If we do not bring our minds to bear on the too many challenges befalling our dear state, then we probably want to make it uninhabitable for our children someday. The state of Kogi state is critical and pitiable.
Without much ado, I want to bring to the fore, the pests chopping Kogi down gradually by gradually, with and without our notice. As it is said, ‘like father like son,’ the problem of Kogi is not different from that of our dear country, Nigeria. Nigeria is a country with different people heading towards different directions with different goals and aspirations. That is a very big problem.
Like a question was asked in the Holy Bible, (Amos 3:3,) can two walk together without agreeing on the directon? We live in a country where each ethnical group is pursuing a different goal from the other and as such the unified goal that is meant to make us a nation become the less concerned, as such, accusation of overtaking, discriminating and maltreating become the order of the day. This is what is happening in Kogi.
I wanted to title this article as ‘Kogi, a replica of Nigeria’ but I had a second thought. However, that title would have best described Kogi as its being killed by ethnicity. As the story was told in the Bible again, (Genesis 11) a group of people decided to build a tower that could link them to heaven. The people, as recorded, were near accomplishing their mission simply because they had one voice. Their efforts were a concerted one. According to the Bible, God said there was nothing that could stop the people because they had a unified goal and were working together. The only way He was able to stop them was to make them speak in different dialects or tongues, by that, they could no longer understand each other. Therefore, they could not proceed. Same is the case of Kogi, the people are speaking in different tongues. The tongues am refering to here in not the language we speak because we have English as an official and a general understanable language. We also have the gift of understanding other languages from different tribes. What I mean by different tongues here is that, the Igalas want everything to themselves, likewise the Ebiras, the Okun and all others.
I got to know of Kogi as the state with the largest mineral resources when I failed a question referring to the State as the state with the largest mineral resources in Nigeria some time ago. Prior to the time I was asked that question, I never knew that my state is this blessed and that it is littered with such enormous resources looking at it from the level of hardship and development in the state and also by comparing it with other states with paucity of resources. This is because the people refused to champion a unified course.
Once an Igala man is given any position, he looks for an avenue to retaliate what an Okun man or Ebira man must have done to his people while on that sit, forgetting the true definition of a sate. A state is supposed to be a nation or a territory considered as an organized political community under one government. A people of a state are to be seen as one political community. The diversity in Kogi state is an issue that we have to deal with and that can only start from individual, families and institutions in the state inculcating the message of oneness into the people.
And like the son will always be like the father, Kogi state is suffering from sabotage just like what was alleged at the federal level by President Muhammad Buhari. There are saboteurs under this administration of Governor Yahaya Bello. This is an issue untold.
Well, I do not want to come from the side of ethnicity this time as the saboteurs could have their interest towards political party bewitching and or religion but that does not mean ethnicity is out of it.
To me, the screening initiated by the Governor is a welcome development and an astute move to save the state of the huge among of funds throwing into the wind annually for the ghost workers. We all know that truly, there are ghost workers and so if all hands are on deck and all eyes on the watch for a careful and proper screening, the beneficiaries of the outcome will not be people other than the people of the state. But the saboteurs and the cartel will never allow such a screening to be a peaceful and successful one.
Coming down to the line of diversity again, a lot of sabotage is going on with the view to frustrating the man on the sit. This is because the other ethnic group does not want much achievement to be attributed to a man from another ethnic group. What then shall we gain if we ruin our own state by ourselves?
The sabotage also continues to the side of the people occupying the thrones. Once anybody from a different ethnic group succeeds a predecessor from another ethnic group or a different political party, he would want to discredit what the predecessor has done by destroying a development already been made. If one leader get something done, the successor would condemn it and when the other get another thing done, his own successor would condemn it as well and as such, we see repetition of things in a bid to discredit people. It will always be a part of wisdom if all we do is to build upon the foundation already lied for a rapid progress.
Also, like a said earlier, a successor would always want to favour his people and by so doing others from another tribe will not be happy seeing such a project being accomplished. Everybody is blaming other of discrimination. You see accusation of sidelining here and there. With this, one would always want to frustrate the effort of the other once a policy is not in his favour.
Howbeit, we need to admit that selfishness is part of a man but having it in mind that we are all in one body called a state will do us a lot good. If we are wishing to be merged with another tribe to form state instead of the tribes we have been merged with, let us not forget that the devil you know is better than the angel you do not know. Together we can make it because only together that we can stand, for divided we will fall. It is high time we realize the beauty in our diversity. Let us utilize the opportunity of having different people from different origins coming together to reason and to champion a course.
– Onoja Johnson Baba
