Within a twinkle of an eye, abot two years later, the appointment of Minister of State Labour, Employment and Productivity, Professor Stephen Ocheni has come and gone with nothing to show to the good people of Kogi state, particularly Kogi East. There is no justification that the controversial Professor left little or any indelible mark on the sands of time. What a race?
The circumstances that brought the stooge-like former minister was shrouded in pains, shock and a sense of loss for the Igala race after a 6 month old cabinet minister, belonging to the kitchen cabinet of President Buhari, Late Barrister James Eneojo Ocholi died mysteriously in a ghastly motor accident. A great loss it was.
Ocholi’s replacement seems incapable of healing the deep pains of the earlier incidence as he could neither bark nor bite. Ocheni has nothing to show for the office he occupied in terms employment, empowerment, socio-infrastructural development, either in his immediate community, Kogi East and the state at large.
In Professor Ocheni, the Igala race lost hope. His lame duck representation was nothing to write home about. The only visible achievement of the outgoing Minster from Kogi state was his stern support to his political god-father, Yahaya Bello. He did his bidding with the deployment of thugs for political violence in his immediate constituency during the last general elections.
Ocheni, rather than concentrate on how to attract numerous developmental programs to Kogi state, was one of the early persons that endorsed Kogi state governor as one of the best in the north central and Kogi state, endorsing him for a second term.
Little did we even know that the minister was one of the architects that designed the current hardship experienced by civil servants, pensioners and by extension other sectors of the state, hence his reward of undeserved ministerial slot.
For a person who had lost grip of the political and social development for close to two decades, he took advantage of the same race to rise to the top echelon of his career with insignificant impact, only to return to the ivory tower with controversial credentials that had left the people with copious embarrassments.
Not long on assumption of duty as a Minister, that was well fought for over three months after the senate screening, with all manners of memoirs, eulogies, reminders and justifications to be sworn in, the new Minster preoccupied himself with struggles to fix his children and relatives in juicy ministries, agencies and parastatals while turning back on innocent and hapless Kogites from his area, under the pretext of government unwillingness to engage hands in the agencies directly supervised by his office. Not even a letter of recommendation was signed to help his people.
In fact, because of his lackadaisical and lack of the will to assist, under his nose, many employment opportunities provided itself in the major and other parastatals within his ministry, with little or no contributions towards the people of Kogi state, leaving his senior minister to feast on it.
Funny enough, after his appointment and subsequent screening at the senate, the minister designate who scampered before his senator from Kogi East for easy ride during the Senate drilling owing to mounting petitions against his credentials, never saw anything good in his representative soon after assumption of duty.
The minister, as at the last count, did not attract any developmental project to the state or Kogi East through his good office. The only effort was to develop his personal ambition through the convening of inaugural lecture in Kogi State University.
He could not even attract ETF, World Bank and other development agencies in ministries and agencies of government to the university for posterity to sake, nor site any social service, hence glorifying the six months tenure of our former minister of state from the area, Architect Gabriel Yakubu Aduku.
For just six months before he was forced to resign over return of unspent budget fund during the Umar Musa Yar’adua administration, though exonerated by the court of law, former Minster of state for health, Gabriel Aduku made a lot of impact on the Igala race through employment, appointments, and recommendation for jobs. The least was his provsion of a borehole for Kogi State University to ameliorate water challenges faced by lecturers and students, a feat the outgoing minister did not contemplate.
Professor Ocheni’s undoing was the complete abandonment of his own constituency, the ivory tower. No single soul that fought day and night to defend his controversial academic records was enlisted in his retinue of aides throughout his stint as minster. Not even a recommendation for contract, part time, permanent board member appointment, as the case may be. In the case of Aduku, he recalled all his aides while in the private practice and attracted so many board appointments in just six months.
In fact the former minister Aduku’s real offence was his zeal to compete with the cabal in the Presidency then, in the area of appointment and employment including his senior minister. His efforts led to the appointment of a qualified Igala man as CMD University of Abuja Teaching Hospital Gwagwalada.
With the valedictory session, the minister from Kogi who has no strong political will and zeal to lobby for re-appointment, particularly now that his God father is also battling for a return ticket that is not forthcoming, the two years tenure of Kogi minister, Stephen Ocheni is as good as wasted.
– Sunday Enyojo wrote from Abuja.
