Imperative of Governor Bello’s 32 year Master plan on Ododo’s win ,a Nexus for Sustainability.
By ATABOR JULIUS
It has become a revered cliche’ that if one fails to plan , plan to fail. The axiom is applicable to all aspects of human endeavours.As it is with family and private lives, so it is with governance at all levels. Planning, according to Max Weber , a bureaucratic theorist ,is crucial to human existence. It is most essential to the life of an administration, if it must live above its peers and become a reference point.
Nations and states must have its visions and missions for short , Medium and long terms codified in a document for implementation.
This document should be a beacon for the executioners to live within its ambit. It should be held tenaciously within its duration. It ought to encompass the soul and body of an administration through out the duration. It directs the succession recruitment, and where the state should be within the time referenced .
Kogi state like any other states of the federation ought to have this spiritual book to exorcise ambiquity in the implementation of her programmes’. It often being drafted by wise men who sees into the future with the intent to catapult the state to Eldorado, for the benefit of today, and tomorrow.
Alas, kogi state in her journey of 32 years in existence, successive administrations were oblivion of this economic masterplan. No wonder, Kogi state has consistently lagged behind its peers.
Some states whose wisdom of the leaderships, developed this all important document, have ballooned into the modern world.
Worthy of mentioning is the present President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his vice, Kashim Shettima who prized the “Masterplan” when they held sway at their states at different times. For President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Governor of Lagos state between 1999-2007, took Lagos into the future with his blueprint, and less than three decades, his mentee who adhered to his gospel, rose from one of the dirtiest states to one of the best economies in Africa.
Today, Lagos, ranked fifth largest economy in Africa and fifth best state in Nigeria and number ten globally for people to live in.
In the same breath ,his Deputy, Kashim Shettima, from a war torn state, Borno, has remained a buoyant entity, owing to the right selection of his successor, Prof. Umara Babagana Zulum, a key player in the administration.
No wonder, that the present administration under Yahaya Bello, followed suit and commenced making a 32 year vision for Kogi state. He equally begun coaching his lieutenants to peep into the future with the document.
He believed with certainty that, from the pools of his tutored members of his cabinet and likely successor from the pool , the vision will transform the state.
However, kogi state , although created in 1991, with high hope of greatness, with all human and material resources, has remained a crawling giant due to errors in leadership recruitment.
In 1992, at the shot of a diarchical democracy, late Prince Abubakar Audu, a Banker emerged as Governor. He had a foresight for the state. The military interregnum of 1993 halted him. And when Democracy was restored in 1999, he emerged again as Governor. His attempt at winning back to back in 2003 was frustrated . Alhaji Ibrahim Idris known for hospitality industry, but a novice in the state bureaucracy was elected. The state in his first tenure battled with learning the rope. He managed to belch the tide, but time was over in 2011.
Analysts, thought that,having suffered initial fate of learning on the job- he would have developed a pool of successors from within the administration, alas, that was not to be. He went for a man not conversant with the statecraft . Captain Idris Ichalla Wada, an aviator but unintended to lead a state, was hoisted in 2011. Under him, Kogi became an experiment.
No wonder, when divine mandate fell on the present youthful and an accountant per excellence, Alhaji Yahaya Adoza Bello in 2016, he begun in earnest to correct the anomie in the leadership recruitment by his predecessors.
Bello, armed with his experience in the Revenue mobilisation and fiscal Allocations Commission, RMFAC, set up a new direction mantra with Eight thematic areas: Education, Health, Youth and Women, Infrastructures, Security; Agriculture, rural Development and development of masterplan.
The masterplan which is receiving finishing touches, enunciated where the state will be in the developmental corridor in the next 32years. This document, conceived by a pool of experienced and knowledgeable members of his cabinet, needs one of the drafters to take the baton from Governor Yahaya Bello.
Governor Bello as a manager of men, knew the capability, competence, compassion, credibility and confidence–a yardstick of any great leader–in all the members of his cabinet. Unknown to many citizens, when the time to make a choice for his successor came, Bello knew who is best in driving the master plan. He kept the choice to his chest, even though, not less than a dozen , mostly from the kitchen cabinet bought APC governorship forms .
Just like the then Governors of Lagos and Borno States, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Alhaji Kashim Shettima in the analogy went for the best against the popular expected successors, and threw his weight behind the former Auditor General for Local Government Councils, Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo.
Speaking recently, at an event to unveil Ododo, to the people of the state, Governor Bello , passionately appealed to the people to vote for the APC standard bearer to drive the masterplan that will make Kogi a leading economy within the 32 year mark.
He said without sentiments, but only for the best interest of the state, Ododo’s wining the November 11 governorship election, would put paid to experimentation. He said , with Ododo in the saddle, sustainability of his landmark projects would be assured.
However, now that the die is about to cast, every Kogite, irrespective of ethnicity, religion and Political affiliation is expected- if the state must make quantum leap into the future- to vote overwhelmingly for Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo.
