Governor Yahaya Bello brought traditional rulers in Kogi State to utter shame on Wednesday, June 19, 2019, when he railroaded them to Aso Rock Presidential Villa and compelled them to endorse him before President Muhammadu Buhari for the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship ticket in November 2019 election. Intimidated beyond measure, these traditional rulers, whose subjects have been traumatised by all the ills and ill-wind that characterise Bello’s governorship since 2015, sheepishly recited lines scripted for them by this ‘white elephant’ at Lugard House in Lokoja. They would say the man who ruined the civil service and spread sorrow and death in the Confluence State is the best thing that has ever happened to Kogi State.
It is important for President Buhari and APC Chairman Adams Oshiomhole to realise that the 2019 governorship election in Kogi State is considered as a unique opportunity for the liberation of the state from the tyrannical, clueless and violence-laden system put in place by Yahaya Bello. An indication of this desire is evident in the fact that over 20 members and leaders of APC have thrown their hats in the ring to slug it out in APC primary election. Never in the history of Kogi politics have so many aspirants emerged. Each of the aspirants has one campaign slogan – to deliver the state from oppressive Bello. It is for this reason that Buhari, Oshiomohle and APC must contribute to efforts to liberate the state by disqualifying Yahaya Bello from the governorship contest.
In the last four years, civil servants in Kogi State have lamented the non-payment of salaries and pensions in spite of the fact that the monthly allocations from the federation account did not fail; in spite of the huge bail-out paid to the state by the federal government; and in spite of the remittance of Paris Club refund to Kogi State. In a brazen display of wickedness and nonchalance, the governor has continued to fabricate all sorts of excuses for the non-payment of staff salaries, and even for those who have been paid, it is never in full measure. Many of those who work to keep the systems in the state functional have not been paid for over 12 months in spite of the consistent cash flow from Abuja. For this reason, civil servants are at the mercy of hunger, poverty and penury, and the reported cases of suicides in Kogi State speak to this condition.
Governor Bello, who demonstrates his achievements in the nature of his display of affinity with the First Family, cannot display any developmental projects to boast of. That is why, in the last four years, President Buhari has not paid an official visit to Kogi to commission any project. Instead, it is Yahaya Bello who visits Aso Rock regularly to speak to journalists on the achievements recorded by Buhari as president in the last four years. The question begging for answer is this: if Bello failed to pay civil servants and cannot showcase his developmental projects, where did all the funds he collected on behalf of the people of Kogi State enter? They have asked this question numerous times, but the governor has no answer to it.
The insecurity in the state is alarming. It is not just about kidnapping, armed robbery, or banditry. In the last two years, Governor Bello, in the name of reinforcing vigilante groups in the various districts in Kogi, gave weapons to unemployed youths. At the moment, Kogi State is heavily militarised and under the reign of terror to the point that the elite are afraid of visiting their loved ones in their ancestral communities. It has never been so bad. Youths commit murder over petty arguments because they have access to AK-47s. This is not the Kogi State that was handed over to Yahaya Bello in 2015. Senator Dino Melaye raised alarm over the militarisation of the state, but, unfortunately, the authorities looked the other way and couched it as a political alarm. The reality in Kogi State is that there is the reign and rule of terror, which the re-election of Bello in November would make worse.
In the political space, Bello has edged out from reckoning all those politicians who worked for the victory of APC in elections in 2015 and even the presidential election in 2019. As a result of his marginalization, a faction of the APC has gone to court to seek redress. And they have a lot of grounds for their action. First, it is an open secret that after Bello lost the APC primary election to the late Abubakar Audu, he jumped ship to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In that election, Bello did not vote because his voter registration was in Abuja. The APC overlooked these factors and handed over to him the prize won for the party by the late Audu and all the hard-working, loyal members of the APC. There is no greater injustice! Yet, how does Bello repay APC members? He dribbled them out of reckoning in Kogi. A governor whose palm nut was cracked for him by the gods should have run an all-inclusive administration with the kind of magnanimity that should be demonstrated by one who reaps where he never sowed.
If Buhari is unaware, Bello is running a very corrupt system in Kogi. There is the total lack of transparency in contract awards, abhorring inflation of contract sums, and most of the contracts are never executed. For those executed, they are poorly done. All these are happening because the governor basks in his connection to the First Family, believing that as ‘an adopted son of Buhari’ he can escape with murder. This is very unfortunate, but it is the sad reality in Kogi State.
As a matter of fact, Kogi has a lot of economic potentials that need to be harnessed for the benefit of the people and Nigeria. But these potentials are not given attention because Bello is blinded by the billions of Naira that comes from the Federation Account which he uses at his own pleasure instead of committing to the benefits and welfare of the people of the state. The primary purpose of government is the provision of security and to take care of the welfare of the people. In these two areas, Bello has failed. This is why the APC must not reward him with another ticket to run for the governorship of Kogi State.
Idoko contributed this piece from Lokoja.
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