“Renewed Kogi East” has entered public discourse as a hopeful refrain. Yet history warns that hope without reckoning quickly becomes illusion. Regions are not transformed by slogans, banners, or seasonal coalitions. They are renewed when power submits to memory and leadership submits to judgment. Igala and Bassa Land now stand at that threshold. The language of rebirth collides with the weight of broken mandates, squandered opportunities, and a political culture that too often rewards loyalty over competence. Renewal, if it is to mean anything, must begin as an audit of conscience before it becomes a programme of governance.
At the heart of the crisis is not a lack of intelligence or resources but a deficit of moral courage. For decades, political authority in Kogi East, across both Igala and Bassa communities, has circulated within narrow elite corridors, producing repetition instead of reform. Elections have changed faces without altering habits. Promises have multiplied while institutions weakened. In this environment, “renewal” risks becoming yet another managed illusion, carefully marketed to citizens exhausted by rhetoric and longing for relief. True renewal requires leaders prepared to name past failures openly, sever ties with corrosive patronage networks, and rebuild public trust from the ground up.
The paradox is that Igala and Bassa Land in particular, possess all the raw ingredients for transformation. Politically conscious youth. Deep cultural capital. Strategic geography. A history of influential leadership in Nigeria’s national story. The Bassa people, with their resilient traditions and historical contributions to commerce and governance, share the same potential for leadership and innovation that the Igala have long demonstrated. What has been missing is coherence of purpose. Fragmentation, internal rivalry, and short-term calculations have repeatedly neutralized collective strength across both communities. Renewal demands more than unity at the ballot box. It demands unity around standards. Clear expectations of accountability. Service delivery. Ethical restraint that no leader is permitted to negotiate away.
Citizens, too, share responsibility. Renewal cannot be outsourced entirely to politicians who profit from the old order initiated by previous administrative systems in Kogi State.
Instead Voters must reject transactional politics that trade long-term development for short-term favours as well as demands transparency from the INEC Officials. Civil society, traditional institutions, and faith communities in Igala and Bassa Land must abandon silence disguised as neutrality. The two regions are inextricably linked. Political fragmentation in one undermines the prospects of the other. A renewed Kogi East will only emerge when society insists that leadership is stewardship, not entitlement, and that public office is a burden of service, not a private inheritance.
The tragedy, and the hope, is that the ingredients for transformation are all present. A politically engaged youth population spanning Igala and Bassa communities has demonstrated its ability to question old hierarchies. Cultural heritage; festivals, proverbs, oral histories, and shared values, remains a source of guidance and cohesion. Strategic geography, bridging key trade and communication corridors, offers opportunity for economic resurgence. Yet these assets alone are insufficient. Renewal requires courage to confront old habits, to reject patronage that divides communities, and to elevate competence over kinship.
Ultimately, “Renewed Kogi East” is not a destination but a discipline. It is the hard work of remembering what failed, resisting the romanticization of the past, and insisting that the future be governed by higher standards than convenience. Igala and Bassa Land face a shared test: whether they will demand truth over comfort, courage over consensus, and integrity over the easy lies of recycled power. The question is no longer whether these lands desire renewal, but whether they are prepared to pay the price that genuine renewal demands, together, as neighbours, as stewards of history, and as custodians of a future they cannot afford to inherit carelessly.
– Inah Boniface Ocholi writes from Ayah – Igalamela/Odolu LGA, Kogi state.
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