By Adewole Kehinde
“If your actions inspire others
to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader”. John Quincy Adams
Ultimately,
leadership is not about glorious crowning acts. It is about keeping your team
focused on a goal and motivated to do their best to achieve it, especially when
the stakes are high and the consequences really matter. It is about laying the
groundwork for others' success, and then standing back and letting them shine.
The above describes the
personality of Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello. When he was sworn-in
on January 27, 2016, Governor Yahaya Bello made history as the youngest
Governor ever in Nigeria. Since then, he has been facing attacks from various
faceless groups, floated by “opposition elements” in the State.
The first was a story on alleged
embezzlement of bailout fund published by an online newspaper which was
sponsored by political opposition in the state.
All the issues raised in the
publication against Governor Bello were unfounded, baseless myth which has
since been discarded by the State Government.
I will like to remind those
opposition elements that Governor Bello met an empty treasury with huge debts
profile including unpaid workers salary of five months, contractors among
others; Governor Bello was sworn in at a time when the state need about
N50billion Naira to settle debts owed to workers in the State.
It may interest them to know that
Governor Bello moved quickly in order to ameliorate the suffering of the State
workers and approached necessary authorities for bailout and was only able to
accessed N20billion Naira with the help of Zenith and Access Bank respectively.
Since then, all genuine workers
have all received their salary at both the State and the Local Government Areas
leading to the called-off of the strike embarked upon by the State Workers
Union.
Since assuming office, Governor
Bello has institutionalised Transparency and Good Governance in the running of
the State Affairs. The action has greatly paid off with the discovery of over
18,000 ghost workers which cost the state over 1.3Billion Naira monthly.
Governor Bello has never done
anything in a vacuum or taking unilateral decisions, Governor Bello always
consults with larger stakeholders in the State including Royal Fathers and Party
Leaders across board.
It will also be
recalled that Governor Bello has assured that the people of the state should
henceforth expect development, prosperity and good governance all the way after
the Court of Appeal Judgment came in his favour.
Quoting him, he said
that “Remember I am on a divine mission and I will do nothing less than to
continue to develop the State and to curb Corruption, Waste and Mismanagement
and to put the State on developmental map.”
Some even accused him
of causing the chaos in the Kogi House of Assembly and Governor Bello told his
critics plainly that “there has never been any face-off between the Executive
and the Legislature. There has always been misunderstanding in every
legislative house and Kogi State is not an exception. As of today, we have one
united Kogi Assembly.”
I will advise those “opposition
elements” to come and join hands with the Governor in order to move the State
forward. I will also advise others politicians in the State to set the record
straight rather than misleading the public for selfish reason, all in the name
of politics.
Governor Bello has chosen to
remain focus and continue to impacts on the life of the people rather than
being distracted by any faceless, selfish group, whose inordinate aims is to
create confusion in the state for cheap political gains.
Adewole Kehinde is a Journalist
and Public Affairs Commentator based in Abuja. He can be reached via kennyadewole@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment