Much has been done to make a success of the Wednesday inauguration of Governor-elect Yahaya Bello, but beyond the frenzy are high expectations by the people of Kogi State against challenges of development that the new governor will immediately face.
The Kogi State Governor-elect, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, is scheduled to be sworn in this Wednesday, January 27, to take charge of the affairs of the state for the next four years. A lot has been done in preparation for a hitch-free transition of power from the outgoing government to the incoming one. Transition and inauguration committees have since been working, and critical stakeholders and opinion leaders from across the three senatorial districts of the state have been expressing their expectations and offering advice for the incoming governor.
An opinion leader from Kogi East, Alhaji Yahaya Mayanga sees Yahaya Bello as a detribalised personality able to achieve the transformation that the people need at this time. “I have been a core member of the Yahaya Bello Organisation from the beginning and I am in a good position to talk about him. He has been a dependable, versatile and committed individual who has ambition to bring succour to the entire Kogi State. He is a detribalised person, an Ebira by tribe but a generous man who is accommodating and has very laudable plans for everybody because of his business exposure. He has made a lot of contacts and these contacts will be transformed into a better future for Kogi State.”
Warning, however, of the evil of selfish individuals who could distort Bello’s vision, Meyanga said, “Let him be very wary of sycophants. He should be wary of people who will tell him what he wants to hear. He should not lose sight of those he started with because they are his core advisers.”
Meyanga said Bello could count on widespread support, explaining, “We, the opinion leaders from Kogi East, are doing a lot to convince the people on the need to go along with Yahaya Bello. It is selfish interest that is causing all the agitations against his emergence. God has designated Bello to be the governor. So, we are trying to educate the people who are dogged because of what they think they could achieve from the past administration which they feel they cannot get in this new government. The deed has been done and nobody queries God. We have been appealing to them and they are seeing reasons why they should work with him.”
On his part, a former governorship aspirant who contested in the APC primaries alongside the Kogi governor-elect, Alhaji Sanusi Abubakar Sanusi Gamji, congratulated the people on the approaching inauguration. He said, “It is a historic inauguration because this is the first time after long years of agitations that an opportunity has come for another senatorial district to have a taste of power. The change we crave for is not all about change in leadership, it is about change in the quality leadership and it is my prayer that God who gave the young man the opportunity and wisdom to pilot the affairs of the state. I believe that being a young man, he will use his energy and wisdom to turn the fortunes of the state around. The change we crave for shouldn’t be about an Ebira, Igala or Okun man; it should be about the masses. It is important we take note of this, not that he should become a governor of Ebira people; he is the governor of the state and should be able to carry everybody along for the good of the state. We have long struggled for this position and if we fail, it will not be good for us.”
On his own part, while commenting on the ‘timeliness’ of Bello’s election under the platform of the APC, Mr Isiaq Ajibola, the former Managing Director of Media Trust Limited, who is on the team set up by the incoming governor to organise his inauguration, said, “The power shift agitation in Kogi State emanates from the doctrine of nationalist consciousness that one ethnic group or tribe in a state should not continue to dominate the leadership position of a state in a multi-ethic nation like Nigeria. Therefore, the power shift position that will be attained with the swearing-in of Alhaji Yahaya Bello on Wednesday is a win-win situation for all the tribes in the state.
“I say so because it will give a sense of belonging to the people of the Central Senatorial District where the governor comes from and the people of the West Senatorial District who have been in the same agitation of power shift along with the Central District for a long time now. Similarly, it will be a relief in the suspicion that the people of the Kogi East Senatorial District who possibly, not due to their own design, have held on to power since the creation of the state in 1991. This power shift will lead to a situation of give-and-take for all the major tribes, which is necessary to promote overall peace and unity of the state.”
On the capacity of Bello to deliver, considering that he will now be the youngest governor in Nigeria, Mr Ajibola said, “The new governor is a much-focused individual. He is ebullient and has good capacity to run the state. I have seen some of his ideas for the state and they look well-measured and very practical to me. My advice to him, therefore, is to immediately embark on a programme that will give confidence to all the key participants and stakeholders in the state, not minding their ethnic, religion or political affiliations. Secondly, he must focus on development of the state head on, especially by harnessing the vast mineral resources that are unexplored in most parts of the state. Also, he should develop tourism and raise Kogi to a true confluence state. The state should benefit from the current focus of the Federal Government on solid mineral exploration. The Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative that has worked in other states should be explored to attain the full potentials of the state.”
Alhaji Yakubu Mohammed, a former governorship aspirant in Kogi State, speaking on the emergence of Bello as governor-elect and the coming inauguration, said, “I have an abiding faith in almighty God. I believe that God does whatever He likes at any time. He is the source of power. He gives power to whom He wants at any time and He takes it from whom he wants at any time. That is exactly what has happened in the case of Yahaya Bello becoming the governor of Kogi State at this material time. It is the decree of God and I think that all God-fearing people must abide by this divine decision.”
On whether the fact that the governor is coming from Kogi Central satisfies the yearnings of those calling for power shift in the state, Mohammed said, “I don’t know about this development satisfying the desires of those who wanted power shift. All I know is that God has given us another governor and I don’t want to look at it as the governor of power shift or the governor of Ebiraland. He is the governor of Kogi State and we should all see him as such. Nobody has the monopoly of power. Only God has. The people of Eastern Senatorial District, where I come from have never laid exclusive claim to power. They have always shared power with other ethnic groups in the state. When they produced governors, they did so with active and massive support of the other two senatorial districts through democratic elections conducted freely and fairly and they did not hold on to deputy governor and speaker all at once. In other words they did not monopolise power. Now that governorship has moved to another district that had been supporting them, they should not find it difficult to give the new governor support. What an average Kogi man or woman wants is rapid and even development across the state on the basis of equity, justice and fairness. And that is what we expect from the Yahaya Bello administration.”
For Suleiman Baba Ali, a former governorship aspirant and a stakeholder of the APC from Kogi West, the emergence of Yahaya Bello is the dawn of a new beginning for people of the state. He believes Bello has the capacity to govern the state with the cooperation of the people. We have a chance for a new beginning in Kogi and the fact is that amongst those of us that contested in the APC primaries, he was the youngest. I had the privilege of interacting with him over time when we were to run against each other during the primaries. I can say with some level of confidence that he has the depth and character to run Kogi. He is a chartered accountant, he runs his own business and has made success of it. It is not easy to be as successful businessman. All that is needed is the cooperation of all us Kogites, to come behind him and give him advice where we think he needs it.”
He said the emergence of Yahaya Bello is divine and urged all to eschew their differences and cooperate with him. “What we have today in Kogi is not by power shift or anything. It is God who looked at the 28 of us who ran for the governorship and picked whom he wants to govern the state for the next four years. It was a divine will of God and as believers, we should support him.”
An opinion leader from Kogi Central and a former Director General of National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Dr Tom Adaba, expressed confidence in the ability of Yahaya Bello whom he described as a ‘digital governor’. He believes the emergence of Bello has been able to address the agitations for power shift by people of Kogi West and Central who have not been opportune to assume the number one position since the creation of the state.
He said, “When we started in 1991, everybody was optimistic. That was what prompted those of us in the central to cede the governorship to the east because they were just coming back from Benue where they seemingly went through agonizing times of marginalisation. We had already been governor in Kwara State and we felt they should be given a chance. One of the greatest challenges confronting us today is the lack of unity as there has been so much bad blood. People no longer have confidence in government, as the government is seen as simply taking care of one side of the state. As such, those that felt marginalized have been feeling very bad.
“This young man coming is visionary. He has a passion for unification of our people and I believe that he is going to succeed in that. He must be equitable in his distribution of amenities and make sure he is fair in all that he does irrespective of whoever is involved. We have told him in clear terms that we are not sending him there to go on a revenge mission and he himself said he knows that. The unification of the people is a key element. He is going there as governor of the entire Kogi state.”
Dr Adaba expects the incoming governor to harness untapped resources and not depend on federal allocation. He added, “We expect to see good roads and in terms of crimes, we want to have reduction and this can be done by keeping the youth busy with something. On the civil service, one thing is very certain, that the numbers we have in the civil service is not real. So, a personnel audit of the entire system should be done to know how much is going to the civil service and how much is going to ghost workers.”
No doubt, there are lots of expectations from Kogi people even as there are challenges which the incoming governor will have to confront on assumption of office.
Perhaps, one of the foremost challenge before Bello is the litany of litigations already instituted at the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Lokoja. The outgoing governor, Idris Wada; running mate to the late Prince Abubakar Audu, Mr James Abiodun Faleke; governorship candidates of LP, APGA, PPA and ADC have all filed suits challenging the emergence of Bello.
Besides the litigations, Bello also has a tough task of reconciling the three major ethnic groups in the state, namely Igala in the East, Okun in the West and Ebira in the Central to ensure he governs a state that is united. This is because the aftermath of Prince Abubakar Audu’s death and his emergence as Audu’s replacement had thrown up a whole lot of bickering from across segments of the state, which needs genuine reconciliatory efforts on the part of Bello.
Bello must equally tackle the challenge of the on-going workers’ industrial action occasioned by non-payment of over three months of workers’ salaries. Kogi workers, especially teachers and local government workers, are being owed salaries running into billions of naira.
The N50.8 billion bond approved for the state last year to offset the backlog of salaries is yet to be released. On assumption on office, Bello will have the burden of finding ways to clear those outstanding debts for industrial harmony to prevail in the state.
Although, successive administrations have contributed to the infrastructural development of the state, there are many deficits which Bello must tackle.
Provision of employment remains an agenda the new Kogi governor must address creatively. The challenge of insecurity and violent crimes across some parts of the state in recent past are challenges awaiting the incoming administration.
Also, there are on-going projects started by the outgoing administration which the incoming regime must strive to complete.
The general mood in the state is a mixture of excitement and disenchantment ahead of the inauguration. While the outgoing governor and his supporters appear disenchanted, enthusiasts of the incoming governor from across the state are making last-minute arrangements to add colour to the inauguration. A couple of billboards, banners and posters by political supporters are springing up across the state felicitating with the incoming governor ahead of the inauguration. Aggressive mobilization is equally going on within and outside the state to ensure that the event is well attended.
Alhaji Yahaya Bello Adoza is an astute businessman and the managing director of FairPlus International Ltd, in recognition of which he is called Fair Plus in informal circles. He is also the director of Kogi Youth Arise Forum. He was born on June 18, 1975 in Agassa, Okene Local Government Area of Kogi State.
He holds a Bachelor of Accounting and a Master of Business Administration from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. His working career started in 2001 when he was posted to Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) for his NYSC service, after which he was offered an appointment in the same office as Revenue Officer II. He rose to become the Commission’s assistant chief accountant.
Bello who is happily married with children, diversified into many entrepreneurial fields after leaving public service and was best known for his transport business, Fair Plus, before he entered the governorship race.
