BEING TEXT OF AN ADDRESS RELEASED BY HIS EXCELLENCY, GOVERNOR YAHAYA BELLO OF KOGI STATE TO COMMEMORATE END OF THE 2ND YEAR OF HIS SECOND TERM AND HIS 6TH ANNIVERSARY IN OFFICE AS THE 4TH EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR OF KOGI ON 27TH JANUARY, 2022
Protocols
My dear Kogites, today is the sixth anniversary in office of my New Direction Administration and the end of the second year of our Second Term. Since my first Inauguration as the 4th Executive Governor of Kogi State on 27th January, 2016 my team and I have done nothing but labour in your service to fulfill our promises. Everything else has been secondary to this primary assignment and I am truly proud of how far we have come together.
It is thus incredibly fulfilling that we are able to stand before you and account for our stewardship with a clear conscience and an ever-growing basket of achievements. I am able to say therefore that the last six years have been satisfying, to the extent that I can show by many proofs that I have steered Kogi State towards the goal of ‘accelerated and proportional development in all her constituencies’ which I set for us in our New Direction Blueprint shortly after I stepped into Lugard House.
Today, your lives and properties are safer as a State than you were when I first took office. This is all the more poignant for me because in the same timeframe much of the country has gone the other way, with many falling deeper into intractable insecurity. Threats from bandits, terrorists, kidnappers or ‘unknown gunmen’ have multiplied across board – except in Kogi State. At great human and financial cost we have continued to ensure that no inch of Kogi State is under the control of criminal non-state actors of any hue or cause.
Today, you have access to tons of new and improved infrastructure across the 3 Senatorial Districts that were only dreams when I first arrived. This includes thousands of kilometres of new roads, hundreds of classroom blocks and primary healthcare centres, several model primary and secondary schools, along with massive urban renewal projects in Ankpa, Okene and Kabba, the traditional capitals of our 3 Senatorial Zones, other larger cities and of course, our state capital, Lokoja.
We have also built a 300-bed reference hospital and half a dozen general hospitals, established the brand new Confluence University of Science and Technology (CUSTECH), Osara which is currently in session and constructed dozens of legacy buildings in all our other tertiary institutions. We also achieved the first ever 100% accreditation of courses by national regulators at several of our institutions, including the Prince Abubakar Audu University, Anyigba.
When you add all of that to enduring Civil Service and Pension Reforms you will agree that we have been busy with the right things in the New Direction. We do have reasons to celebrate when you consider that for the first time ever an administration in Kogi State is not owing one month of salaries or pensions midway into a second term. To greater or lesser extents, we have continued to pay our state workers on or before the end of each month since our staff screening and verification exercise ended about 3 years ago with a table payment exercise to clear previous arrears.
This does not mean that we do not recognise some issues with the wage-bill, particularly the inability, for the time being, of our cash-flow to accommodate 100% salary payments to Local Government workers. Currently, this can only be possible with extensive staff retrenchment to remove the massive redundancy inherent in the system. This is the sad reality imposed on us by a bloated workforce in the face of severely dessicated allocations cum finances. While there exists strong justifications for this option, it remains one which I, personally, consider too drastic to deploy against citizens in the present state of our Nigerian economy. To be honest, I am likely to kick this problem down the road to the next administration.
We have indeed come a long way in the last six years. Practically in all competitive national rankings, Kogi State under my leadership has remained top-notch. We are leaders in ensuring security of lives and properties of citizens, as well as the indices of transparent governance under the World Bank’s State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) Program, reduction of childhood mortality rates, depletion of out-of-school-children incidence, cutting down inherited debt profile/appetitie, surpassing the SDG’s affirmative action threshold for the women, and revolutionising inclusiveness for youth and persons with special needs. We are unique for deliberate use of the Multidimensional Poverty Indices (MPIs) as a tool for governance, and in addition to all of this, we beat the mass hysteria and human loss of the Covid-19 pandemic by innovative and scientific approaches, some of which are only now beginning to go mainstream across the globe.
Accordingly, on this 6th Anniversary, I will only accept to be judged by my performance at my constitutional duty post as the 4th Executive Governor of Kogi State. Those who wish to judge me by the impact of Federal policy or the state of Federal infrastructure, especially roads, in Kogi State, are on their own. I am the first to admit that in spite of genuine efforts by the President, HE Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR the neglect remains so indiscriminate and has persisted for so long it has become historic. The Ajaokuta Steel Complex which continues to languish and waste away on 24,000 hectares of prime Kogi land is the most painful instance of all.
The inequities we suffer in Kogi State and in the geopolitical North Central, along with the generalised disenchantment and agitation nationwide, has convinced me that if things must change positively and progressively for Nigeria, then I need to become the agent of the change which I and most Nigerians want to see in our nation. Just like when my journey with Kogi State started, I see again that if the things we collectively desire to be done are to get done at all, I must arise and do it myself, so help me God.
I cannot stand here today and pretend that we are all not already thinking about 2023 equations and permutations. All I can say for now is that we cannot afford to get the question of The Next Nigerian President wrong. If we do, it might well be the end for Nigeria as we know it. I will therefore implore all of us on behalf of our nation, Kogites and Nigerians alike, to be guided by only the National Interest in our approach to 2023. If you enjoy Security, Unity, Peace and Progress, you have a duty not to directly or indirectly work or vote for geography, tribe, religion or class – for that will be voting for more of the very things you hate so much right now.
I felicitate with us on this unique milestone. Like I alluded to earlier, the great thing about where we find ourselves on this 6th Anniversary is that we still have two full years to do more for our dear state and people in line with our second term manifesto. I promise you that we will be doing just that.
My Good People of Kogi State, this is me, #TheEssentialGYB, and I have nothing to hide.
To God be the Glory.
Thank you.
YAHAYA BELLO
Governor of Kogi State