Opinion: What Bello Needs To Do

For Alhaji Yahaya Bello, the fourth Executive Governor of Kogi State, a book of history has been opened for him and in a couple of years from now, scholars and many other political scientists would x-ray, through  assessment, whether, a man who became the state youngest Governor at age 40, and coming from a minority tribe has justified his mandate. It is no longer news that Bello’s emergence as governor was divine. But amidst the controversies that surrounded his emergence, which was however affirmed by the Supreme Court, the highest court of the land, the Young man seems to be having a seemingly easy ride, as governance seem to be falling in place for him.

For many, the Accountant turned politician is gradually proving his critics wrong. He is also gradually silencing his critics and winning for himself new converts that he was actually prepared for the task governance thrusted on him.

That he took over the mantle of the state at the most trying time in the state’s history is also not in doubt. On his assumption of office as governor, Kogi State was bedeviled with myriad of problems such as unpaid salaries, insecurity, disunity and mistrust amongst the ethnic groups.

Furthermore, was the fact that the country was going through it worst  recession in several years, with poverty and hunger, visibly noticed in the land like never before as was experienced in the last two years in the country generally.

So to get the state out of the woods, it became imperative that Governor Bello needed a thinking cap from the usual pattern worn by his predecessors, and he also needed to do the positively unusual to move the state forward.

To the surprise of many, and with many decisions taking in quick succession on assumption, the governor commissioned a civil service audit. Sent several officers on compulsory leave. Began a probe of his predecessors. He had to also contend with his party’s leadership crisis, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the State on one hand and the leadership tussle then that engulfed the State House of Assembly, amongst other problems too numerous to mention while also trying to change the citizens’ mindset and orientation of how not to do things in the old order.

This revolutionary feat considered by many as biting much than he can chew at that time, was coming in quick succession. All that is now history as to a large extent the chicken by some opinion seems to have come home to roost in most of the above mentioned cases. For example, the State House of Assembly is now stable. The recent defection of some PDP lawmakers to the ruling party in the state, pundits will testify though may be said to have the unseen hands of the governor calling the shot as alleged, the peaceful manner the seven lawmakers from the opposition PDP, recently cross carpeted and had a smooth leadership change without rancor, is an indication according to a statement by Kingsley Fanwo, the Director General, Media and Publicity of the governor, as caused by the good works and inclusive leadership style of the governor.

In today’s Kogi, one cannot take it away from the present administration that the government is almost getting it right in the areas of environmental sanitation. Lokoja which prides itself as the dirtiest state capital in Nigeria at some time, has lost that toga. Things are now better.

The State Capital is now wearing a new look in aesthetics and cleanliness. There is also the issue of improved security. The recent demolition of thirteen houses of kidnappers, armed robbers and others engaged in other nefarious activities for survival and get rich quick syndrome underscores government’s determination in making the state safe for residents and passers-bye.

Certainly it would not be out of place to say that in just his second year in office, Kogi State is considered by many as a work in progress.

Evidence abound in efforts aimed at industrialization,improved internally generated revenue and the repositioning of infrastructure,especially roads. Some of the roads though were inherited from the immediate past administration, several many others were initiated by the current government, and are now at various stages of completion.

A new mindset where youths besiege offices, as political jobbers and hangers on to beg for money seem to have also given way for a new order as they now pride the Bello’s government as government of the youths.

All of these and others time will not allow for mention can be said to be Governor Bello’s high point within a relatively short stay in office. This modest achievements is even coming after having a history of being one of the most litigated Governor following his emergence at the polls.

Many are however also quick to add that Gov. Bello remains one of the luckiest governor the state has produced, considering the sum of money the state may have received under his leadership.  Though others too are quick to add that the present challenge of governance posed to most state governors may have overwhelmed the resources accrued.

In the Kogi scenario, backlog of salaries and arrears is said to have gulped a large chunk of the resources. But the crux of Bello’s governance making the desired impacts remains to be seen on how he handles the issues that many have pointed out would either shape or mar his administration. The growing level of poverty in the State calls for concern. The call for the administration therefore to fashion out short, medium and long term policy to cushion the poverty and hunger that is seen on the faces of citizens remains germane. Majority of citizens of the State live in the rural areas. Government must as a matter of urgency design empowerment programs that is not elitist that will touch the poorest of the poor aside what the federal government may have initiated under the N-power program.

The screening exercise that is on-going in the civil service with report underway remains a laudable efforts of government viewed against the political Will to carry out such assignment. What is however important is that, a thorough and painstaking efforts must be made with each worker given a fair hearing in determining the outcome of the present exercise. So far revelation from the committee room has proven that the state had lived with irregularities in wage bill since its creation. It is therefore unimaginable and unbelievable that a police officer for over ten years would have drawn salaries fraudulently as a Local Government pensioner while another would have in over twenty years draw salaries from his Local Government and in the Teaching Service Commission. Many of these irregularities abound as revealed through the screening exercise.

Governor Bello with all intent and purposes must be encouraged to get it right using the staff screening exercise as the state cannot use beyond its monthly allocation and internally generated revenue continue  to pay salaries and wages of a few at the detriment of the majority as was the case in the past.

Aside that, many innocent citizens without exaggeration, have actually died also following the tedious process of these staff screening. Thus, before the final release of the committee’s report which is likely in April, a thorough work should be seen to have been carried out before a final cleared list would have been made public while still allowing room for complain. This is so as no human effort can be carried out without an error.

Further more, no good can been done if the perceived crisis allegedly existing between the Governor and his party leadership continues. For now the party leadership in the State as Executives subsist till 2019. thus, whoever needs to lose his pride to begin a process that will see that the State Executives of APC, is reconciled and embrace the efforts of Governor Bello, would go a long way to bringing the needed peace that will help in development as well as create a sense of belonging for a people who felt they had toiled all day long in wrestling power from the former PDP administration that ruled the State for thirteen years.

The place of peace should be all encompassing and cannot be undermined. While the relationship between Governor  Bello and President, Mohammadu Buhari, is that of a father and a son. In this game of politics where anything can happen, thus making it necessary that you need everyone in the future, and not necessarily need to put your eggs in one basket. Since you cannot tell what happens in the nation’s politics, a politics where interest changes by the seconds and is determined by friends and enemies alike. It becomes expedient to extend a hand of fellowship to the late Audu/Faleke Camp, and by extension, other National and Regional leaders of his party therein.

Lastly, the governor as much as he has remained open to the people, operating an inclusive style of governance. There is still the call that he needs to do more by consulting more widely and to listen from more than the usual channels he has in place.  This will position him in a better stead in taking and making decisions.

For now, without mincing words, Kogi State by the structural re-engineering taking place in the State, has been termed a work in progress and one that is on a threshold of getting it right if Gov. Bello leverages on what is left to be added to the good work he has began, a summation that cannot be argued even among pundits.

Usually, it takes a long and difficult time for change to be accepted, seen  and appreciated, mostly when over the last twenty-five years, the people have formed their way of life, believing that it is a society where any thing goes.

Certainly, the majority in time past take delight in doing the usual but are caught in a web, now find it hard to comprehend that they are now living in a new new era. It is therefore expected that, it will be difficult for the majority to therefore within a year or two accept change in their orientation and accept the current narrative as well as appreciate the fact that we now live in a new order, where sanity prevails.

For in the past, Kogi State was likened to a state where when a job is advertised for graduates, majority of applicants are usually school Certificate holders. Their application to the job is not done out of ignorance, rather it is borne out of the mindset that the society then is one in which anything goes, based on ethnic sentiments and godfatherism.

It therefore behoves on all and sundry that the pains of today if it can be endured, by striving to do what is right, will certainly give way for a gain that everyone will enjoy.

Many have said that the perceived mindset of Kogi people calls for a leader in the mould of a Governor Bello, this is because, like Nigeria, it is not contestable, that Kogi is a state difficult to govern, and this is premised on factors occasioned by interest, ethnicity amongst others, which is the bane of the nations leadership and growth.

But surely as is been discussed in several quarters. Kogi State would certainly be the better for it if what Governor Bello, needs to do in the aforementioned, is quickly carried out with the zeal and passion that he has so far displayed, in repositioning the State tagged Confluence of opportunities, that has over the years had it resources either still buried underneath, untapped or frittered away by what many termed not having the right leadership laced with political will.