left unmaintained by successive administrations.

Lokoja which was once seen as a paradise of beauty has lost its attractiveness due to lack of structured infrastructural policies. A tour within the city of Lokoja will make the tourist weep as the city has been emptied of environmental splendor which it hitherto possessed.  The once glowing ‘Paparanda Square’ has become a centre where refuses are dumped with unwanted and over grown grasses within and around the place. Needless to talk about the crumbling nature of our once most treasured Confluence Beach Hotel which has now been left to the patronage of rats and rabbits.

Majority of roads in the state are signposts to people’s grave as avoidable accidents have claimed the lives of our people due to the poor condition of the road. Sometimes ago during rainy reason, over five people lost their precious lives to the erosive tide of a runoff in Anyigba, the commercial hub of Igala land. As an Environmental Scientist, when I visited the actual place before the ugly incident happened earlier this year for a research purpose, I knew it was only a matter of time for such a  bomb loaded gully to explode. But nothing was done till date to salvage the ravaged land. It is hope that, your administration will do something about it.

For almost 25 years of its existence, it seems there is no blue print of what happens to the state in the next 30 to 40 years. There is no generational plan for the future prosperity of the state.  Like a military barrack, Kogi state has been in a situation of administration comes, administration goes but Luggard House remains.  With due respect to all our governors (both present and past), what we have had in the state so far, is political parties’ master plan. We have overtime been ruled by political parties’ ambitions and with the imminent political bitterness in the land, whoever comes in, jettison the project of the other administrations thereby taking the state back to square one.

Sir, as it is globally believed, “An idle mind is always the devil’s workshop.” Youth restiveness and other political violent activities which are being perpetuated by the youth of the state are direct effect of unemployment in the land. Thurggery is one of the boomerang effects of unemployment as many youth are left to their fates even after graduating from school.

Though, unemployment is a global issue which has bedeviled even most viable economies in the world, but be that as it may, the rate at which we leave our youth unattended to in the state is breeding the ground for them to taking any offer at their disposal. A productive youth who is actively engaged in a productive venture may not have time for any unholy job. I will appreciate a well thought out wealth empowerment initiatives and Job creation programme to assuaging the unemployed army of men and women in the state.

There is only a single way to solve the problem of unemployment in the state and it goes beyond establishing job creation programmes because in most cases those programmes end up in political pavilions and ethnic gazebos. The simple way to solve unemployment challenge is to industrialize the state and encourage agricultural business.

There is no law forbidding state government from establishing and running industries. It’s high time we utilize our comparative advantages.  But overtime, we have so much depended on what the federal government offered us monthly even though it was obvious that it is not enough to meet our needs.  Though, the 75 billion naira budget submitted by the outgoing governor to the state House of Assembly recently was tagged as a ‘Budget of Consolidation but having personally scrutinized the said budget thoroughly, your economical and administrative team should sit on it for a thorough scrutiny as there was virtually nothing different in that budget from what we have had over the years.  

In my first letter to the incumbent and outgoing governor, with a title, “Look Inward Before It is Too Late.” The letter details the need for us as a state to look inward towards exploring and exploiting the various mineral deposits in the state as a panacea to over dependence on federal allocations and it was published in many media outfits in the country on March 11th, 2014. Kogi state has no reason to be poor taking cognizance of over 29 different solid mineral deposits in the state. I wrote the letter when oil price was still favourable but some of us knew that, the dooming period awaited the oil market.

There are countries that do not have what we have in the state but they are doing well economically. It is high time we look into our house to extract solutions that will solve the problems on our rooftops.

Your Excellency, Kogi state can operate independent of what comes from the centre. We have the wherewithal to stand out of the parasitic economy which we are presently operating. The state has only found itself in the present economical valley due to corruption, absence of political will and lack of effective leadership. It is true that, where leadership is absence, hardship prevails.

We should see the running of the state beyond politics. It should be seen as a sociopolitical and economical business enterprise because it is already obvious that, coming to Abuja to share the national cake may not satisfy the voracious hunger of our people back home.  However, in my second letter that will come up immediately after your swearing in, I shall explain the ABC of running the state as a business enterprise without inflicting pains on the electorate through unnecessary taxation.   

Finally sir, every great state takes a great action into greatness.  Though, our greatness lies in God but translating it to reality becomes our onus. It is high time we take positive actions by translating all our plans and preparation into actions. We all have the knowledge of the manner poverty has ransacked our people, but what Kogites need is the action that will emancipate them from the shackle of poverty.

We all have the knowledge of the poor status of our primary and secondary schools, but what Kogites need  is the action that will revitalize the educational system; such actions should be good enough to make the school suitable for your own children to attend public institution since Kogi state is an egalitarian state.

The time to look inward is now. The time to industrialize the state is now. The time to show forth the glamour and the splendor of our state is now since stitch in time saves nine. 

God bless Kogi state,

God bless the federal republic of Nigeria.

Thank you.

OYIGU ONUCHEOJO ELIJAH is an Author and a Journalist. He hails from Ibobo-Abocho, Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi state. He is reachable on 08079808776 and oyiguelijah@gmail.com


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