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The concept of the 100-day standard for gauging first term presidents’ and governors’ effectiveness was pioneered by Franklin D. Roosevelt when he took office in 1933 as president of the United States of America. The circumstances that Roosevelt faced as newly elected president were unique; the calamities of the great depression during which Banks were shutting down, shattering rate of unemployment during which at least 25 percent of American workers were out of jobs, decayed infrastructures and a widespread loss of confidence. Roosevelt moved with unprecedented dispatch and addressed these problems within 100 days in office by restoring Americans hope and confidence, through creation of jobs through heavy construction in such areas as water systems, power plants, and hospitals. Since the success of FDR in his 100 days in office, the public, the media, and scholars adopted the concept of 100 days as a gauge of presidents and governors’ success and activism worldwide.
Sworn in as the fourth executive governor of kogi state in an unfamiliar circumstance, Gov Yahaya Bello clocks 100 days in office 5th of May, 2016. In the deep pains emanated from the demise of Prince Abubakar Audu with the people moving back and forth between hope and despair, Yahaya Bello knew from the start that what the people of Kogi wanted most of all was reassurance that under his leadership, they could weather the storm. Coming to office at a desperate time, when government at all levels face financial challenge due to dwindling allocation as a result of fall in the price of crude oil; Nigeria economic mainstay that raised the gravest doubts about the future of the country, Yahaya Bello established a new, infectious atmosphere of optimism during his inaugural speech, stating that;
1-“I will be fair to all kogites and i belong to everybody and belong to nobody”
2-“I hereby declare that the Yahaya Bello administration will not tolerate corruption, i will live by example”
3- “My administration has zero tolerance for corruption and it remains so and i think kogites should be guided in this direction”
4-” We will see increase in our Internally Generated Revenue”
“We will conceived a socio-economic blueprint that will benefit the people”
In matching action with words, Yahaya Bello has been fair to all kogites irrespective of tribes and religion as exemplified in the appointments his administration has made so far. The greatest challenge every successive government of kogi state has faced was that of over bloated wage bill. The wage bill of the state was highly inflated through the practices of ghost workers engaged by top civil servants, politicians and associates of government in power.
The inability of the successive governments to address this issue was personal political consequences, feebleness, timidity, and duplicity, but today, the people of kogi have found an admirable trait in governor Bello which is his gut to stamp out ghost workers from the state through workers verification exercise no matter whose ox is gourd. So far, the exercise had uncovered how a single local government staff included as many as 300 ghost workers in the pay role of the local government. 946 ghost schools with over 6,000 staff have also being uncovered, while at the state and local government levels, thousands of ghost workers have been uncovered. This, analysts said, have reduced the state wage bill by about 30% thereby creating room for genuine employment and proper welfare of genuine workers of the state. Various loopholes have been identified in the collection of revenue for the state in the past. Companies of Political associates, friends and cronies of the government were the collectors of revenues for the past administration in which they remit whatever pleases them to the government. Today, Bello has demonstrated his very pronounced ideas on how the state’s IGR can be increased. One of the major sources of revenue to the state was produce, which there are twelve points of collection in the state. N13m is been generated monthly at one of the points where only N2m used to be remitted to the coffers of the state. All loopholes are being block and kogi is heading for economic prosperity under the administration of Yahaya Bello. In a sense personify the new direction of the public mind and will and in his firm believe that government is a continuum, Bello is ensuring that viable projects initiated by his predecessor are completed. Lokoja township roads have been completely rehabilitated while the usual heaps of refuge on the streets of Lokoja have disappeared. The people of kogi state today are no longer talking about party but to safeguard the divine leadership at the Luguard House. While Bello does not go so far as to speak of himself as the leader of the economic revolution now in progress, there is no doubt that the people of kogi state consider the governor at this juncture the instrument by which profound and necessary changes in the kogi system are to be effected.
His success in alleviating the suffering of the commuters by rehabilitating the township roads, increase in revenue generation by blocking all leakages, a developed blueprint with bottom up approach of understanding of the needs of every communities in kogi, cost containment in governance, abolition of State and Local Government Joint Account and so on became the stuff of legend and established Gov Yahaya Bello as the most effective governor with quick response to the challenges of the common people during the first 100 days.
– Onogwu Muhammed (Galacticus)
Lokoja, Kogi State.
@onogwuMuha
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