Kogi State is in a state of coma and economic doldrums that require an urgent attention. On all fronts, Kogi State spells failure. The indices for any vestige of development remain abysmal. Poverty rages, unemployment increases in astronomical dimension, infrastructural facilities are in decay, education sector is struggling to survive, salaries are unpaid, hunger, despair and destruction now haunt the state.
The people are indeed living in very trying times: dissatisfied with the present and face the future with much trepidation. If Kogi State today were a living entity, it would be perceived as a blind entity groping aimlessly without direction while pretending to be on a purposeful mission of institutionalizing the change agenda.
It is obvious that there is a vacuum of leadership in the state. What the Kogites bargained for is not exactly what they got. In the place of giant of yester years, Kogites tolerated and accepted poor substitute foisted on them either by the power that be: courtesy of some agents in APC or by providence to pontificate in crude manner over the affairs of the state.
The domain of governance is suffused by those who engage in vulgar despoliation of social political and economic heritage of the people in the confluence state. Governor Yaya Bello has betrayed the confidence reposed in him particularly by the Nigerian youths and Kogites at large through his crude bastardization of commonwealth of the people, debasement of principal elements of public trust and good governance.
Governance is not an abstract concept. Governance all over the world is about people therefore it must be germane to people’s lives by promoting their standards of living. If governance is not capable of improving people’s well -being and quality of life, it is at best an empty concept at worst a hoax.
According to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) the principal elements of good governance include accountability, transparency, inclusiveness, responsiveness, efficiency, effectiveness, participatory and leadership rooted in integrity. And public trust would be gauged and evaluated on the basis of these elements because they constitute veritable means through which better policies and programmes that will enhance better life can be actualized, maintained and sustained.
The style of governance adopted by Yaya Bello negates all of these principal elements. Why on earth would a governor remain insensitive and unresponsive to the plight of workers of the state who are being owed several months of salaries and arrears?
In Kogi State today, budgeting processing is now carried out in opaque and corruptive manner. Contracts are awarded to political cronies without tender and publication for public bidding. These have bred despondency, cynicism and loss of hope among the citizens.
The education sector that supposed to be the bedrock of development is in disarray. Incessant strike actions and closure of tertiary institutions because of non- payment of subvention by the government have all combined to make nonsense of education in the state. Most of the tertiary institutions in Kogi State today cannot boost of potable water; even some areas in Lokoja the capital city are facing the same problem despite the waters surrounding the state. Roads are abandoned, health care services remain the shadow of its former self, the state’s chapter of Nigeria Labour Congress is demobilized and demotivated from pursuing the yearnings and aspirations of workers and endless screening of civil servants now characterize the civil service. What a government!
The people of Kogi have come to critical point in their political lives where decisions they make will either make or mar their political destinies. In doing this, they should use their voice as an instrument to suppress the high-handedness of the mighty, activate their socio- political conscience, come out of docility and utter passiveness and demand accountability from the government. They should ask what the government does with the resources they have been empowered with, how well these resources have been utilized, through what process and more importantly, whether there was sufficient value-for resources obtained. Kogi State government should explain how it expended first tranche of N20bn and second tranche of N11.5bn bailout funds, the internally generated revenue and several months of federal allocations to the state’s treasury and other account of activities through relevant and constitutionally approved channels.
Bello and his political acolytes should stop engaging in brickbats, mudslinging and creating an enemy where there is none. He should call expanded stakeholders’ meeting of Kogites both at home and in the diaspora to re- draw the map through which the government can travel on its journey of putting Kogi State on pedestal of excellence.
The clock is ticking and posterity will soon judge and put Yaya Bello on either right or wrong side of history.
– Usman Okai Austin,
Biraidu Abocho,
Dekina LGA, Kogi State.
