By Arogbonlo Israel.
It’s a welcome idea by many Nigerians especially Kogites who have seriously been craving for an improved governance, such that would bring about development in every facet of the country, to accept the new narrative ‘Revolution Now Movement’ led by the publisher of the news/magazine online platform Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore.
It will be recalled Mr. Omoyele Sowore who ran as president under the platform of the Action African Congress during the last election that saw Muhammadu Buhari emerged as winner with over 15 million votes, has earlier planned a mass protest slated for August 5 2019 but was later arrested by the Nigeria’s DSS operatives in the early hours of Saturday, August 3 2019 in his country home, Lagos.
However, many observers have since the arrest of the activist took to the social media to condemn the action of the DSS operatives as ‘anti-democracy and violation of fundamental human rights’ while the Security operatives see it as defence against what seems to be security threatening to the peaceful co-existence of Nigerians. A food for thought for us to decide!
Based on the foregoing, it is believed by many Nigerians that the present government is out to silent all opposition, not minding the detriment of their action on the masses. This has led a host of social commentators among others to start asking questions such as: Is Nigeria truly reflecting what democracy represents? Are we still following what the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria stipulated? What is the dividend of democracy in a failed system? These among other big questions have posed a state of emergency for us to deliberate on within this critical time.
Narrowing down to the present situation in Kogi, where issues of nonpayment of salary among other crises confronting the state has since been a thing of concern to all right thinking members of the state, one would rather prefer to subscribe to the ideology of Mr. Sowore, which seeks to fight against bad governance that have bewildered the fibres of our dear country than folding hands till Jack comes.
Kogi state under the leadership of Alh. Yahaya Bello has been often criticized for not taking the welfare of the people of the state seriously particularly those at the grassroots who are seen as the major victims of the bad governance confronting the state.
In a latest development, one of the aides of the Governor, Dr. Usman Ogbo who is a senior lecturer at the state varsity told newsmen on national television station that all category of workers have been paid fully. This was later countered by a caller who lamented over the nonpayment of her salaries for quite a number of months by the state government.
The problem most observers of the state claimed to have is, the fact that the state government has since been resorting to using propaganda as a tool to lure the masses to endorse his second term in government, which I believe should be a matter of choice and not based on compulsion as we see in recent times.
Kogi is indeed blessed with a lot of resources that can make the state great in the near future but bad governance has been one contributory factor for the depreciation of state since its inception in 1999. This affirmed to the submission of the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo on the state “With the right leadership, Kogi can attain greatness”.
Yes! Leadership by purpose is what Kogi need right now to come out of its shade into limelight. We must stand to bring this revolution into reality by choosing the path that leads to a sustainable democracy via good governance.
The question of whether the revolution movement would be a bane or relief for Kogites would be best achieved if every Kogite can come on board to draw the thin line between what good governance connotes and the place of democracy in the 21st century.
