Dear Governor Yahaya Bello,
I wish to once again congratulate you on your 46th birthday. It is not an easy feat especially at a time when live seem to look short for a lot of young people coupled with the Covid-19 pandemic. I pray for improved wisdom, good health and the will to better the lots of Kogites and Kogi State for you as our Governor.
In the last five years of your assuming office as the Governor of Kogi State, I have found it pleasurable to write to you mostly on your birthday to both wish you well, pray for you and advise you on places I think you can improve in governance because I see it as duty bound to do to pray for you and wish you well as a patriotic citizen of a state you govern.
Your excellency sir, your first term in office was a complete disaster. We can not shy away from this fact. You fought too many people and had no time to concentrate on delivering good governance. It was as though you assumed office just to ‘fight’ and not to work. You end up achieving nothing tangible save for ministry of agriculture that you had novel ideas but couldn’t sustain in your second term.
The Green House project, the Rice farm project were lofty ideas that would have put Kogi up as a producing state that is ready to do business and improve the lives of its citizens. I am still surprised at why you didn’t reappoint your Commissioner in that ministry, Kehinde Oloruntoba, who understands this things and was giving his all. You can still salvage the situation by seeking his expertise to work with the present commissioner to see how to revamp this projects and not waste state resources as it seems.
Your Excellency Sir, I want to confess that your second term is relatively better. There’s a sense of sanity in governance. Data boys and their enablers who created enemies for your government has been dislodged and there’s less noise and lies from ‘undelegated’ spokespersons for your government. I am sure you can see the results of dislodging them. Criticism has reduced because too much lies to be criticized has reduced. Thank you for saving our eyes and ears from the irritating information they forward everyday.
I sincerely want to applaud your exploit in security. You’ve been able to whether the storm on security matters in the face of wide spread insecurities across states in Nigeria, including states neighboring Kogi. Being able to mobilize the security personnel, vigilantes and hunters to dislodge criminals across the state is a commendable effort. You have done well your Excellency but we expect you to do more to sustain this.
Your excellency Sir, in your more than five years in office, you are yet to commission a single state funded project. Considering you are a still a young man who would have served as a template for youth leadership in Nigeria, this is a poor report card. Your non performance as a governor has cast a lot of aspersions on the arguments that leadership should be handed over to the youths. You’ve been the reference for youth bad leadership in the last five years. This is poor sir. I believe you can still salvage the situation by employing the services of economic experts who will advise you not a friends, but as professionals elected to do their job. You can as well take a lesson or two from the Governors who are taking less allocation yet commissioning capital projects in their states. To learn from others in my opinion is to improve one’s self and improve the society.
I am happy with the fact that you tried to reactivate the use of the international motor park built by the Captain Idris Wada administration to decongestant the state capital. Government is a continuity and so it will only do the state good if successive governors continue on the projects of their predecessors especially if they projects are of economic importance. However, investigation has shown that drivers unions has refused to move their members to this park and are back to the roads even after you instructed they move to the park. You must prevail on them to move Sir.
In the area of workers welfare, we can say your second term is relatively better but the case of our local government workers remain the same. You must do better in this regard sir
That you desire to contest for the President of Nigeria is not my concern yet sir, my concern is on your delivering good governance to the people of Kogi State which you can not be rated high, five years after assuming office. Do well sir, and we will all rally support for you to take a higher office. Until then, I refuse to participate in the discussion.
I wish you a happy and fulfilling birthday Sir.
– Maji Isah writes from Abuja.
