He came with a truckload of impressive, yet vague promises. And out of his youthful exuberance, he speaks with great gutsy gusto, but there is a lack of constant rhythm and congruence between his words and actions. His words are a honeyed trap; an empty veneer. He uses powerful metaphors, but you dare not take his words literally. Many are easily deceived by his high-octane sophistry and empty rhetoric. In the field of philosophy, that is what they call obscurantism: deliberate deception. That is the trademark of Governor Yahaya Bello, the habitually delusional Lion of Kogi State!
On the 26th of October, 2019, Yahaya Bello strutted down to Idah like a proud peacock to perform a glittering, highly elaborate ceremony of Idah-Agenebode bridge. Bello made a vague and hollow promise that the project would be completed in 13 months, but, today, we neither see Bello nor the project going on there! It is what it has always been: theatrics!
On another note, Bello upped the ante of his trickery when he formulated another bogus proposal for the construction of the Ankpa-Abejukolo road. This is also another duplicitous strategy which Bello used to hoodwink the good people of Kogi State then, and, up to the moment this essayist is writing, the road is in terrible condition. Unfortunately, the same Bello wants to impose another horrible potential disaster on Kogites. Honestly, voting for Ododo is allowing Bello to continue his wickedness, and this ugly situation must be nipped in the bud before it metastasises into a roaring flame!
Moreover, Bello equally raised the ante of his inhumanity by not paying workers’ salaries. Because of this, many workers wither, wane and fade into untimely death through preventable sickneses. Bello’s ascendency to where he is today was by sheer Providence. And according to the Nigerian novelist, Chinua Achebe, ‘those whose kernels were cracked by benevolent spirit should not forget to be humble.’ Surprisingly, Bello is not humble. Rather, he is a notoriously unsympathetic governor who derives sadistic pleasure from refusing to pay workers’ salaries for the past seven years now.
Furthermore, even if he wants to pay, Bello pays what they call ‘percentage salaries’ in Kogi State to workers and pensioners. Sometimes, he could owe salaries up 8 months. Honestly, apart from the former governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, and the former governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu, who were coldly notorious for owing workers’ salaries and pensions, in morden times, Yahaya Bello, to me, holds the country’s longest record of unpaid salaries and pensions. Bello is a dismally lamentable failure; he is an unprecedented disaster, and so he and his cognitively disabled gubernatorial clown called Ododo must be avoided like the plague.
In another thrilling dramatics, Bello came up with what they termed ‘Operation Light up Kogi East.’ This project was aimed at supporting or generating electricity to various communities, but, as it’s characteristic of Bello and his government, the project is no where to be found today. How many communities did they supply the electricity to/for? What you see in most communities today is utter darkness!
What about the Anyigba to Dekina township road which was even flagged off during the month of campaign in 2019? What about the western region which Bello abandoned for years, but he now realises that they suddenly need a university? What kind of hypocrisy is that? What has Bello done in the west since he assumed office? Where is the Omi Rice Factory he fraudulently established in the west to bamboozle them? All Bello’s ‘plays’ to the gallery were a carefully choreographed voters-wooing strategy to get back to power by sleigh of hand. But Why is everything about Bello deceitful?
Public schools have completely collapsed under Yahaya Bello in Kogi State. What has he done to revamp the deplorable conditions of schools before he is now busy building other universities? What about the arbitrary arrests and unwarranted incarceration of opposition members he has been making whenever they point out his failure? Everything about Bello is domineering, dictatorial and authoritarian. He danced with the devil, and he will definitely face the music! His government is the exact antithesis of democracy. No respect for human rights. No infrastructural development. Just misappropriation of public funds.
Sadly, the cognitively disabled gubernatorial clown, perpetually incorrigibly error-prone manchild called Ododo says he wants to consolidate on Bello’s numerous legacies, and that always makes me wonder what exactly he wants to consolidate. Is he is coming to consolidate on Bello’s apparently humiliating failures! That, without a shadow of doubt, shows that Ododo is an impending calamity and existential threat to the collective existence of all Kogites! So, he must be rejected like the plague!
Sule Abubakar Lucky Mark,
Writer and Sociologist.
Email: suleabubakarmark1111@gmail.com
04/11/2023.