Kogiflame
By Abdulhamid Tijani
When Aso Rock became the destination of choice that must be visited at the flimsiest of opportunities, the discerning knew something was in the offing especially with the reverse adoption of the President as Father by His Excellency, Alh. Yahaya Bello.
Even when Kogi State House of Assembly in a rare display of legislative rascality passed a motion urging Alh. Yahaya Bello to contest for the Nation’s No.1 seat, many just viewed the unfolding events as another attention seeking venture.
Several advocacy trips were embarked by various groups on behalf of Alh. Yahaya Bello’s yet to be declared ambition then. Notable among them is Kogi State House of Assembly led by its Speaker, Rt. Hon. Matthew Kolawole and Yahaya Bello Network (YBN).
Prior to this time, scarce state resources were frittered away shamefully on the 1994 Super Eagles team and another group of Musicians and Actors/Actresses.
The aforementioned are exclusive of individuals and groups who visited Kogi State to massage the Governor’s ego and “cash out”
The colossal amount invested in the Alh. Yahaya Bello’s Presidential Adventure is callous and criminal in a State in dire need of development. In a State with workers suffering and in anguish as a result of bad governance to have its Governor brazenly misappropriate state resources in furtherance of a presidential quest that is dead before its conceptualization is really sad.
Unfortunately, Alh. Yahaya Bello runs Kogi State as a fiefdom and as such only hears the music that gladdens his heart even if reality says otherwise.
Of all the touted achievements of Alh. Yahaya Bello that is being pushed forward as justification for the need to consider him favourably for the nation’s No.1 seat none is as laughable as the promised replication of ‘his good deeds and outstanding performance’ in Kogi State at the Federal level.
The master-servant relationship between the Governor and his appointees makes giving him sincere opinions and advice dangerous and inadvisable. Sadly, while some kept relatively quiet, majority of his appointees took sycophancy to ridiculous pedestal. And the result is a humiliating defeat after so much boasting.
Despite the sycophantic proclamations and deceitful narratives, every discerning person will understand that the self acclaimed “White Lion” is just catching cruise with Kogi State resources without inhibition.
Now that the APC’s candidate has emerged; Can “Adoza” return to Lokoja to give the people of Kogi State focused and purposeful leadership?
If I am Alh. Yahaya Bello, heads will roll with many close aides who goaded him on with favourable reports despite the fact that his chances of clinching the Presidential ticket are slim and grossly overrated.
They sang his praises, telling him only what he wanted to hear and refusing to let him know, his aspiration is rooted in deceit and surely bound for failure.
Despite the false claims, lies and grandstanding, all was a ruse. It was a prodigious squandering of scarce state resources that could be put to better use.
We are regaled with tales about his courage which is totally at variance with the arrogant and sacrilegious posturing Nigerians have been coping with in the hands of the ‘White Lion” and supporter. The question to ask is; Courage and audacity of hope at what price?
There is no confidence and courage in intransigence when reality is overwhelmingly hopeless.
Delusional obstinacy driven by unbridled ambition always ends in gory shame and not glory as Alh. Yahaya Bello just discovered.
May God save Kogi State from a Governor whose aspiration and quest to move from Lugard House to Aso Rock Villa is an illusionary joke not worthy of mention.
Abdulhamid Tijani
abdulhamidtijani6@gmail.com
