Alhaji Yahaya Bello. Gov., Kogi State. |
The
above association has observed that right from the earliest days of his
administration, The Nation newspaper's attitude towards Governor Yahaya Bello
of Kogi State has remained a paradox. The Lagos-side outfit which has always
struggled to project the image of an ethical media house has proved incapable,
whenever Bello is involved, of resisting temptation and jumping into the
gutters like an addict in search of algae to sniff. In the last 3 and one half
years, a reader with even the most basic knowledge of the facts on ground in
Kogi would be shocked at how routinely The Nation succumbed to demons or
inducements to peddle falsehood against the government and person of Yahaya
Bello.
Desperate
from the beginning to hack down the young administration in Kogi State The
Nation shamelessly threw both caution and ethics out the window. Her rambling
articles were usually replete with manufactured misfeasances, dressed in
malicious misreportage and launched in vituperative grammar to diabolize Bello,
vilify his government and turn the general public against him.
In
pursuit of this objective, the Nation practically devoted alternate editions of
her back page column, Colloquium, to fronting the doggerels. Outright lies and
gutter language against Bello soon became a basic staple for readers of The
Nation. Deep resentment against the young Governor who had up-ended apple-carts
for vested interests in Kogi State infested The Nation like the HIV virus
infests the bloodstream of a patient with full-blown AIDS. In seeking to
subvert Bello, The Nation badly sickened itself.
Their
penchance for making personal attacks on the Governor completely unrestrained
by any notions of journalistic excellence appeared to be limitless. They
attacked everything from his style of governance to the fashion of his agbada
to his gap-tooth and general physiognomy. The hate was real and the bitterness
so palpable that one wonders if The Nation did not incarnate as a human in some
previous life in which Bello was her nemesis.
Every
one of the highly acidic articles she carried was undoubtedly execution by
media, with The Nation and others in her stable as joint executioners. It
appears the objective, both now and then, was to hang a public image of
bumbling ineptitude on the administration in order to crucify it. Perhaps they
hoped this would start a chain reaction of adverse outcomes in other areas
which might destroy it. They possibly hoped to influence the litigations
pending before various tribunals in those early days, each seeking to
prematurely terminate Mr. Bello’s governorship. One of the more notorious cases
was filed by a Kogi-born, Lagos-based federal legislator who seemed to be in
the good books of the The Nation.
In
the end, all 17 cases against Governor Yahaya Bello's electoral win and
subsequent inauguration as 4th Executive Governor of Kogi State on 27 January,
2016 were dismissed. The Supreme Court delivered the coup de grâce to all the
challenges and challengers when she upheld Bello's election on Tuesday,
September 20, 2016. That day, The Nation and her ilk mourned while genuine
Kogites and their friends broke into spontaneous celebrations.
Almost
instantly, the frequency and vehemence of The Nation's attacks on Governor
Bello also nosedived. It looked like the newspaper, despondent at the failure
of her months-long campaign to pull the Governor down, simply departed from
him, just like satan departed from Jesus after his bitter campaign of
temptations failed to terminate The Master’s earthly ministry in its infancy.
However,
as recorded in the Bible, the devil only left Jesus alone for ‘a season’.
Following that monumental defeat at the place of temptations, the devil kept
away from Christ for the bulk of His earthly assignment, only showing up behind
the scenes from time to time. 3½ years later though, the adversary appeared
again shortly before the first Easter. Hiding in Judas and some other actors,
the evil one returned, desperate to win back at the crucifixion what it lost at
the Temptations. The devil's game plan was to derail the Master's mission to
Planet Earth by truncating the transition from His earthly ministry to His
eternal purpose for mankind. Of course, he failed.
Like
the devil, like The Nation. Shortly before Easter this year, precisely on Wednesday
17 April, 2019, Governor Yahaya Bello formally indicated interest in seeking
his party's nomination to contest a second term in office. Like the devil at
the trial of Jesus, The Nation has shown up as if on cue - foaming at the
mouth, spewing falsehoods and fully determined to truncate the Governor's
transition from his first to his second term.
In
an amateurish scribble titled, ‘Kogi Governorship Election and Bello’s
Disastrous Rule’ The Nation signalled her return to the War of Attrition to
unseat Bello which she unilaterally declared and had dedicated herself to
fight. As usual, this instant publication is characterised by the same
infantile thinking to which The Nation regresses whenever her goons believe
they have the Kogi State helmsman on their chopping-board. They appealed to
everything except facts and objectivity in their bid to undermine Governor
Yahaya Bello as he crosses from his first term to a second. As we shall see
presently, this second season of demarketing efforts, like the first, is a tale
told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
They
compared Kogi to a Zamfara but however failed to realise that the joke is on
them. How can a purported newspaper not know that since Governor Yahaya Bello
took over as Governor, security of lives and prosperity has become the single
most pervasive state of affairs in Kogi? Kogi State has rapidly gone from being
the kidnap capital of the nation to the state with the second lowest crime rate
based on 2017 statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics?
On
8 April 2018 The Nation reported that ‘Kogi is second most peaceful state in
Nigeria (after Osun) and most peaceful in the North…’ They correctly cited the
2018 rankings by the National Peace Index as their source. If not for sheer
idiocy, how can the same newspaper go ahead to publish a comparison with
Zamfara which is battling with security challenges the likes of which the fat
cats at The Nation cannot understand or be expected to empathise with?
The
Nation's most recent attack on their favorite target should finally clear the
cobwebs for anyone still trying to pinpoint any modicum of journalism in their
attitudes towards Governor Yahaya Bello. The newspaper may have been inveigled
into attacking him in the early days by forces strong ‘external forces’ but it
should now be crystal clear to even the blind that the tabloid has jettisoned
all pretenses to objectivity long ago and constituted herself into Bello's
personal and political opposition.
The
Nation is miffed that Governor Yahaya Bello included ‘a call from his people’
as one of several reasons for seeking a second term. Well, it must still be
news to The Nation that Governor Bello is widely accepted by his people. He
scored 93% in the recently concluded General Elections, arguably the most
effective test of popularity for politicians based on connection to the
grassroots. Delivering for MR President and his able Vice President, With 2 out
of 3 Senatorial seats, 7 out of 9 House of Representatives seats and 25 out of
25 State Assembly in his kitty, Governor Bello is the most successful
politician in the state's history at this stage in his governorship.
The
Nation spitefully insists that ‘no progress of any kind is or can be attributed
to the person or government of Mr Bello…’. Where can one begin to educate the
dotards at the nation on the achievements of Bello and his administration
spanning Education, Health, Infrastructure and Utilities, Job Creation and
Youth Engagement, Civil Service and Pension Reforms, Agriculture and Security?
It is a lost cause. The Nation has joined herself to the league of the worst -
those who do not know and do not know that they do not know.
The
Bello Administration started off by developing a New Direction Blueprint
document in 3 volumes of over 400 pages. The Governor himself describes it as a
detailed roadmap for the accelerated and proportional development of Kogi State
in all her constituencies. The administration has done nothing but implement
that Blueprint in office.
To
keep track, a referral compendium to showcase achievements in the preceding 360
days is published and presented by the Governor. Starting from January 2017
till date, the administration has always invited the general public to use the compendium
as a fact checker. The Nation is yet to disprove a road, water, electricity,
reform or human capital project recorded. No one else has. Yet the nation
swears with all her journalistic ineptitude that there is no project anywhere.
Mindless opposition such as The Nation assaults Governor Bello with can only be
the impotent fulminations of a demoralised adversary which has lost touch with
reality.
In
yet another example of having lost it, The Nation actually goes on record in
April 2019 to claim that Governor Yahaya Bello does not pay salaries.
Apparently changing their mind they revised their assessment to say he pays
only occasionally and piecemeal and then that he allegedly owes upwards of 20
months salaries to some civil servants.
A
little research would have helped The Nation not to make such an ass of itself.
Google would have shown them that Governor Bello inherited 5 months unpaid
salaries at the state level, 9 months of unpaid teacher's salaries and over 25
months of cumulative unpaid salaries at the local government levels. These
statistics are direct from the current leadership of organised Labour in the
State. If you factor in the general parlous financial state of most Nigerian
States you will begin to see what The Nation stuggling to conceal. That since
concluding an exhaustive screening and digitisation of the State's workforce
and payroll, Governor Bello has somehow managed to reduce the salary backlog at
state while making sure workers received full pays, not percents. Though percentage
payments persist at the LGs, Bello has also increased the percentages paid. The
Governor is also working to secure the funding needed to clear arrears.
The
Nation might also need to reread her own old reports on salary problems facing
both states and the federal government, specifically from around 2014, to
convince herself that the current hypocrisy and double standards towards Bello
is real. In any case, maybe one should not even bother trying to set The Nation
straight. When it comes to Governor Yahaya Bello, no one can accuse The Nation
of objectivity.
Thereafter
The Nation went on to accuse the Governor of servility to Aso Rock and being a
sycophant to President Muhammadu Buhari and miscellaneous other persons of
power and influence. This particular one might actually be taken as a
compliment by Governor Yahaya Bello who considers the President a preeminent
father figure and truly holds many statesmen across the nation in genuinely
high esteem.
The
Nation also needs to educate its writers and editors on the place of alliances,
lobbying and networking in delivering the strategic aims of governance. If they
have no case study, Governor Bello will do nicely - on this score, his
credentials are impeccable.
While
presenting the New Direction Blueprint to the people of his state about 3 years
ago, Governor Yahaya Bello stressed that a huge percentage of funding for the
lofty objectives therein must be attracted from outside sources, ability to
leverage on friends in high places being one of them. He also executes the role
of Chief Marketing Officer of his administration.
Thus,
while it might seem like coincidence to The Nation and other Bello detractors,
others acknowledge that Kogi State has done very well indeed for itself in
receipt of major federal government projects since Bello took Office. Except
perhaps for the N70bn cattle ranching project, it is on record that Kogi State
has been consistently listed in the first phase of most novel FGN initiatives
under the APC Government of President Muhammadu Buhari.
For
instance, the practically completed Obajana-Kabba concrete road is the first
project under the FGN tax-for-roads initiative. It is the longest of its type
in the nation and it is located in Kogi State. Recently President Muhammadu
Buhari signed Executive Order 7 to expand the initiative into a public-private
partnership scheme in which six big private companies will pay for 794.4km of
new roads in 11 States in return for income tax credits. Kogi State got 3 more
roads in this batch, namely, the Ekuku-Idoma-Obehira Road, the Lokoja-Ganaja
Road and the AdaviEba-Ikuehi-Obeiba-Obokore Road.
The
long abandoned Kabba-Ilorin Road has been awarded by the Federal Government at
a cost of N21bn and work has commenced. Omi Dam in Kogi State has also been
listed for hydropower development under another FGN PPP initiative announced
last week.
When
unprecedented flooding ravaged parts of Kogi State last year, Governor Bello
ran to President Buhari in distress. The very same day a proclamation of
National Disaster was issued and rescue efforts focused on Kogi. The National
Emergency Management Agency and special armed forces units practically
relocated to Kogi State and by working day and night, 9 local governments were
evacuated in record time, about 150,000 Internally Displaced Persons quartered
and provisioned in camps. A humanitarian disaster of massive proportions was
averted. Kogi could not have achieved that without friends in high
places.
The
Nation needs to engage her news analysts, if they still have the position on
theie payroll, to do the break-down. Friends in high places are a prerequisite
to serving your people well. Governor Bello knows it, but The Nation does not.
To her everything is politics. Abuja connections are not to be trifled with and
Bello has no problems serving those of his national leaders and elders who have
earned the privilege by service of their own to the nation. If they lift him on
their giant shoulders from time to time for the benefit of his people, who is
he to complain?
We
have seen a record number of persons suffering from Bello Derangement Syndrome
(a maddening affliction of those who hate Governor Yahaya Bello's guts, often
for no just cause) overcome by terror at the prospect of confronting him at the
polls in November, resort to grovelling and begging his party not to field him
at all.
The
Nation does not disappoint in this pathetic aspect too. Their useless article
devotes at least 3 lengthy paragraphs trying to sweet talk every APC leader
they can remember into subverting democracy and rigging the process of choosing
the party's flagbearer in the next Kogi gubers, provided that the outcome is
Bello's exclusion. What a great spitting shame for an institution which claims
to practice journalism.
The
simple fact is that H.E Yahaya Bello has declared his intention to seek a
second term in office as Governor of Kogi State, the APC has declared her
intention to let due process prevail at every stage of the elections and
citizens who are qualified to vote are already nursing itchy fingers to
exercise their franchise. Nothing else matters. Bello is already on the
campaign trail selling himself, with his tremendous achievements going ahead to
clear the way like the pilot in a powerful convoy. Let every aspirant on every
platform go and do likewise.
It
is #NovemBello and #IStandWithGYB!
Edward
David Onoja is Chief of Staff to the Kogi State Governor.
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