In Kogi State today, politics has become a masquerade where ceremony struts while governance sleeps. The 10th Memorial Anniversary of the late Prince Abubakar Audu; once a colossus of vision and development, proved this all too painfully. Instead of commemorating a legacy through action, the event became a stage for choreographed tributes and sycophantic fanfare. “We applauded the speeches, but our roads still crumble under our feet,” lamented a community elder in Ogbonicha. Audu’s vision was forged in steel and concrete, not in the applause of the podium.
A true memorial should be a blueprint in motion, not a gallery of praise. Prince Shuaibu Abubakar Audu, the Honourable Minister of Steel Development, spoke of reviving Ajaokuta, affirming, “We must not only remember my father, we must continue his work.” Yet, beyond words, tangible projects remain scarce. Ogbonicha, Aloma, and Ofu LGA remain starved of clean water, functional health systems, and youth empowerment. The speeches flowed like rivers, but the rivers of development have long dried. A boulevard renamed in Audu’s honour cannot quench the thirst of communities abandoned by progress.
Memorials must illuminate paths forward, not veil them in sycophancy. Citizens watched dignitaries parade through ceremonies, lectures, book presentations, and orchestrated tributes but left their villages untouched. “Governance is not an event. Legacy is not a speech. Development is not a memorial celebration,” a political analyst warned. Prince Abubakar Audu’s courage and vision built roads, industries, and opportunities. Today, those foundations risk becoming ghostly echoes, admired in memory but failing in reality.
The symbolism is stark: ceremonies are flowers on graves; development is the living tree. Without action, tributes wither into irrelevance. Praise without policy is a mask hiding decay, and applause cannot replace infrastructure. Kogi State’s leaders risk turning a memorial into a mausoleum of empty promises while the people endure potholes, failing hospitals, and moribund industries. Legacy is measured not in tears shed or speeches given, but in lives transformed and communities empowered.
Kogi stands at a moral and political junction. The choice is clear: political theater or developmental reality, ovation or action, rhetoric or results. The ultimate tribute to Prince Abubakar Audu is not the glow of ceremonial lights but the hard work of governance; roads repaired, industries revived, policies implemented. Political memorials must extend legacies, not entertain sycophants. Kogi must wake before the memory of its hero becomes a monument to inaction, and its people are left to wander beneath the shadows of abandoned promises.
– Inah Boniface Ocholi writes from Ayah – Igalamela/Odolu LGA, Kogi state.
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