What has Yahaya Bello done for Kogi?

“My developmental footprints can be felt, seen, touched and smelt by all” – Yahaya Bello

Popularly called ‘The White Lion’, Bello was declared winner of the 2015 Kogi gubernatorial election after he replaced late Abubakar Audu who had won the election but died before the result was declared. As it is now, the youngest governor in Nigeria is Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, who is 43. The ‘Not- Too-Young-to-Run’ bill was pushed by young brilliant Nigerians, as well as NGOs and CSOs to reduce the age of political contestants and to encourage youth’s participation in politics. But with the complaints from his people, one can rightly conclude that Yahaya Bello is the ‘worst youthful governor’ to complement the bill.

What has he done for his state? Well, GYB has done little or nothing tangible in his state, as the good people of Kogi (particularly civil servants) are complaining about his refusal to pay them their salaries for months. Yet he persistently claims to have created a development footprint that could be smelt, but was neither smelt nor felt by his people; nor, was it seen by their distanced and nearby neighbours. This is because good governance and service delivery is always visible and audible - no matter how little it is even without publicity. Meanwhile, the United Nations estimates that the global population of African youth would have increased by 42% in 2030. With this, one can conclude that the youths are precisely the future. As such, we must activate our faculties as a matter of urgent importance to fortify ourselves with good leadership qualities.

This youthful governor is supposed to carry out activities and programmes that will help drive development in all spheres of Kogi State. But he prefers to make them suffer.

It is no news that there is a form of categorized payroll in Kogi State—the cleared and uncleared list. Only God knows where the retirees fall, maybe the ‘dead list’! One is then left agape as even with the federal allocation, bailout, together with the Paris Club funds GYB cannot still pay salaries of Kogi workers—many of whom have died, just as some are on the verge of dying.

Most recently, his deputy, Simon Achuba now on suspension, revealed that GYB has refused to pay his salaries and allowances, which has risen to the tune of N819 million. Achuba, said he has been working without statutory allocations for the last two years and couldn’t bear it any longer. That is the State’s Deputy Governor, how about

the teeming civil servants in Kogi?

The big question is: where is EFCC and NLC who are supposed to check corruption associated with mismanagement of public funds and remuneration of labourers? Indeed, we need to tell ourselves the indisputable truth. Which is, GYB has terribly disappointed Nigerian youths with his tyrannical system of leadership.

Thus, Kogites should not consider giving him another chance because he has shattered the hopes of not only Kogites but entire Nigerians. He has invited deprivation, poverty, emotional and psychological trauma on his people.

However, as teeming Kogites yearn for quantifiable development, superior authorities on their part need to intervene and call him to order. They should also checkmate his excesses, while the masses on their part should drag the bull by its horn by abolishing the cruel tenure of GYB, just like the slave trade was abolished. By so doing, Kogi will eventually be liberated from the shackles of bad governance and the stranglehold of a rudderless helmsman. Isah Ismaila is a serving corps member in Abuja