January 27, 2016, will remain indelible in the memories of most indigenes and residents of Kogi State. It was the day Alhaji Yahaya Bello, a minority from the Ebira clan of Kogi Central Senatorial District was inaugurated as the fourth elected governor of the state.
Then 40, Bello assumed power after the All Progressives Congress (APC) defeated the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which had been in power in the Confluence State since 2003, in the November 21, 2015 election.
Popularly called Fair Plus, the accountant turned politician made history as the first governor from the minority ethnic groups in the state to occupy the historic Lugard House. Before then, the Igala of Kogi East Senatorial Zone have had enough of power, having ruled the state since it was created in 1991.
Bello’s emergence as governor would not have been possible if not for the demise of his party’s candidate in the poll – Prince Abubakar Audu. The former two-time governor of the state (1992 to 1993 and 1999 to 2003) was coasting to victory in the governorship poll, when he passed on. The unfortunate incident almost triggered a constitutional crisis as the constitution did not envisage such situation.
The impasse over the incident was however resolved, when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) directed APC to nominate another candidate as Audu’s substitution for the December 5, 2016 supplementary poll in the 91 polling units, where elections were cancelled.
The window to substitute Audu, rather than serve as a relief to the APC, sparked off crisis in the party as the late candidate’s running mate, Hon. James Faleke, wrote to INEC that he should be declared winner on the ground that the supplementary poll was needless as the number of eligible voters in the affected areas will not make any impact in the overall result.
The PDP, on its part, urged the electoral body to declare its candidate – Governor Wada, winner of the election as the votes garnered by Audu were not transferable. INEC, however, insisted on going ahead with the supplementary poll and the APC was left with no other option than to nominate the first runner up in its governorship primaries, Bello, as Audu’s substitution.
As expected, Bello was declared winner of the poll after the supplementary election. His party, APC, garnered 6,885 votes to bring its total votes to 247,752, having polled 240,857 in the November 21 election. The PDP candidate (Wada) scored 5,363 to take his total votes to 204,877. He had earlier garnered 199, 514 votes.
The youthful Bello reacted to his emergence thus: “By the grace of God, I would have no reason not to perform excellently. After four years, Kogi State will never be the same again. Expectations are high, and we know there are challenges out there, but we are going to move in aggressively to ensure we do well.”
Among the strategies he rolled out then was reorganisation of the state civil service to make it more efficient and productive. He also promised to immediately ensure massive industrialization to create employment for Kogites and to harness the mineral potentials across the state in order to improve the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the state and its economy.
But, more than three years down the line, most indigenes of state, who have suffered the impact of poor governance for years still believe that Bello’s lofty dream of taking Kogi to the next level has remained a mirage. From one crisis to another, the state has become a study in leadership failure.
The catalogue of crisis in Kogi started barely a month after Bello’s administration was inaugurated, when five out of the 20 members of the Kogi State House of Assembly impeached the then speaker, Hon. Jimoh Momoh-Lawal.
Following the impeachment, crisis erupted in the House thereby compelling Hon. Sunday Steve Karimi to sponsor a motion on the floor of the House of Representatives on February 23, 2016. The motion was unanimously adopted with a 10-man committee headed by deputy chief whip, Hon. Pally Iriase, to investigate the matter.
The committee subsequently visited Lokoja, the Kogi State capital and met with the governor, members of the state Assembly and heads of the relevant security agencies in the state. After the meeting, the committee found out that House of Assembly has not been able to perform its legislative functions since the suspension of plenary on February 15, 2016, as none of the factions has held any meeting in the hallowed chambers of the State House of Assembly.
It also found out that there was an understanding to change the leadership of the Assembly in order to comply with Section 14 (3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to avoid lopsidedness in the distribution of power between the major tribes in the state since Bello and Lawal are coincidentally from the same local government area.
While the governor maintained then that he had no hand in the Assembly crisis as he never tried to influence the decision of the House given that he was then new in office and does not have any prior relationship with the legislators other than to work for the good of the entire state in line with his oath of office, Jimoh-Lawal’s group accused him of a subtle plot to install his choice candidate, Hon. Umar Imam as speaker.
The suspicion was later confirmed, when Imam emerged as speaker of the Assembly on July 26, 2016, following Jimoh-Lawal’s resignation. Many had thought that crisis would be over given that the governor had his way, but that was not to be as Imam equally bowed out like his predecessor on August 3, 2017 after another round of crisis. In his stead, Mathew Kolawole, the member representing Kaba/Bunu state constituency was elected as speaker.
Besides the state Assembly crisis, Bello also had a long running battle with the lawmaker representing Kogi West Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Senator Dino Melaye. Interestingly, both men were allies before they suddenly fell apart.
Melaye had stood behind Bello from the period of the supplementary election that brought him to power to his inauguration. But trouble started when the senator, alongside some stakeholders in Kogi State APC gathered in Abuja to pass a vote of no confidence on Bello on his administration’s one year anniversary.
Expectedly, the governor fired back and accused the lawmaker of hurling unbridled attacks at him. He also accused Melaye of waging a “selfish and egocentric” war. Since then, it has been an unending ego battle between the duo, with both actors deploying conventional and unconventional tactics to outwit each other.
It has also been a running battle between Bello and the state’s civil servants as well as the various labour unions, following workers’ verification exercise embarked upon by the state government. While the exercise is said to have revealed thousands of ghost workers on the state’s payroll, it has equally caused untold hardships and pains to many workers, with some being owed backlog of salaries running into months.
While Governor Bello persistently admonished those he described as detractors to allow his government to focus on its goal of a better Kogi for its citizens, analysts kept reminding him that the deterioration of any administration begins with the decay of the principle on which it was founded, and that he should be mindful of his actions as power belongs to the people.
Echoes of that counsel are reverberating in the Confluence State as Bello recently declared his intention to seek reelection for a second term. The governor said his declaration came after consultations with the leadership of his party both at the national and state levels and pressure from the people of the state on him to seek re-election.
He added that his decision was premised on the official release of the State’s Election time table by INEC. The electoral commission has slated the governorship election in the state for November 2.
Bello said of his ambition: “I would like to inform the good people of the state, the APC family and supporters from the state, the local government areas down to the wards and polling units, as well as various stakeholders, opinion molders, families and friends of my interest to run for a second term in office as the executive governor of the state.
“I have sought the blessing of the Almighty God and our good people; I will have to contest for the second term, so that we can build on our modest achievements so far in the state by taking it to the next level.”
No doubt, it is Bello’s constitutional right to aspire for a second term as governor of Kogi State, but the fact remains that his personality and antecedent, not party structure or financial strength will determine whether his dream would be realized or not.
Credits: Felix Nwaneri | New Telegraph
