The Misgovernment By Yahaya Bello And Those In His Inner Circle By Jeremiah Abutu

 

For more than four years, government workers in Kogi state have never had the conviction that non-payment of salary was completely surmounted. Kogi state workers, especially those at the local government level didn’t know they would still be mauled by a man whose first tenure was marred with hardship, death and insecurity due to his negligence. During Yahaya Bello’s first four years in office, government workers were always in queer street-incarcerated in hardship and muzzled by Bello’s puppets. Just like his first, Yahaya Bello’s second tenure is an emblem of hardship, insecurity and oppression. His second tenure is almost the same as the first or even worse.

I grew up with voiceless people who endured hardship brewed by incompetent leaders who couldn’t make head or tail of governance. Leaders who had nothing to offer but hardship, bad governance and insecurity. The hardship in Kogi state didn’t start with Bello’s administration. It started a very long time ago but it has in fact been made more naked-sticking out like sore thumb by Bello’s administration. The imbroglio in Kogi state is gradually turning the state into a scum – a very terrible sight to behold. kogi state is always in shambles, poverty soar to unutterable altitude daily, insecurity supple to the order of bandits and the State Governor does nothing save to parade his incompetence and give ear to the whistle of his ostentation and that of his ordained sycophants. Yahaya Bello’s penchant for sycophancy is his greatest pratfall. Bello is the kind of leader every swindler would yearn to consort with. He’s a man who likes to act contrary to his own sentiments. He likes to talk about the role of youth in good governance, yet he’s an example of a failed leader. He professed to hate dictatorship, yet rev up reign of terror. He claimed to “believe in the synergy between law and order” yet always twist the law in his favour. On Governor Bello’s watch, Kogi state has become famous for oppression and pauperdom. 

Good Governance suffers when personal ambition is prioritized above duty. On 19th of October, 2020, in the heat of #Endsars protest, when the youth of Nigeria nearly regained their freedom from the fetters of bad governance which has derailed this nation for many years, some hoodlums led the newly elected Chairman of Dekina local government molested over four hundred youths and pastors on ‘prayer walk.’ A conspicuous crime which any responsible government will reprimand was buried by the state government because it was perpetrated by Bello’s malefactors. Former PDP women leader, Mrs Salome Abuh was burnt alive at her hometown by ‘’unknown’’ thugs on November 18, 2019. Her dreams were cut short by dishonourable men who can kill for a stick of gum. Salome was burnt alive by suspected APC thugs shortly after the gubernatorial election in 2019, yet no arrest has been made. Insecurity has become a norm in a state that is palpably the entrance to many other states in Nigeria.

Yahaya Bello is not a leader that rewards diligence and hard work. He only rewards his staunch puppets who are always ready massage his ego. He is a leader who prefers sycophancy to liberal opinions. Since the creation of Kogi state in 1991, no governor had ever shown a conspicuous devotion to sycophancy than Yahaya Bello. Kogi state is unarguably one of the states with low life expectancy, unemployment and high rate of kidnapping, banditry and impunity. Yahaya Bello’s insensitivity to plights of government workers is second to none. The chronic death of government workers and hardship during Bello’s first four years was largely due to his negligence and disdain for government workers in the state. Government workers in the state have been forced to eke out a miserable living on percentage salaries. In addition to the ₦30 billion bailout fund given to the state government in 2019 by the federal government, Bello has borrowed from commercial banks on several occasions, yet nothing to show for it. That Kogi state is still backward is because of Yahaya Bello and his kind. For the people of Kogi state, bad governance is not unfamiliar. The walls of progress and good governance had long been broken by the past leaders of the state but Bello’s regime has taken the reproach of the state a bit further.

Governor Yahaya Bello’s government has no glamour, dignity, taste, meaning, integrity, empathy and honour. Yahaya Bello is neither a figure of good leader nor an average one. He does not understand the sine qua non of good governance-he truly does not understand what good governance entails. The ‘’White Lion’’ as he is fondly called by sycophants is a fascist who likes to incarcerate the weak and voiceless. Kogi state has produced many incompetent ‘’leaders’’ but rarely has anyone been so clueless as Yahaya Bello. Those who still labour under the delusion that Bello has changed must know that he has not. Governor Yahaya Bello may end his second tenure just the same way he ended his first-nothing may really change!