As we approach the 2019 general elections in Kogi state expectations are high, considering the world view that elections are plebiscite to determine the extent at which the people decide their leadership.
It is also trite that the main problem of Kogi state to this day is that of leadership. It is also instructive that Kogi state is not accident of history as our state was created by the efforts of men and women of vision and mission who believed in the fact that Kogi state has the potential of being regarded as one of the greatest states in Nigeria, if its leadership is in tune with realities.
One of such visionaries in the founding of Kogi state is Prince Abubakar Audu of blessed memory. The late Governor Abubakar Audu toiled endlessly to build Kogi state through a conscientious statecraft and not by happenstance. Unfortunately, death stole him from us. Thank God that he believed in the fact that state building is always work in progress, a dynamic process in constant need of nurturing and reinvention. He also believed that state building never stops and true state building and development never rests as states are constantly facing up to new challenges and realities of the time.
Kogi state’s developmental pendulum and foundation has been battered by inept leadership and visionless interests; they have stunted our state’s growth and development. In reality today, Kogi state needs a leader in the mould of Prince Mustafa Abubakar Audu Jnr, who is the scion of the demised great political leader of the state.
Prince Mustapha grew under the leadership tutelage of his late father and understands the developmental trajectories and needs of the Kogi people as well as the need to keep his father’s legacies and dreams for our dear state alive in order to lead us forward at this juncture of our development.
Prince Mustafa Abubakar Audu Jnr is propelled by the urgent need for a redemptive leader to face up to the challenges and realities of Kogi state’s developmental needs.
Kogi state’s leaders have for so long forgotten that state building and development have many important components. First, it is about building a political entity that corresponds to a given territory that is based on rules, norms and principles that are generally acceptable to majority of the people. And this is what the young Abubakar Audu seeks to address in Kogi state.
He shall, if elected, see the people as the cornerstone of his administration. His motive is love for all the strata of the Kogi people.
Second, his government is going to be about building institutions that symbolise the political entity-institutions such as the bureaucracy, the judiciary, the civil service, Kogi economy and the educational infrastructure to service the state.
Above all, however, it is about building a common sense of purpose, a sense of shared destiny and collective imagination of belonging by all our people.
He has the capacity to build the tangible and intangible thread that holds the people of Kogi state together and gives them a government that they can once again call their own.
We are excited of the fact that Prince Mustafa Abubakar Audu Jnr, who is a stalwart of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi state, has the driving mentality and vitality to create an enabling environment for all Kogites to pursue their dreams as far as their talents can take them because he is always an apostle of hope.
Mustafa Abubakar Audu places a lot emphasis on development and shares in the principles of open government and accountability in all government’s dealings as the people have the right to know. He loathes the godfatherism syndrome that has held sway in our state for so long whereby government’s resources are for privileged few against the people’s welfare.
He has stated categorically in different fora that he has no godfather and when elected into government the people shall automatically become his avowed godfathers.
His agenda shall be pro-people agenda which shall encapsulate a set of ideas which time has come to systematically and pragmatically push our state to development and growth. This promises he shall match to his campaign slogan and then build the technical infrastructure for its fulfilment when he comes to power.
He has exhaustively set up a shadowy cabinet made up of the best brains in our land to expand the raw data given and captured the stated aims and aspirations of the entire Kogi people based on empirical evidence from social researches.
He is ready to fight the symmetric and asymmetric warfare of the people and we shall enjoy one of the best administrations in our recent time of peace and tranquility because he shall provide the ingredients needed to eliminate the trends that waters disunity in this once united state.
He understands the issues and has distributed the identified needs of our people into five thematic areas: education for all; health that is wealth for all; job creation; youth engagements and new ventures; infrastructure and utility; and productive public service and pensions reforms.
These are all some of his compendium of his urgent achievable mission, vision, policy strategies and targets to bring equanimity to the now troubled Kogi state.
He has during the course of traversing the state and meeting the people come to a conclusion that all discerning minds shall agree with and that is the correctness of the fact that one of the greatest and biggest challenges confronting Kogi state is the absence of a consistent leadership that can act on the basis of a shared vision and that failure is responsible for the aggravated problems of insecurity, unemployment, instability and underdevelopment that has bedeviled Kogi state for a long time.
Mustafa Abubakar Audu Jnr has articulated a programme of action that will lead to stability, development and employment in Kogi state.
Mustafa Abubakar Audu Jnr. knows that our state is plagued by a multitude of self inflicted problems ranging from elite corruption, infrastructural problem to bad education system and unemployment.
We need and deserve a good and qualitative leader in his mould that is well equipped with policies and practical implementation yardstick to solve these problems. Kogi also needs state builders and Abubakar jnr is the man. He is a complete advocate of a new type of politics in our state that deals with reason, passion and responsibility when taking growth oriented decision.
Kogi needs a leader that is familiar with the pains of the people and yet intensely compassionate to the people; that leader is Abubakar Audu jnr.
Abubakar Audu Jnr. is a man that has seen it all and he has one of the greatest of virtues which is lacking in many politicians – humility. He is one of the most approachable politicians you can find anywhere which it has contributed to his grassroots appeal. He is always at home with all and sundry and one of the very few politicians that can call most of the people he has met by their first name.
– Jamila Musawa writes from Lokoja, Kogi state.
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