The stoic wall of Gibraltar in Kogi Politics has been lifted by a 43 year old man and broken into smithereens.
There is no traces of the past. None! Who is the beautiful bride of this new future? Governor Yahaya Adoza Bello.
Come with me,
Penultimate to every election in Kogi state, either primaries or main elections, people begin to miss. Missing through disappearing.Through the witchcraft of voodoo, many are taken. Through the barrels of fairly-used AK 47s, thugs harvest innocent souls. All these things-sponsored by politicians of Stone Age politics. With accurate maturity, backed by extreme political intelligence, Gov Bello and his team have been able to first: reposition the All Progressives Congress, Kogi State chapter by installing a vibrant and people oriented excos across board, devoid of the rancorous one in the past that was known with “suegbe” politics.
Most importantly, the new leadership carries a youthful and intellectually mobile outlook; he also influenced the peopling of the lower cadre level leadership by the virtuoso of men and women whom have displayed loyalty, sterling grass-roots mobilization skills, forthrightness and courage.
These are the major pillars of a working party. Correct leadership at the center and loyal followership at the bottom who understand the vision of those at the top.
Let me digress a little.
It takes a lot of hardwork and visionary positioning for Bello and his team to achieve what they have achieved. Who can raise their hands in Kogi to accuse Bello or fronting or imposing any of his family members on the electorates? That is a culture of the men before. Their boys after also carried on that thinking. But Bello buried that thinking.
Who can raise their hands to say Bello is perpetuating his friends and acolytes in power, thereby, shutting out others? In the past, before elections, we knew only those who can even think of aspiring.
Who can raise up their hands to say under Bello’s Government, you must be a thug or have a black belt in “murder” before you can vie and win elective positions in Kogi state? Bello broke that jinx with his visionary-Political-Leadership.
Who can raise up their hands to say Bello is “imposing” anyone on anybody?
Imposition is when people who have not sowed into the cause of any party become overnight brides. In recent time, some political marauders were hired to carry placards in Abuja on the 27th of September 2018, saying Bello is trying to impose Dr. Jibrin Isah Echocho on them. They were paid by some expired politicians who want to reap where they did not sow, just to cause some media stir. A body language we understand.
Let me ask you these questions:
Is Echocho not a flesh and blood of APC?
Is Echocho not an open associate of Gov. Bello?
Has Echocho not chaired many developmental support programs of Bello when many people were hiding behind masks for their heads when the Governor was going through the climax of his crisis accruing from the feedback from some of his hard decisions?
Lastly, if APC is to win as a party, who has more electoral clout, cosmopolitan experience, criss-cross-influence across all political platforms and prerequisite educational accoutrements in Kogi East as we speak more than Echocho? How can people even compare a flying boat to an F16 jet? Only in Kogi East. In the end, it was good they trekked under the sun to help market Echocho. When we saw it on the news, a friend in Lagos has told me how Bello is an intelligent politician by his own estimation because he is correcting age long political errors made by philistinic politicians of the past.
In another quarter, I have seen some people also accuse two time Kogi West Senator, Smart Adeyemi, GCON, of being a stooge of Governor Bello, being imposed on the people. How can the most experienced and comparatively most achieving Senator in Kogi State across the three Senatorial districts be a stooge because he is working assiduously to help a Governor that philistinic elements are pulling down through witchcraft and their age long Neanderthal politics?
Who amongst those aspiring have the leadership experience, red chamber experience, advantageous positioning than the Ijumu born Senator as we speak? For those who love Kogi state and can look into the future. The Governor has been passionate about the Ajaokuta Steel Complex. It is the biggest Federal gift Kogi has ever gotten, still, lying in rot, ruin and waste. If eventually, the people’s will propels Senator Smart into the red chambers, he is a returning principal officer- a senate requirement for top leadership position. Are you thinking what I am thinking?
The Senate Presidency is still zoned to the North Central because President Buhari is still returning as President, which automatically translate to opening for the North Central to produce a Senate President as the ouster of the current saboteur is imminent, who does the baton fall on? Let us not always aspire to play local politics. If Kogi State has a Senate President, is anybody going to die?
Can anyone accuse Senator Smart of going to the Senate because of personal aggrandizement? He is not a baby when it comes to the basic necessities of life. He is not hungry. He is not young for the kind of life other politicians would want to live in a life of squalor. Across the state, he is a household name. At the recently concluded Lokoja/Koto Karfe bye elections, he was on the field. He was open. He held the hands of APC and was dancing with the market women. The sons and daughters of Lokoja/Koto indigenes. That is real electoral value.
Except anyone argues that the APC is not in to win. Politics is not your jaguda expectations.
In Kogi Central, look into the portfolio of Yakubu Oseni. See what he has done with the revenue collection unit of the state within three years. He jacked lose ends from about N300m to above N1b monthly. He is a start up for North Central politics.
Interesting, the non-violent conduct of the Governor in activating loyalty and party-hard-work as a panacea for his support towards any of these politicians is a ratification of my earlier position of his political intelligence.
Imagine these three names as a squad in the Senate. It is an almighty formula against the current set of inappropriate occupants of the house(s) we have at the moment. Is Kogi not destined for the future?
But most importantly, check his relationship with party members in the state. Very cordial. Focused. Interdisciplinary in nature and fantastically coherent.
Why?
He is not importing strangers to hijack the party because of his own personal interests. His interests is also a general reflection of that of his party members. That is the reason for the general peace.
At the national level, he is tirelessly securing the political advantage through influence and networking in order to pave way for the rising political armies that has broken forth. Can anyone say Gov Bello is not a national statement in Nigerian politics? In all the APC elections held recently, safe for that of Osun State which he as absent due to his emotional intelligence and call to duty of his people because of the floods, he has gone for others, campaigned, controlled logistics, coordinate security and delivered his mandate on all occasions. His relationship with the Presidency is also smooth, something he is working assiduously for Kogi state to benefit in the future.
Kogi must not have passed your matrix of expectations. You might also have been listening to wailing politicians who double as social activists with their lies and double standards confusing your reality; but in Kogi state, we have made progress in our level of political maturity, peace and quality of leadership.
Politically, I say again “we have grown”!
In conclusion, I will like to acknowledge the frontal armies who are behind the resuscitation of the APC in Kogi State which serves as a conduit pipe which Gov Bello is using to set this epoch-future record: The White Oracle of the New Direction Team who we have come to nick-name Double Chief- (Chief of Staff & Chief Strategist) who is tacitly behind the Governor alongside as a support-system and other loyal men of His Excellency from the 3 Senatorial Districts, already mentioned in this article; not forgetting The Men at the helms of the APC in Kogi State- Hon. Abudulalhi Bello (Captain) Ahmedy Attah (Right wing),Ibrahim Ahovi (Midfielder), Ropo Asala (Left Wing) and the top strikers (Secretary, Women and Youths Leaders et al).
GYB has built a young, creative, dynamic and service-focused team with the capacity and capabilities to match political gang-ups, mediocre plans and antics of men of the political under-world day, night and day-night-light!
Time they say will tell!
I join the Wailers to re-echo their cliche “2019 shall tell”.
Kogi Rebel telling the inconvenient truth again!
– Promise Emmanuel
