Idowu Akinlotan of The Nation newspaper certainly is an above average writer. On a very good day he delivers delightful commentary on the Nigerian situation, warts and all, though Palladium, his column on the back page of the Nation on Sundays can be ponderous fare sometimes – a bit chewy, and overly redolent, like bushmeat. Ordinarily, and as far as the ethics of journalism go, Idowu should pass muster. Unfortunately, anyone reading Palladium of Sunday, 21st February, 2016 will be hard put to agree with this assessment. That particularly lengthy schtick left no one doubting it was a hatchet-job gone wrong. All the angst and bile and mindless hacking of the pen assassin were in full play.
Fortunately, the intended victims – the people of Kogi State, their Governor and his Chief of Staff –were surrounded by the Force-field of Truth and barely felt the blows. In the end, apart from abusing of reputations here and there, the vicious attack fell far short of achieving the intended carnage among victims. If anything, as the ramblingly discordant drivel began to dry up, it became certain the only serious casualty was the pen assassin himself. His laborious exertions had thrown him into paroxysms and seizures as he wheezed from one wild accusation to the next like some intellectual asthmatic and when he finally tumbled off his victims he lay face down in the Lokoja dust for a while before expiring like the improbable eventuality that was his last sentence.
Idowu may have been ‘forming’ that he didn’t write the article, and was only expanding the frontiers of free comment and journalism by ceding his column to ‘an ardent reader who feels distraught…’ about alleged events in Kogi State. Yet, like a drunkard reeking of alcohol and caked all over in his own vomit while making inebriated denials of drunkenness, Idowu’s biases were in shameful display right from his introductory paragraph. In essence, he rode his hypocritical high horse into a mud-pit straight off the gate. Anyone with passable comprehension of the English language will immediately see what an active advocate of the half-truths and utter fabrications purveyed by the ultimately faceless ‘Joseph M. Adeola’ Mr. Akinlotan was. And that is why we hold him, not his possible nom de plume, responsible for the defamatory features of that article.
For the records and because the Yahaya Bello Administration in Kogi State swears by an Open Government and puts much store on the free flow of (factual) information to citizens, we offer here a brief rejoinder. It is intended to set the records straight for any reader of Mr. Akinlotan’s column who, reading last Sunday’s Palladium (and despite his decisive posture to the contrary) still wondered with the rest of us if there was, perhaps, another side to the story. To such fair-minded people, we make the assurance that there is.
Idowu Akinlotan is categorical that the ‘youthful Governor…is upending common sense in the State…’First, one does not fail to notice how he spits out ‘youthful’ here like it is a bad thing, especially when paired with ‘Governor’. That is understandable, not everyone believes there is any use for the young in Nigerian politics except, of course, as thugs. The moment one of them dares to be Governor, all hell breaks loose. Second, wisdom is a bag, each man carries his own. The vast majority of Kogi people believe different from Mr. Akinlotan when it comes to the import and impact of their young Governor even as his first month in Lugard House starts to wind up.
While it is early days yet, the prevailing mood among relieved Kogites wherever the Governor and his Team has gone is, ‘finally, at last, common sense has come to Kogi State.’ The average Kogi person just wants his Government to do right by him, the exact thing the Governor is keen, and very ready, to do. This includes enclaves where the usual suspects predicted mass discontent after Governor Bello emerged Governor-Elect.
Idowu Akinlotan is also certain the novel electoral and legal events preceeding Governor Bello’s swearing-in as Governor of Kogi State are ‘a farce orchestrated by the ruling APC and INEC.’ We are not surprised. It is a common skein of argument that runs through the spool of naysayers whose personal designs on the jugular of Kogi politics has been thwarted by providence. We will let APC and INEC answer for themselves, if they wish, but it is our opinion that neither Idowu, in his introductory statements, nor yet the amorphous Joseph A. Adeolain the article proper, interrogates their own narrative in its core aspects. They merely endorse the false conclusions that the Judiciary has been wrong so far in her interventions in the matter. They also evince a desperate need to set an agenda that sees their preferred outcomes and candidates manifest, irrespective of the law, and whatever betide.
As for Governor Bello, despite the blatant subversions that denied him his Party’s Ticket at the APC Primaries even after the Primaries Appeals Committee had ruled in his favour, his stance was made clear in his Inaugural Address and it has not changed. ‘God and good…’ said he, ‘are on our side…’ We trust that when the dust settles, he will be standing strong, buoyed up by God, and all that is good – including the letters and intendments of Nigerian law. We therefore suggest that the Courts and Tribunals be allowed to make their determinations free of the pernicious second-guessing with which Palladium and her proprietors seek to undermine their credibility. We too want to see how a person who does not qualify ab initio to be on the ballot to contest a councillorship anywhere in Kogi State can post facto become a valid beneficiary of the Office of the Governor from an inconclusive election.
In the time-tested tradition of seasoned muckrakers when they run out of ideas, Idowu and his dubious double could not resist hurling puerile personal insults at their quarry. Governor Yahaya Bello had a hearty laugh at being described as lacking ‘the experience, maturity, insight, shrewdness and astuteness required to govern a state like Kogi or any state for that matter…’by people who may have managed nothing bigger than a salaried office table all their lives. Apparently, the fact that he has built up a multi-billion Naira growth enterprise with scores of employees and managed it to profitability does not count. It must be that thing his current detractors find so galling – his youthfulness.
It did hurt His Excellency, a jolly good fellow if ever there was one, a bit to be described as ‘…naturally self-conceited and not reflective’ but only because a journalist is expected to know the imperatives of research before publication. A little digging would have unearthed a wealth of information to belie that slur. For goodness’ sake, a journalist writing in person or endorsing another’s writing still has a duty to his profession, a duty to ensure that truth defends justice, always. Oh well, it must be the times.
Next they quarreled with Governor Bello’s decision to attend a meeting of the Northern Governors’ Forum in Abuja within a few hours of his swearing-in. This does not even merit a response. Clearly, they preferred Governors of the past, and the former ‘owambe’ approach to governance. These ‘critics’ actually want a Governor who will prioritise dancing and partying away the time to one who chooses to focus on the job of improving his state’s fortunes, even if it means ‘abandoning’ the people at his own Inauguration party to travel nearly two hours by road in order to do the only job for which he was elected, i.e., representing his state, her peoples and their interests. Truly, you cannot please everyone.
Fresh from its failed attempt to shame Governor Bello on account of his unwavering focus on his duties, the article flies into a rant against several decisions of the new Governor aimed at kick-starting the process of reforming the Kogi State Civil Service. It alleged the fledgling Administration’s attempt to screen the state’s workforce for ghost workers was anti-workers’ welfare. Obviously, despite working at a newspaper, Idowu has not heard about the successes both the Federal and those State Governments which have undertaken the same exercise have recorded in reducing their monthly wage bills. It also does not matter to Palladium that a successful screening will free up much needed funds to pay the actual workers as and at when due.
Security vote, that vexatious item of expenditure, was up next on their shopping list of calumnies. Unfortunately, in accusing the Governor of first taking his security vote before thinking of workers’ salaries, the host-writer and his ghost-writer failed again to remember, or more likely, fraudulently chose to suppress, the widely acclaimed news within the last week that Governor Bello has forgone his security vote and donated the money back to the state’s coffers to meet other, more pressing, needs. And guess what? Just within the last 48 hours or so, the Federal Government followed suit, cancelling security votes across board for a wide spectrum of former recipients. If Governor Bello set a bad precedent, well, President Buhari just endorsed it. Go figure.
After that the duo babbled into a lengthy and curious diatribe about Governor Bello’s alleged frigid relationship with the Kogi State House of Assembly. It almost seems as if they were goading the Governor to exert undue control over the House with a view to subverting her independence. The Deputy Governor’s emergence, the leadership crisis rocking the KSHA and other matters bordering on the principle of separation of powers were unceremoniously diced and grated, dumped into the matrix and furiously whirred around to produce a diabolical smoothie served up in the poisoned chalice of their fevered expectations. Thankfully, they failed again. At the point of force-feeding the public this demonic concoction their narrative unraveled. Till the time of this writing, the scattered bits and pieces still do not make sense. One thing is sure, the Chief Executive of Kogi State does not interfere in the internal affairs of the Legislature of Kogi State. He wants to work with them for the benefit of Kogi State, not control them. Used to governor-types who strutted as demi-gods in and out of office, Palladium may not understand this, but it is what it is.
Like blood-sucking ticks, Governor Bello’s attackers then changed tack and tried to burrow under his composure using alleged ‘constitutional’ breaches and ‘impeachable offences’ as their biting and sucking mouthparts. Basic analyses show their gripe amounts to no more than mishmash of murmuring against the Administration’s first actions, both real and imagined, especially those effectively blocking long time vested interests. One is frankly nauseated by the relentless assaults, especially on the intelligence of a reasonable and thinking people like the residents of Kogi State. Even autonomy for Local Governments mooted by Governor Bello earns its share of their ire. Bewailing it as illegal, even unconstitutional, Messrs Akinlotan and Adeola conveniently skirt Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) as well as other subsidiary legislation which, read in community, spell out the desirability and process of local government autonomy. Their deeds being evil, they noticeably had no desire to come into the light and be rebuked. We will therefore leave them in the dark side.
In a despicable low even for an article that has already hit the rock bottom of bigotry, this miserable edition of Palladium proceeds to plumb the abyss of outrage with base ethnic sentiments. In rather sepulchral fashion the article intones, ‘his hatred for the Okuns is brewing and manifesting…’If any part of their subversive tirade came close to annoying Governor Bello, it was this dreadful idea that he could harbour ‘hatred’ for any part of Kogi State or its people. How ongoing restructuring of key institutions of the state to strengthen responsiveness and as part of the New Direction he is charting came to be maligned as conclusive proof of his gubernatorial ill-will against a section of Kogi people can only be explained by the sick minds that could conceive such malevolence.
It is also laughable that whilst Palladium has no qualms promoting the merits of the Audu/Faleke ticket, and in particular the increasingly desperate interests of the surviving member of that ticket, it barely conceals contempt for a ‘Lagos’ import allegedly proposed by Governor Bello as the Accountant-General of Kogi State. On the one hand, Palladium finds it just dandy for a true Lagos import who has served his Lagos constituents in several key appointive and elective capacities to aspire to be Governor of Kogi State even though he is a Lagos legislator currently serving Lagos in the House of Representatives. On the other hand, Palladium is full of ‘righteous indignation’ that another Kogi indigene, who possesses all the cognate qualifications and competencies for the job is coming, fresh from a top management position in the nation’s civil service, to assume a critical office for the turnaround of Kogi State, and simply because his former posting was in Lagos. The double standards nauseate one beyond words.
‘Both of them have no political or administrative pedigree and acumen.’ In the end, what started with lies ends with lies, but lies of such malicious nature that to just ignore them would be to do every Kogi person, and their posterity, a gross disservice. Not content with the insulting clause italicized above, Idowu and Joseph outdo themselves by calling Governor Bello and his Chief of Staff, Edward Onoja, criminals. His Excellency they call a multi-billionaire of questionable wealth and the Chief of Staff a disgraced banker. Clearing themselves of these allegations is the least these two gentlemen owe the people they lead. An accounting must be scheduled so Palladium and his co-traveller (if he produces him) can stand before a Judge and prove this spiteful libel, or pay whatever price the law imposes.
For the records, before assuming office as Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello was a very successful transporter, with a fleet of vehicles that reached the nooks and crannies of Nigeria every day. In addition, he is heavily and profitably invested in the real estate and other sectors. Before that he was a very senior civil servant who voluntarily took early retirement from a very successful career in the Federal Civil Service in order to pursue his passion for private enterprise and politics. It was from that lofty vantage that he threw his hat into the ring for the contest to Lugard House. Along the way he founded the Kogi Youths Arise Group, a grassroots political organization mainly for the youthful demographic and became their Chairman. Their role, under his tutelage and sponsorship, in making the APC a household name in Kogi State and beyond is the stuff of legend. It is on record that KYAG mobilized over 10,000 Kogi youths and donated twelve brand new 18-seater buses to the successful election efforts of His Excellency, General Muhammadu Buhari in 2015. His Excellency is a compassionate philanthropist who currently sponsors three orphanages as well as hundreds of young persons, mainly Kogites, in schools.
Edward Onoja, His Excellency’s Chief of Staff has a distinguished professional pedigree of his own. A banker who rose through the ranks to head Branches in two of Nigeria’s leading banks, Access Bank Plc and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, he voluntarily resigned from Banking to pursue his own passion in politics. As far back as 2011 when many of his mates were still chasing elusive jobs he was already standing for election into the Kogi State House of Assembly. Though that first foray did not succeed, he did not look back and rapidly served in a slew of capacities with leading political parties including the Action Congress of Nigeria. After that, and with his skills in high demand, he was a good catch for a multinational Oil and Gas company where he again excelled through the ranks to become Group Director, Exploration & Production. When politics called again, he honourably resigned and having found a kindred spirit in his principal, stood shoulder to shoulder with him as Head of Strategy for his election. The rest is history.
In conclusion, we repeat for emphasis Paragraphs 5 and 6 of Governor Bello’s Inaugural Address: ‘I wish to reiterate what President Muhammadu Buhari said in his celebrated Swearing-In Speech on May 29, 2015: “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody!” This quote is a complete worldview which defines the PURPOSE and METHODOLOGY of my Administration, and sets an AGENDA OF INCLUSIVENESS, which I am determined will characterize my tenure.’
Palladium and other would-be traducers of the Administration should take the message home that Change has come to Kogi State, Governor Bello is the face of it and it is a face that is set like iron against all internal and external interests trying to mortgage the future of Kogi State to godfathers – both known and unknown. It is time to make all of Kogi’s resources work for all of Kogi’s people, and God helping Alhaji Yahaya Bello and his Administration, that is exactly what they will do.
Williams Charles Oluwatoyin
A political Critique & Commentator
Writes From Lokoja
