By Sulaiman Adejoh
It was a friend who was monitoring the ongoing #EndBadGovernance protest that first called my attention to the situation in Kogi State.
He said he was surprised that despite the seeming volatile state of Kogi, and the clandestine plot of the opposition elements in the State to pitch its immediate past Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello against President Bola Tinubu, residents of the State shunned the protest entirely.
“I was expecting to get reports of protest, attacks on public institutions by hoodlums and shooting on protesters by security agents, but what I saw about Kogi State was residents going on with their businesses.
“Someone must have pulled some strings,” my friend said, while expressing surprise.
I told my friend that his last statement was right. Someone indeed pulled some strings, same way he has been pulling it since 2016. That someone is Alhaji Yahaya Adoza Bello, the one who as governor, restored security in Kogi State.
Despite his ordeals in the hands of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), since he left office as governor of Kogi State, he has remained firm in his conviction that President Bola Tinubu’s Presidency must be supported by all well-meaning Nigerians and nothing must be done to derail the President.
Yahaya Bello therefore saw the call for protest by some groups as an agenda that must not be allowed to fly in Kogi State. He gave his full support to the State Governor, Alhaji Usman Ododo and rallied all the necessary stakeholders, especially the youths behind him to ensure that not a single soul joined the protest in the State.
To him, “in and out of government, we can always achieve our desires in Kogi State because we carried the people along and they own the government when we were there and those who succeeded us are doing the same.”
Most importantly, bearing in mind the tacit support for the protest by the 2023 governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Kogi State, Murtala Ajaka, who rather than speak openly against it, urged President Tinubu to reshuffle his cabinet so as to show to the protest organizers that he was listening to them.
To Ajaka, a major shakeup in the presidential cabinet would assuage frayed nerves and restore the confidence of Nigerians, especially the organisers of the nationwide protest in President Tinubu.
He went further to tell the President to caution or suspend his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, accusing him of using his utterances on social media to create enemies for the president than friends.
Ajaka said; “As a Special Adviser, Onanuga should be working towards fostering unity, and ensuring that the government’s policies are communicated effectively to the Nigerian people.
“However, the actions and words of Onanuga seem to be doing quite the opposite. His rhetoric has been divisive and inflammatory, creating adversaries for the president and his administration across the country.”
Also, three days ago, Ajaka raised a false alarm, saying that Yahaya Bello and Governor Ododo had perfected plans to dress people in SDP uniforms to protest in Kogi State. This was more than 10 days after the SDP National Chairman, Shehu Gabam, had come out publicly to say the party had endorsed the protest.
Speaking with newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday, July 17, Gabam disclosed that his party (SDP) had endorsed the protest to show solidarity with Nigerians.
Considering the utterances and antics of Ajaka, a Governorship candidate of the SDP, who goes about presenting himself as favourite of the President to the people of Kogi State, it was enough for Yahaya Bello to see clearly the plot to use Kogi State as a launchpad for the protest in the North-Central.
This is more so that Kogi State serves as gateway to the Federal Capital Territory, and the only State in Nigeria that borders ten other States.
It then became necessary for Yahaya Bello to bring his political wit to bear and that the former governor did by giving Governor Ododo the needed support to ensure that nothing was done to disrupt the daily activities of the people of the State.
Today, his effort is being praised, even on flagship programs of National Television like Television Continental’s Journalists Hangout.
While analyzing the nationwide protest, a top journalist and the Publisher of Global Excellence Magazine, Mayor Akinpelu, singled out Kogi State, saying he was not surprised that there was no protest in the State, because of how Yahaya Bello handled the issue of insecurity in the State when he was governor.
Akinpelu said; “I am not surprised that there was peace in Kogi State today. Remember Kogi used to be terrible in terms of kidnapping and other crimes. I remember a top journalist telling me then that by 6pm, he will have to be in his house because the State was not safe.
“However, over time, Yahaya Bello was able to reduce insecurity in the State.
“Whether you like him or not, that is one of the things you have to give to Yahaya Bello. He was able to put in place a security architecture that reduced crime in Kogi State. And I am sure the present governor is also using the same template.They have been able to put a security architecture to reduce crime.
“I’m therefore not surprised that in this protest, Kogi people just decided to stay at home, like other States.
“That we didn’t witness the kind of incidents that happened in Kano, Kaduna, Katsina and Niger States in Kogi State, we have to commend the present governor and his predecessor.”
For me, I cannot agree with him less.
I agree that with Yahaya Bello’s magic hands of peace on his successor, on sustenance of peace in Kogi State, there will be no lip service and buck passing. Rather, it will be simply sitting down in Kogi to do what should be done and Governor Ododo, is sure making use of that template to keep the State in peace.
Adejoh, a public affairs analyst lives in Abuja
