KOGI GOVERNORSHIP

THE MANY SINS OF OGBENI YAHAYA ADOZA BELLO

By Zebra C. Joy

Ogbeni Yahaya Adoza Bello comes across as a very enigmatic character. Out of the blues he came into prominence as a player in the politics of Kogi state. Information about him was scanty to the point of none existent prior to 2015. Against all odds and norms of engagement in political gerrymandering he came second in the contest for the APC ticket in 2015 and inherited the prize on the demise of H.E Abubakar Audu.

Having attained that lofty position, the expectation from the teeming voting public was that he would bring youthful vigour and enterprise into the running of the administration. Like all new entrants into government he made stupendous promises of high octane performance as governor. 

At that point those of us who have the ability to discern a fraud became wary. Our fear has been borne out by events in the last three and a half years of mess put up by Yahaya Adoza Bello and his henchman, Edward Onoja.

Yahaya Bello's myriad sins began right from the primaries of 2015 where he emerged second to the late Abubakar Audu. Allegedly, he gave delegates who cast their ballot for him dud ATM cards with a proviso that their fee for voting for him was in dedicated accounts created in their names. How they were thus fooled is a wonder for the ages but this shows a mind that is criminally adept. Little wonder he declared as his assets some #40bn which has been found to be none existent as at the time he made the asset declaration. Up till now none of the former delegates who were so fooled has got a dime from those supposed accounts. How could they since the accounts never existed?

Soon after attaining victory on the strength of 6,000 votes and the inherited votes from Abubakar Audu, he made some appointments that set the tone for the catastrophe his administration has turned out to be. The major one was naming Edward Onoja his Chief of Staff. Never has such a thing happened, that a sitting governor would name someone outside his ethnic stock Chief of Staff. It is a sin not easily forgiven.

A point about Edward Onoja that is common knowledge is that he was sacked at Zenith bank allegedly for fraud in connivance with his now principal Yahaya Bello and, to keep body and soul together, became a barber in Lokoja. This is the shifty character that became Chief of Staff to the young governor of Kogi state.

Of course, they had being friends and fraternity mates for long. It would appear they have always being in tandem in terms of criminal tendencies. Yahaya Bello himself claimed to have being in the service of the federal government for ten years after completing school. Within that ten years he became a billionaire as a civil servant. Is anyone scratching their heads as I am doing right now? 

Those who have understanding warned Yahaya Bello not to rely too heavily on youth to the exclusion of elderly wisdom. This he failed to heed but instead chose the Rehoboam option. This has led to the most dysfunctional administration ever witnessed in Nigeria. Most of those he appointed had never served  in any management capacity before. Some are even suspected of having suspect credentials. Little wonder everything has turned out so topsy turvy in his government.

As act two of his nascent administration, Yahaya Bello instituted a staff screening and verification exercise to ascertain, ostensibly, the staff strength of the state vis-à-vis to ascertain also the true wage bill. That exercise has turned out to be the most protracted in the annals of world history. Up till the point of writing this piece we can confirm that the exercise is ongoing, almost four years since it began. 

The question sane minds are asking is what are u screening and verifying that is consuming so much time, energy and resources? Not to mention the number of deaths of staff, especially of Local Government workers and pensioners, that have occurred because of this ill conceived process. 

Facts emerging have indicated that the consultants engaged to carry out the exercise have been deliberately dragging out the process in order to continue milking the state. It has also emerged that the firm that was engaged is made up of a collection of former associates of Edward Onoja who formed the firm for the primary purpose of fleecing Kogi state. 

Another interesting perspective to this tortuous narrative is the grammatical nuances that have emerged. It has always fallen to Kogi state to bring up new nomenclature in wordings. It was no surprise therefore to hear words such as CLEMENCY and PARDONED. The distinction here might elude some and so we sought to find it. Whereas CLEMENCY is to show leniency, PARDONED means unconditional reprieve. CLEMENCY comes with a caveat: your sins can be revisited whereas PARDON means you are free from further proceedings on the basis for which you were convicted.

That is the conundrum for those on CLEMENCY list as against those on CLEARED list in the yet to be concluded screening exercise in Kogi state. The former are not safe from eventual dismissal.

Yahaya Ballot has been gallivanting about saying he has performed well. One area that has shown him up to be a fraud and a liar is in the area of salaries and emoluments. No set of workers in Nigeria are as cheated as workers in the Local Governments in Kogi state as well as Primary school teachers and pensioners. They were promised a better deal but have had their situation worsened by the Yahaya Bello APC government.

It is on record that, due to exigencies beyond his power, H.E Idris Ichalla Wada owed Local Government workers arrears of salary running to 20 months or more. The lifeline of bailout which he applied for and would have judiciously utilized to offset the backlog was denied him by the Buhari administration because of political exigency. Unfortunately, the Yahaya Bello that was given the funds frittered it away on frivolities.

Some of such inanities is the purchase of vehicles for security operatives, Local Government Administrators (two high end vehicles to each of the twenty one Administrators), replacing vehicles in d governor's entourage and some of his closest aides with those bullet proof armoured vehicles allegedly worth over #800m. He only allocated #10b each from the two tranches of the bailout given to him to the Local Governments for whom the bailout was originally meant. The balance of #30.8b remains unaccounted for because whatever he used it for was not the original intention. And the Local Government workers, primary school teachers and pensioners are still being owed. Misappropriation.

Another sin of Yahaya Bello's was using Kogi state funds to run the election of other states. This happened in Ekiti, Osun and Anambra states. Notably, Hope Uzodinma, for whom he wasted #500m Kogi funds in Anambra, was made the chairman of the APC screening panel for Kogi state. Anyone still surprised at the outcome?

Still more baffling is the claim by the Yahaya Bello administration that they were constructing an overhead bridge at Ganaja junction within Lokoja metropolis when, clearly nothing of such was ongoing. Ostensibly, they had expended billions on the phantom project with no work done.

Religion is a very important activity to the average Nigerian. The passion with which adherents hold on to their beliefs is one of the fault lines of the Nigerian federation. Nigeria is basically split along two religions: Christianity and Islam. The vast majority are of either one or the other. Traditional beliefs still hold sway in small clusters but have largely lost their preeminence to the aforementioned duo. 

For a governor to so elevate masquerades to the level of donating an SUV to the masquerade is a sin not easily forgiven. This Yahaya Bello has done leading to senior clerics of Islam, the faith he claims, to disown him. And, in all likelihood, God himself has disowned Yahaya Bello because, going by His antecedents, he does not condone equating Him or serving Him alongside other gods.

Something that has spelt the death knell of Yahaya Bello as governor is his continuing conflict with critical stakeholders within his party in Kogi state. As much as they have tried to gloss it over all is not well within APC in Kogi state. Me!bere of the executive committees at both state and Local Government levels have complained of neglect since the inception of this administration. The latter day splashing of dole outs to them seems not to have assuaged their anger.

Another set of stakeholders holding a grudge against Yahaya Bello are aspirants in the last botched primary election of APC. These men feel aggrieved and cheated because of the way Yahaya Bello, the NWC and the screening panel maneuvered and manipulated the process to favour Bello. There is a brewing war which no amount of reconciliatory get-togethers will douse.

The case of double registration as a voter is still hanging like an albatross around Yahaya Bello's neck. The people are critically asking how officials of INEC who were involved in the crime got dismissed but no action has been taken against Bello, the prime suspect in the matter.

One issue that is generating anger in the land is Yahaya Bello's choice of Edward Onoja as his running mate in the upcoming election. Lest we forget, Elder Simon Achuba, the erstwhile deputy governor was cast aside ignobly by Yahaya Bello for no other reason than the former told him truths about the failings of his administration. For over a year Yahaya did not pay his deputy and even instigated the state House of Assembly to commence impeachment proceedings against him for making public his travails at the hands of Bello and Onoja. Picking Edward Onoja as his running mate is a slap on not just Elder Simon Achuba, but on the good people of Igala land and the state in general.

Conclusively, the sins of Yahaya Bello are inexhaustive. The pain his administration has caused the people of the state is beyond words. In fact, he is universally adjudged as the worst governor in any state in Nigeria. This assessment has rubbed off badly on people of Ebira stock. Unfortunately, because of Yahaya Bello, whom most of his kinsmen have now disowned as not truly of the Ebira stock, these people have been profiled as wicked and inhumanely inhuman.

Yahaya Bello has squabbled with not just his constituents but with critical stakeholders in his party. It therefore mystifies the mind how such notable APC men as Muhammadu Buhari, the charlattan and ethnic jingoist parading as a saint, Abba Kyari, the thieving and conniving Chief of Staff to Buhari, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the debatable and crooked national leader of the APC, Adams Oshiomole, the equally irascible and crooked national chairman of APC and the unfortunate Abiodun James Faleke who became dumb at the crucial time of APC primary can sleep easy at night seeing what they have, with their actions and inactions, foisted on the good people of Kogi state.

Posterity will judge each and everyone of them for standing by while the people were molested, impoverished, pauperised and demoralised.

No matter how much burnishing of his battered image they do Yahaya Bello's many sins will always haunt them. Come November 16 2019 the people will show them that in Kogi state we don't suffer fools lightly.

#Bellomustgo.

#Wada/Aroforgovernor2019.