Yẹ̀yẹ́ Bello is finally out of Government House, Lokoja. It ought to have been a day when the Not Too Young To Run ride to Lokoja to associate with a man who represents them, but today hopefully, those who have been hiding from assassins, bloodhounds and thugs would breathe a little sigh of relief.
Eight years of the locust is finally over. Or is it.
Here is wishing Bello’s protège, Ododo a chance to rewrite history. He could turn over the script and become the Alex Otti of Kogi or he can truly confirm that the Apple, even a genetically rotten and inedible one does not fall far from the tree.
Kogi is NOT a poor state. It used to sustain Kwara with its tested hands in bureaucracy. It has more resources per square kilometres than perhaps any other state except crawling Nassarawa. It is the Confluence State putting it not only on a tourism pedestal, but also an agro-maritime base. Its capital used to be the headquarters of Northern Nigeria. It’s human capital as diverse as any in Nigeria. It is conducive for all-year agriculture and manufacturing. It’s proximity to the FCT is an untapped advantage in many ways.
These are resources that any Governor with a brain in the head and not coconut water should be able to tap into and make work for our state.
I don’t know much about Ododo’s pedigree, but you don’t need a pedigree to gather those with pedigree to make you the shinning example of capacitation.
As a Stateless citizen, I am praying that Ododo for his sake, the sake of his people and the demographics he represents will turn the page of history and inscribe his name in GOLD. If he does, it’ll be for all our sakes.
I break from the tradition of pessimism and wish him well. I hope he finds the direction of progress and that someone would whisper to him, what my mentor and fellow Kogian, Dapo Olorunyomi used to tell me back in the day – thuggery is a doomed art.
PostScript.
I am ignoring all the genuflections and prostrations, it could all be pre-power blues. From today, what Ododo and Oyibo owe Bello is his fat severance pay. Nothing more.
