By PROFESSOR STEPHEN IKANI OCHENI
Ordinarily, two is just a number. It does not conjure significance both in the metaphycal and in the common sense of it. It is unlike other numbers with symbolic relationship to happenings within and in the outer world. It is a number that doesn’t elucidate deeper meanings and reactions.
However, in the life of an administration of four years tenure, two has become a defining years for her success and failure in a clime where leadership deficit is handy.
To a cursory minds, two years in the administration, could define its finest moment, moreso, that a four years in the first instance has elapsed.
Smarting from the success of his first tenure, His excellency Governor Yahaya Bello and his New Direction and Lets Do More mantra hits the ground running from the inception on 27th Day of January 2020. He did not hesitate to announce to the world that he meant business , and , he is using all intellects and capacity within his sleeves to unleash earth shaking developmental projects across the nooks and crannies of the state economy
Governor Bello is reputed for his unification agenda of the people of the state who were polarised on ethnic and religious lines. He is equally shielding the state and his people from the jaws of both internal and external security challenges, standing as a gilbratar against the vociferous insecurity making his beloved state the most peaceful state in the country.
Just like the lessons learned by the followers of our Lord Jesus Christ at the Marriage in Cana where he turned water to wine. In John 2:1-11, Jesus Christ was chided for serving the guest with the not too strong wine at first and later to bring in the strongest wine , when the guests were drunk. The guests were not particularly happy with him for the reversal of tradition at such gathering , captured His excellency, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, despite his performance in the first instance, that he has to introduce in the first stanza of his second term, many gargantuan, all round developmental projects across the state not minding the drawback of the election year.
According to him , all years are the same, which , he is at liberty to do what pleases the people whom he called his employers.
He has wittingly concluded the sequence of his development timetable which may have been hidden to the people who tagged his immediate alacrity of these projects as coming too late.
However, both his admirers and critics have come to realise that never in the history of the state that infrastructural projects are ongoing seamlessly across the state.
He was apt in working his five thematic areas which he has increased to eight, which include, Education, Health, infrastructures, Security, economy, youth and women empowerment etc.
He was quick to jerk up the statutory allocation to Education to 20% in 2021 and by 2022 budget, he surpassed the Unicef global benchmark to 30% the first of its kind in the history of Nigeria.
Governor Bello’s massive investment in education was the tonic needed by the NUC to give nod to the state Confluence University of Science and Technology Osara ,started barely a year ago.
In addition, he commenced remodeling and designation of iconic schools across the state and recently , the enacted Education law of the state criminalises non enrollment of pupils of School age and withdrawal from Schools under any guise, as pundits described his action as taking the bull by the horns.
On Health sector , his prodigy is immeasurable,as teaching Hospital for Custech at Okene is at advance stage of completion, while, referral , reference and diagnostic hospitals sprang up simultaneously across the senatorial Districts of the state.
He is not only building the edifice, he is fitting them with the latest state of the art equipment and with the massive recruitment of relevant and digital professionals to bringing health solutions to the doorsteps of the people of the state.
Where do we end his torrential projects, in the road construction, for the first time , the notorious Ganaja Junction is adorn with a fly over which will be completed in few weeks time . This project is the first of its kind in the 31 years history of the state.
Lokoja, township roads are wearing a new look of black colour of asphalt overlay. As it is with Lokoja municipal, so it is with Okene, Kabba, Idah and Ankpa township roads which are undergoing reconstruction and rehabilitation, not forgetting rural roads, which he identified as close up of rural to urban migration.
Consequently, to shut up the esthwile agitation by the women for actualisation of Beijing declaration of 35% affirmative action, Bello’s colour quickly showed up with the appointment of huge numbers of women in strategic governance positions. He demonstrated his knack for equity by allocating vice chairman position to the women in the 21 local Government Councils, and in addition at least two slots were reserved for women in the legislative council of the Local Government areas.
Meanwhile, with the seamless projects being undertaken across the state , the economy is being reflated as more money is being circulated within the economy thereby reducing incidence of poverty in the state.
Time and space will fail me to begin to name his successes one by one in two years, in creating a New kogi of oneness devoid of mundane divisions. In Youth empowerment, culture and tourism, human capital development through massive recruitment of our youths to fill labour gaps has been adjudged as a model and life transforming exercise that will not be erased in a hurry from the hearts of the beneficiaries. His job creation acumen has significantly reduced internal crimes and criminality. What of the civil service which he called engine room for the propagation of government policies, has been rejig and reinvigorated to deliver the mandate, and his meticulous work on welfare of workers has brought out the total man dictum, resulting into a smooth government-labour relationship.
No wonder, that men, women , girls and boys; stakeholders of good conscience have mounted pressures on him to replicate his prodigy on the nation by contesting the exalted office of the presidency, even as i a critical stakeholder in the kogi state project would not hesitate a dime to recommend him for Nigerians.
