As one of the worst victims of a recklessly immoral political ideology, Kogi state has been bleeding profusely and now in coma. All she needed was a rescue team that would stop the bleed, restore vital signs to status ab initio, nurse the wounds and then possibly nourish the stunted paedo to meet up with the democratic, economic and social rights expected for age.
In respect of the terrible working conditions in the state, I am aware that the number of indigenous medical doctors practicing in Kogi state have not quite increased beyond a hundred as I knew a few years back.
Paramedics have hardly found a place for their profession in the confluence state. How fair would it be then to demand a paramedical service when the few hospitals are still understaffed?
Good but a misplaced priority!
Who then shall rescue my state from the resident blood-sucking demons in this tragic scene of socio-political catastrophe?
The roads, even in the state capital are still the worst case scenarios of a dilapidated infrastructure. Which state in Nigeria can favorably compete with Kogi for the most under-developed state? We’re unequalled, unrivalled! We too much!
If the best brains were lacking to lead Kogi to prosperity, then we could have explored the option of kidnapping some highly admired leaders in a few neighboring states to come and serve in our state or at least began the process of selective breeding of requisite traits in the pre-conceived Kogi offspring.
Fortunately, Kogi is blessed with enormous human resources in all works of life. Providing the endless list of those notable figures of Kogi extraction all around the world is another big volume of books. The fundamental problem lies in the fact that those who have the head have no crown while the anencephalics, in an amazing cheap succession, are supporting the royal crown only with their ears; in a monstrous outlook, sitting ‘Lugard’ and still like the Nok terracotta sculpture.
Indeed, it’s irrational to demand help from the evil gods who though having the likeness of human body parts, they cannot use them for the good of mankind.
The August 29th, 2015 APC governorship primary election in the state was another testimony. An episode in the tale of our political woes! We toyed with that golden opportunity to rid our polity of wolves who are too known to be mistaken for sheep. The best of virtues were denied the needed support. And you’d ask, “what is wrong with the mental faculty of these Kogi people?”.
While I do not intend to make excuses for our inability to sacrifice immediate personal gratifications for the greater good of our beloved state, it does seem that poverty as a disease that’s endemic in Africa has Kogi state as one of its strongholds. In spite of the abundant natural resources, Kogi has maintained top position on the list of worst case fatalities of poverty scourge. Kudos to the extortionists! Of course, an impaired sense of judgment is a very close ally of poverty.
Please forgive this my ‘holy lie’ in an attempt to explain why a delegation dominated by youths elected a heartless ex-governor, in his seventies, with a heavy baggage of corruption charges as the flag bearer of a supposed #CHANGE party, All Progressives’ Congress (APC). They sold our birthrights for a morsel of bread! This is given the fact that worthy young men of integrity contested for the same party ticket -but votes gathered most where money was doled out in the heaviest sum.
Hoping on Abubakar Audu, the candidate of the APC to make any positive change in Kogi state if elected is a sheer exercise in futility. Baseless wishful thinking! It’s like trying to make a cat of a pig.
However, out of frustration, some enthusiasts are quick to pray that power should change hands in 2019 in favour of Hon. James Abiodun Faleke, the running mate of the notoriously corrupt flag bearer of APC to pave way for him in using his experience in Lagos politics to bring about the real change in Kogi.
Apart from the fact the Faleke is coming from Lagos which is highly rated in terms of developmental strides, there’s really no basis to expect a nobility of ideology from the protege of Ahmed Bola Tinubu. From his statement in Kabba last weekend, I would normally get sad to know that James Faleke is of the same kettle of fish as his bosses. His inherently lousy, rather unintelligent, remarks while declaring a campaign office open in Kabba last saturday is a surface marker of a vile politician.
“They have ran out of money. They are running up and down now for bailout, they are broke and we will show them that we have the money to kick them out of government house. We will show them we have the money. PDP is finished, we will spend them out and sweep them out of this town. You will see”, he said.
Yes, I can see that APC’s candidates, just like PDP’s has nothing to offer Kogi state. They are just wolves under the covering of ??CHANGE and getting ready to worsen the situation of our comatose state. Think of another generic looting and traumatic maneuvering of the unfortunate victim, ‘Mrs Kogi’ who is already in shock! They have brought the ill-gotten Greek gift for which we may by our own hands be confined to the eternal abyss of penury. I had thought that such a campaign avenue is when to intimate the people with their policies and programs that will better their lots but I was utterly stupefied that the Lagosian accomplice of Abubakar Audu was only playing to the gallery, emphasizing their ability to spend cash in campaigns to cajole the electorates. Is this the CHANGE we’ve been clamoring for? Interestingly, the psychotic incumbent governor is not relenting in the struggle to retain his apartment in Lugard House. He has clutched the N50 billion Federal Government bail-out funds in safe for his electoral expenses. Does it matter to him that workers’ salaries are still unpaid?
Obviously, Kogi as a helpless slave in the marketplace is up for sales to the Lagosian Babalawo of Nigerian politics and/or the cabals of the PDP. The highest bidder takes her: home or the Intensive Care Unit? I do not know! In a state burdened with abject poverty, unemployment, non-payment of worker’s salary, dilapidated infrastructure and ethnocentric acrimony, what we needed is a bridge builder between the ruling class and the masses; democracy as an institution and the real situation of the human elements; the old and the young; the resident humans of all tribes and tongues.
Unfortunately, none of the faces on the ballot so far represents that messiah. What can be more annoying and discouraging than the awareness of one’s helplessness in the face a terrible ordeal? There’s only a gleam ray of hope; God helping us it be magnified till darkness is swallowed up in victory. We’re in a serious ‘palava’, somewhere between the devil and the deep blue sea. We Need a NEW DIRECTION! All we may now pray for till the messiah comes (only God knows when) is a moderate suffering in the hands of the wicked slave masters. May God punish devil!
-AHMED VICTOR IDOWU
University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus.
Twitter: @AhmedVicktor
BBM: 7EF92F4A
