The immediate past Governor of Kogi state, Captain Idris Ichalla Wada is the best man for state at the moment. There is no need over flogging the fact that the incumbent Governor Yahaya Bello has destroyed the state and there is a dire need to revamp the fortunes of the state.
The glaring mis-management of Kogi state resources by the incumbent is legendary. Inheriting a struggling economy in 2016, Bello has plunged the state into unimaginable debts. Wada, for four years between 2012 and 2016, managed the state resources so well that Kogi became the least indebted state in Nigeria. But the profligate Bello administration’s special love for loans in the midst of plenty has eroded that economic legacy. To reverse this ugly trend, Wada remains the best hand to manage the state. His humane, humble, stabilizing and frugal approach to governance is what we need at the moment to set the state on the path of progress.
The management of state civil servants’ salaries under Wada is commendable. His major albatross was local government workers’ salaries and he made attempt to correct this by applying for N50.8 billion bailout but was denied access by the powers that be. They eventually released N20billion to Bello and the rest is history. He must return to correct the current anomaly.
Wada, as governor, was a sharp departure from the regular government helmsman. Unlike most governors, Wada decided to rescue state resources expended on several uncompleted projects in the state. He reasoned that abandoning these projects will lead to loss of tax payers monies so he devouted resources to completing these projects like the state secretariat, diagnostic centre, greater Lokoja water works, confluence stadium, Idah township road among several others. He completed all these without adding extra burden on the state resources. He did all these with much prudence that it did not affect the regular payment of salaries, pensions and MDAs’s subventions.
Unlike Wada, his successor has found it difficult to complete ongoing inherited projects. The nearly completed diagnostic centre, 12-storey Kogi House in Abuja, Kogi Hotels, Otokiti-Ganaja dual carriage road, KSU teaching hospital etc are still uncompleted three and half years after Bello assumed office. Instead of completing these projects, Bello is contempleting selling them off to his cronies.
Now that Wada is out of office, we have come to appreciate what it means to have a humane government that will not toy with the feelings of the people. We recall how you ordered refund of the N3,400 imposed on job applicants under your government. We cried out and you responded in tandem with our feelings but now we have a government that will readily call our bluff without a pint of human feeling.
We cannot afford to make the mistake of re-electing Yahaya Bello and we are cautious of electing a new devil under the guise of ‘change Bello at all cost’. Wada has just one term of four years as stipulated by the constitution and as such we will be taking a calculated risk by returning the Godly, humble, peace-loving and humane Wada to Lugard House on November 2. It is a tough bu doable task. We will not fail our generation.
– Adejoh Usman wrote from Idah, Kogi state.
