Editorial: Yahaya Bello’s Shade Of Glory In Kogi

Alhaji Yahaya Adiza Bello’s stewardship in Kogi State, aka Confluence State comes to an anchor on Saturday, January 27, 2024, on a wind of glory having seamlessly merged minds and moulds in a similar manner as the impeccable peaceable fusion of Nigeria’s two great rivers, Niger and Benue.

Yahaya Bello undoubtedly came to power in Kogi State in the trail of controversy precipitated by the electoral rumpus activated by the death of Alhaji Abubakar Audu, the All Progressives Congress, APC governorship candidate in the 2015 election while the process was still on.

He stepped up as the runner-up in his party’s primaries. But beyond that, that incident catalysed electoral amendments to guide the process of such an eventuality of a candidate dying in the midst of an election.

It is a gesture of his humanity that as he leaves office on Saturday, that Mr Bello catalysed the appointment of a son of the late Audu as minister representing Kogi State, a political locus that is second to that of governor in the state.

Remarkably, days before leaving office, Mr Idris Wada, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP incumbent governor who the APC ticket defeated in the 2015 election, paid Bello a parting visit to appreciate his stewardship over the past eight years.

Several acts of goodwill have also been reported including the visit of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), candidate in the November 11, 2024 governorship election, Mr Leke Abejide.

Indeed, Bello can be said to be leaving the state with an unexpected legacy of goodwill and peace that many had indeed not envisaged in the earlier period of his stewardship as governor. No doubt, the Confluence of the Niger and Benue is characterised with a little bubble, so it is not surprising that as he leaves office, that there are still bubbles of discontent here and there around Kogi by some political actors.

However, such is not strange in any terrain where there has been a bitter contestation for political superiority.

Indeed, the soothing of political bedlam is only one of the legacies Mr Bello’s.

Mr Bello’s eight-year stewardship has also seen the vapourisation of the evil of religious violence which at its peak saw Kogi about the most unsafe state in the Middle Belt. Even more annoyingly for him was that his political base in Okene was at one time referred to as the headquarters of Boko Haram not just in Kogi, but also in the Middle Belt.

Before Mr Bello’s advent, Okene and Kogi State almost compared with the Northeast in the brutish expressions of Boko Haram activities. It is gratifying to note, however, that within years that image has been completely burnished and the evil perpetrators of that evil sent packing out of the state to hell or elsewhere.

His hands-on approach to solving the issue of insecurity were especially ingenious. Hunters were mobilised. Traditional rulers whose territories harboured the extremists were sanctioned and life was made more enduring for his people.

Yes, crime may not have been completely eliminated, but it is suffice to say that Yahaya Bello has left the state more secured than he met it and for this GWG.ng applauds him and recommends his approach to not just his successor, but also to other governors faced with similar pressures.

Mr Bello has also scored good on infrastructure with the establishment of the state of the art hospital in Okene that is now projected to be a beacon of medical tourism.

On education, the payment of WAEC fees, JAMB fees among other allurements was a commendable feat that especially came to bear in his last days.

GWG.ng applauds Mr Bello’s commendable visits to schools, especially secondary schools during which he was seen posing in pictures with students etching in the memories of the students indelible incentives to pursue glory for themselves.

As he leaves, Mr Yahaya Bello is certainly not a saint. There were many accounts and anecdotes of political extremism in the fight for superiority in the political plane. But it is reassuring that many of these acts which occurred in the first term were not directly linked to him.

Whatever, Mr Bello is ending on the wings of glory. This is what he will be better remembered for and GWG.ng commends his ending to his successor, Usman Ododo as a first step towards a progressive future for Kogites.

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