Governor Bellow's Wrong Ways Of Basking In Euphoria
If there is any State in Nigeria particularly from 2015-2016 whose stories and episodes have been repeatedly reported for wrong and unpleasant reasons by members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm, it is Kogi State and its political players.
Created by the Military Government of Ibrahim Badamosi Babaginda in 1991, its first civilian Governor was the late Prince Abubakar Audu who died on the 22nd day of November, 2015 while coasting to victory in a keenly contested election which was declared inconclusive by INEC. He was the governor of the State for two consecutive times to wit: January 1992 – November 1993, and then May 29th 1999 – May 29th 2003.
In 2003, Audu was defeated by another ex-governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris (popularly known as Ibro), who held the mantle of leadership of the State for eight (8) years completing his two tenures in 2011. He handed over to Captain Idris Ichala Wada, whose second term bid met a crossroad following the November 2015 governorship election - a subject of diverse constitutional controversies being litigated upon, no thanks to the judgment of Justice Halima Abubakar-led Tribunal as the disgruntled parties have publicly expressed their readiness to appeal against the decision.
But in any case, be it justified or unjustified, the valid and subsisting judgment of the Court projects Bello as the Executive Governor of Kogi State in spite of whose horse is gored. The decision in effect has resolved in Bello’s favour the constitutional controversies that trailed his nomination and eventual declaration as the winner of the November 2015 gubernatorial election in Kogi State, notwithstanding the fact that he participated only in the supplementary election without a running mate and thereof garnered only 6,885 votes to himself? I do not want to say more in this particular area as the Tribunal has decided on it although appeal against same is imminent.
Now, it is not the dramatic scenes and its attendant sorry spectacle which produced Bello as the Governor of Kogi State that is the major concern in this article but the various wrong ways in which he has demonstrated his moments of joy, if indeed, ever since he assumed office on the 27th day of January, 2016.
Let me start from the most recent or latest version down the lane to the previous.
On the 10th day of June, 2016, there was a downpour in Ibadan and the weather at night was cold. Due to work engagements, I could not glance through the newspapers during the day but while at the comfort of my bed, I decided to go online and see what the journalists had to say. My first glance at the news headlines courtesy of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), welcomed me with a caption in bold letters: “Bello renames Kogi Varsity after Abubakar Audu”. Perhaps, not unconnected with the fact that the Institution is my Alma Mater, the radar of inquisitiveness captured this caption, and despising other beckoning headlines of interesting stories, I quickly clicked on it not just to read more but to know why.
Details of the headline as reported had it that: “Bello announced the change in the name of the 15-year-old? university during a statewide broadcast to mark his victory at the state governorship election petition tribunal…According to the governor, an executive bill would soon be forwarded to the house of assembly (sic)”. The news equally had it that the governor in justifying his decision, claimed that (re) “naming the university was the ultimate honour that could be done to the memory of the late colourful politician”.
Upon reading the above, I puzzled nay, shuddered.
A state-wide broadcast just to mark a court victory? Incredible!, was the nearest expression as several questions inundated my mind: The statutory name of an Institution like Kogi State University, Anyigba (KSU) to be simply altered courtesy of an executive pronouncement in expression of executive euphoria over winning an election case in a court of first instance against which decision, appeals could lie? Immortalizing the first civilian governor of the State by turning KSU into a chameleon of a sort just to mark the very day in which Governor Bello and his team of happy mourners were in the best joyful mood? Immortalizing the late colourful politician by renaming the Varsity which for over two (2) months now is in a total state of comatose with its hitherto colourful structures and facilities rusting as a result of industrial action embarked upon by the Institution’s ASUU due to non –payment of salaries under Governor Bello’s administration?
Immortalizing the late Audu by renaming the University of which its Students’ destinies are being delayed and if possible destroyed (God forbid) as a result of the protracted strike in the Institution? Immortalizing the late Audu by renaming the University of which it has been reported that there is mass exodus of its senior staff (and this will definitely affect subsequent accreditation exercise), who are leaving the Institution in search of greener pastures due to the long unresolved industrial disharmony between Governor Bello and its labour unions? Immortalizing the late ex-governor by renaming the Institution of which its graduates’ hopes of being mobilized for NYSC are dashed on the table of Bello’s poverty of zeal and or insensitivity on how to resolve the ongoing ASUU strike? It cannot be!
Let me swerve a little to observe here that Kogi State University has had a chequered history of alterations in its nomenclatures. Established in 1999, its maiden name was Kogi State University, Anyigba. However, due to the majority supporters of the late ex-governor Audu in the House of Assembly then, it was later though questionably, renamed the Prince Abubakar Audu University, Anyigba. Upon coming into power in 2003, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, who was the then Governor of the State, revisited the first bill that established the Institution as Kogi State University and consequently reverted the name from Prince Abubakar Audu University (PAAU) back to Kogi State University, Anyigba (KSU).
The crucial questions here are: Of what developmental value to the Institution are all these arts of chameleon craft? For how long will KSU as a settled institution of learning continue to bow to the pressurizing waves of politicians in Kogi State? In other words, for how long will the statutory name of Kogi State University continue to be at the behest of unguided Kogi politicians? It is high time we learnt that politicians and the governments which they run are like the nomads of this world, the people and their institutions which they govern are permanently settled why they come and go. Thus, like Wole Soyinka’s recent admonition that the nomads of this world should learn to respect the culture of settled humanity, I paraphrase to say that the politicians of our time and clime should equally learn to respect the order of settled Institutions which they come to meet, and surely meet to leave.
Governor Bello, a man who fortunately or unfortunately is happy to have inherited the votes of a dead man, can do better in immortalizing his benefactor without altering the settled name of an Institution like KSU. It heightens one’s anger to the boiling point that in spite of the glaring high rate of poverty as well as the prevailing economic servitude in Kogi State, what Governor Bello rates more in his items of priority is the sending of an executive bill in furtherance of a political hallucination.
The suffering of the people of Kogi State and the anxiety of workers and pensioners who have not been paid for a long time now under Bello’s administration as well as the agony of incessant industrial actions in the State including the ongoing one in KSU, do not have a pride of place in his order of priorities say more of deserving his executive bill. This is a clear case of insensitivity in governance. It is altruism that one of the literal barometers of identifying a bad government lies in its display of insensitive attitude towards the plights of its people.
A good government must do the right thing at the right time all the time, in furtherance of the common good of its people.
Thus, apart from the fact that Bello’s proposal is completely unnecessary if not unreasonable at this point in time, the monetary involvement or cost of effecting the alterations will further derail the State’s coffers and consequently add to the people’s suffering. Instead of altering the statutory name of KSU, the existing names of some Hostels, libraries, lecture halls or theaters can be renamed after Audu. Better still, new ones should be constructed by Governor Bello and be named in his (Audu’s) memory. By so doing, the money that would have been wasted only in renaming the University will be channeled into other areas towards achieving its further growth and development. That is the best way to honour the late Audu. Put in another plain expression, the best way to immortalize Audu under whose administration the Institution (KSU) was established, is to provide enough funds for its infrastructural development and to ensure that it is always a going concern unhampered by industrial actions.
Having noted the above, it therefore goes without saying that what Governor Bello stated as the rationale for his decision to change the name of the University is not true and is thus very far from what he had in mind when he made the pronouncement. In other words, taking into consideration the preposterous state of the University which is currently a shadow of its past glory due to the ongoing ASUU strike with several other begging questions unresolved by Governor Bello’s administration, it cannot be true that his honest intention was to immortalize the late Audu. His underlying motive or intention was to immortalize the very day in which he basked in euphoria over his victory at the Tribunal by which decision he was well pleased!
The foregoing assertion can hardly be faulted calling to mind the various ways in which Governor Bello has expressed his moments of delights since he took over the Lugard House. Sometimes in March this year, it was widely reported that residents of Lokoja, the State Capital and its environs woke up to behold the unannounced demolition of about five roundabouts within the Lokoja metropolis. This was an overnight-decision of Governor Bello, and the people were taking unawares; a situation which was only obtainable in military era where everybody and everything was at the behest of the dictator and his proclamations or decrees.
Although there were insinuations that that the demolition was aimed at actualizing a spiritual cleansing as instructed by a native doctor from Senegal – an allegation which Bello and his team of media defenders refuted by asserting that the demolition was carried out so as to give Lokoja a new look, a close consideration of the time when same was carried out betrays Bello’s good motive, if any, in the demolition exercise. In essence, the demolitions were done to mark Bello’s one month in office. In other words, the demolition was aimed at passing the message that Governor Bello is working within his one month in office!
Further betraying Governor Bello’s good motive in the demolition exercise is the fact that the demolition included some roundabouts with relics of historical importance dating back to colonial days. It is even more betrayed by the fact that the funds for the reconstruction of the demolished roundabouts were, or rather, are not captured in the 2016 Budget of the State. Expectedly or unexpectedly, those roundabouts have not been reconstructed.
In another dimension of expressing his pleasure, Governor Bello during a book lunch on beauty therapy by the wife of the President, Aisha Buhari, negatively distinguished himself by making a statement to the effect that the governors (definitely beginning with him, I suppose) will make the book available in all the local governments in Nigeria. Disgruntled by this Bello’s unbridled show of benevolence to a person who is obviously richer than him, a writer in a newspaper curiously inquired: “Pray, with whose money?”’
Obviously, the statement was aimed at expressing Bello’s profound happiness and or gratitude for being counted worthy to have attended the book lunch of the President’s wife however same leaves much to be desired. This is because the statement was made at a time when workers and pensioners in Kogi State were, and are still being subjected to an unending screening exercise which is accompanied by non-payment of salaries and pensions respectively, thereby exposing them to hunger and hardship. It was equally a time when grasses and cobwebs have become the common trademarks of virtually all the schools in Kogi State (KSU inclusive) due to incessant industrial actions under Bello’s administration.
It is indeed a sad commentary that a new government in spite of all hopes, is unable to bring a new smile to the weary face of its people by whose sovereign power the government itself was enthroned. This is not only in Kogi State but the Federation at large. I do not want to remember in particular, Governor Bello’s role in the ongoing crisis in the Kogi State House of Assembly!
It is however, pertinent to state before I conclude that the expression of happiness or joy whether real or feigned by Governor Bello is not condemnable and was therefore not condemned in this article. The only thing which is worrisome and thus questioned herein is the unbridled manner and times in which he showcases same. They constitute apotheosis of how not to bask in euphoria or demonstrate merriments; and same is a clear indication that Governor Bello’s train is on the wrong rails.
Thus, while I congratulate Bello over his recent court victory, I also candidly advise him to reverse himself in the expressed intention of converting Kogi State University Anyigba into Prince Abubakar Audu University. I also advise him to limit the scope of his jubilation as the election cases which were decided in his favour are appealable up to the Supreme Court of Nigeria, and the Queen Justicier’s scale of justice can still tilt to any side!
(Akobe, Solomon is an Ibadan-based lawyer, from Agbokete, Kogi State)