‘Only desperate and corrupt politicians can use rigging, thuggery, vote-buying, violence, trouble, assault, propaganda and lies to win an election and take over power by force.”
– Bamigboye Olurotimi
Riding over all odds against his re-election on the Saturday, November 16, 2019 governorship election in Kogi State, Governor Yahaya Bello emerged victorious at the polls. Many had thought that a re-election would be a herculean task for the Kogi youthful governor.
Thus, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is presently crying foul, and unless their kick changes the probability of action, Bello will still go ahead to be sworn-in for a second term.
Bello’s administration before the election was going down as the most unpopular in the state’s history. The general perception within and beyond the state was that Bello had enthroned a reign of notoriety that has brought shame to the much-touted inclusion of youths in governance.
The hope of his winning the election, therefore, was so remote that a powerful delegation, including Nigeria’s First Lady, Aisha Buhari; wife of Vice President, Dolapo Osinbajo; governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, among others, were drafted by the All Progressives Congress (APC) on a rescue mission to Kogi State to plead with the people for the forgiveness of the governor’s perceived many sins, especially the over 17 months salaries allegedly owed the state civil servants.
Bello’s administration came under public scorn and severe media bashing as a government with uncommon disdain for civil servants, one that loved to owe workers’ salaries with impunity and without any tangible performance in infrastructural development, despite the huge resources at its disposal.
His government was also accused of being intolerant to the voice of the opposition.
Thus, many thought that the Kogi guber poll would be a day of reckoning for Bello, believing that the majority of the people would rise to pay him back notwithstanding the pleadings by the APC emissaries, but the governor proved them wrong. He was eventually declared the winner of the election by INEC.
Unarguably, that Saturday’s election in Kogi had all the trappings of war in view of the innocent lives that were wasted.
The highpoint of the killing was when the Woman Leader of Wada/Aro Campaign Council, Ochadamu Ward, Mrs Acheju Abuh, was killed after some suspected political thugs burnt her alive in her home.
The thugs, according to reports, arrived at Mrs Abuh’s house around 2:00 p.m. and surrounded her house, poured petrol on the building before setting it ablaze.
It was a gory death as the attackers shut the doors and window to Mrs Abuh’s house during the attack and ensured she didn’t have a way of escape.
One writer described Kogi, a state proudly referred to as the confluence state as “one that has become a confluence of absurdities.”
Beginning from the day the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) released its guidelines for the November 2019 governorship election in Kogi, public attention shifted to the confluence state as a lot of absurdities were expected to be in contention.
Following the way he emerged to become perhaps the youngest governor in Nigeria, it may be correct to say that Yahaya Bello is a child of destiny.
Going by the records, Bello was up against history as no non-Igala has ever won the governorship position since the creation of the state in 1991.
In terms of population advantage, the Igala-dominated Kogi East Senatorial District is reputed to account for more than half of the state’s population.
So, that Bello, an Ebira from Kogi Central is governor, was termed an accident, occasioned by Abubakar Audu’s death.
The period leading to his emergence as governor appeared to have enmeshed in a constitutional logjam, as the APC’s governorship candidate in the 2015 election, Abubakar Audu, who was poised to win in the election died before the governorship election was concluded. Bello was then picked by the APC to replace him.
Hon. James Faleke who was Audu’s running mate objected to the party’s decision to run with Bello as his running mate and approached the election tribunal in the state, asking it to declare him governor-elect.
Faleke felt he was robbed the governorship position as he expected the party to back him to take over from Audu. When both the party and the court could not support Faleke, he backed out.
Thus Bello made an unusual history as he was sworn in without a deputy. It was the first time in Nigeria’s political history that an elected governor would be inaugurated without a deputy.
The lacuna created presented room for the governor to appoint his deputy, Simon Achuba, who was unanimously approved by the House of Assembly.
Today, the saga of impeachment surrounding Achuba’s removal has aptly been described as “political abracadabra” and dirt on Bello’s administration.
The political heat from the state made most stakeholders and political observers to strongly believe, rightly or wrongly, that governance has taken a leave from Kogi since Bello reputed as the youngest governor took over the saddle of leadership.
Of a truth, Kogi people around the world had always dreamt of having a governor who will launch the state on the national and international stages; a builder and unifier who will collapse the walls of division; a patriotic leader who places service above elections and who is ever ready to give meaning to the lives of Kogi people.
This is the greatest challenge before Bello which his second tenure opportunity if eventually consolidated, analysts say, should be made to be more proactive and productive to his people if he must change the negative perception held against him.
Now that he has won the election, observers say Bello should call for a truce among all aggrieved stakeholders, do the necessary compensations to calm frayed nerves and then embark on more purposeful governance.
Whether Bello will change the course of governance or whether he will become a Trojan horse is in the womb of time.
Bello was born on June 18, 1975, in Okene, Kwara State. He attended LGEA Primary School, Agassa in Okene LGA beginning in 1984. He later went to high school at Agassa Community Secondary School, Anyava, Agassa-Okene and obtained his JSSCE and SSCE certificates from Government Secondary School, Suleja-Niger State in 1994.
He studied at Kaduna State Polytechnic Zaria in 1995 and obtained an accounting degree from Ahmadu Bello University ABU Zaria in 1999. He further enrolled for a Masters programme at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria where he obtained a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) in 2002. He became a chartered fellow of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria in 2004.
Credits: Daniel Kanu | The Sun
