By Sam Aina

On every 15th, you, my dear reader, are faced with cold, hard facts which I hope, will challenge you to do more digging about issues before you are possessed by the rampant disease taking over Nigeria, assisted in its propagation through social media and moulded and remoulded by jolly Nigerians at newspaper stands, beer parlours and viewing centres.

I am, of course, speaking about “hearsay”.

It is killing our nation, and is the sole reason why messiahs are made out to be villains – the result thereof being that in a country consisting of millions of people, we are almost always ruled over by the worst. I write because I want you, the reader, to understand that there is no mistake in these repetitive narratives. The doers of evil are meticulous. They plan their stories, looking for which one will stick. Nigerians, wallowing in ignorance and their ears itching for hearsay, simply take it from there.

In the end, an ignoramus almost always sits on the coveted throne.

Shall this injurious spell continue?

I shall begin with a story to set the pace. True or not, you must agree that it is an incredibly fascinating story.

When I was an adolescent, I remember hearing it for the first time and laughing so hard, my ribs hurt. It was, alongside the stories of Nigeria getting thrashed 99-1 by the Indians, the most exciting story to tell at dinner time. A story for the guests.

A story to set the mood.

Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Nigeria’s Prime Minister had allegedly travelled to London for a pre-colonial conference. Customarily, he was welcomed with a cup of tea, which he drank with aplomb. Unfortunately for Balewa, he was unaccustomed to the British mannerism which required the guest to turn the cup over upon the consumption of the desired amount. He simply swallowed the contents and dropped the cup back on the saucer. The waiter, thinking he required yet another cup of tea, kept refilling, and refilling, and refilling. Balewa, who did not want to be disrespectful, kept on drinking to the amusement of all the attendees at the round-table.

In the end, our dear Balewa allegedly consumed 44 cups of tea.

Please note that this story is not meant to offer insult, I am simply retelling what I was told when I was little, which has since been confirmed to be false. However, it remains fascinating to this day and sets a suitable precedent for the context I am about to unravel.

Juxtaposing this story into the current Nigerian reality, I am inclined to make paint a very salient picture.

Let us take Tafawa Balewa as a regular Nigerian. The cup represents the political leadership positions scattered across the 774 Local Government Areas of Nigeria. The content, which Tafawa allegedly consumed rather happily, are the leaders which we have had no choice but to swallow. The waiter represents the result of our ignorance towards the qualities we must look for in a genuine leader, which is why the more the youth lose the desire for politics, thereby limiting their involvement, the more we get served even worse leaders. A circle that has been repeated for far too long.

Like Tafawa Balewa, we must stop swallowing whatever we are offered. We must no longer tolerate the inconvenience of tasteless leadership. We must forge a new path; and like Edward Onoja would say, in 2023, the youth must have their way.

It is no common secret that Governor Yahaya Bello is a fascinating leader. Bello is the youngest Governor in Nigeria at the moment. That alone piques the interest. However, his style of politicking is what strikes as odd. Odd in the sense that whatever Bello does is often always attributed to the actions of a frontrunner. A trailblazer. Bello has never, since his ascension into governance, been one to wont for new ideas. He has also shown, more than a few times, that he has the stubbornness and doggedness to see it to the end.

Half man, half mystery.

That is what Yahaya Bello represents in the current Nigerian political clime. His political ideology is such that it is hard to comprehend. As 2023 looms and tongues have been let loose on President Buhari’s eventual successor, no name comes to mind more often than that of this man aiming to upend what had been, until his arrival, a perfect sequence of leadership baton exchange.

Bello might not have won your heart just yet, but he is gradually commanding your respect.

I was privileged to be amongst the spectators during the just concluded Nigerian Media Merit Awards (NMMA) which was held in Lokoja, Kogi state. As the name connotes, the who’s who in the Nigerian media sector attended that event, deliberating on an action plan that could be implemented in restructuring Nigeria’s media by ensuring that it continues to play a leading role in shaping the right mindset amongst the people. Many ideas were proposed, several lectures held and the high point of the entire event rested on the shoulders of a question and answer session to the Kogi State Governor.

By the end of it all, many were left astounded.

So was I.

In what felt like forever, Bello touched on every inquisitive notion that was raised in a rather lengthy answer to numerous questions. From his aspirations in 2023 to the blatant strength of his security architecture to the poor network of Federal roads to and from the state to the ongoing projects and what he thinks, rather pointedly, represents Nigeria’s current woes: Bello spoke and spoke, and by the end of his extemporaneous opinions, he was treated to a round of applause by the same fingers that have been used to try and taint his name in the past.

I was rather proud of him.

All the journalists starved of a decent back and forth with our current crop of politicians on issues of national importance were proud of him, or at least, his honest answers. His officials were, as to be expected, equally proud of him. However, I think he made me especially proud because, in less than one hour, he was able to put to bed many opinions that had been formed, through hearsay, in the heads of opinion moulders.

That is what Bello does to people. You can hate him long enough until you get to know him.

In Bello’s answers on the day, I found the inspiration for this month’s release. In his answers, I found the reason why Nigeria, with all its vast human and natural resource, still wallows, like Patrick Obahiagbon would say, in a state of menicisetal statism. We seem to be at a standstill, with the time that should be spent on strengthening our economy being wasted on trying, and failing, to pacify aggrieved portions of the society. In Bello’s answers, I found that hope remains for Nigeria if only we could begin to take cognizance of what matters.

Yahaya Bello started by commending the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari in trying to restore Nigeria’s lost glory. He painted, rather clearly, his cordial Father-Son relationship with the C-In-C, and cited many visits to his office and home in a bid to make life better for his people. He commended the efforts of his party, the All Progressives Congress in serving as an open ground for the youth to come in and flourish, and expressed satisfaction in the mobilization exercise, of which he was chairman, throughout the 36 states. Yahaya Bello was saying all the regular things you would imagine; until he was not.

Whilst answering the poor state of the Federal roads to and from the state, Bello started to paint a vivid, startling picture. He explained the importance that Kogi plays in inter-state travel across the nation, with the state bordering ten others and serving, for many, as the only route through which millions of goods and services are transported daily. For emphasis, Bello stated that if the Murtala Muhammed Bridge were to collapse, millions of Nigerians would be left stranded with no other route to transverse.

However, Bello stated his dismay at the recent approval of the over 700 Billion road overhaul by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), with Kogi’s glaring omission a cause for angst amongst her people; The same people who have suffered from the unfortunate circumstances that follow a lack of the desired nationalism needed to rule a country as diverse as Nigeria. Bello spoke, and continued to speak, linking the not so subtle oversight by the Minister for Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola whom Bello had paid three visits to in the past to lay complain about said roads, and the disgust now reverberating across the country by overnight groups on the issue that has seen Nigeria plunge further into chaos: Neglect.

Neglect.

When Nigeria was formed, the desire was for it to be ruled by people whose desires will be solely for the growth of the nation as an entity, paying next to no mind to the politics of segregation. Unfortunately, for a country with over 300 tribes, we have let people without the “One Nigeria” mindset chart a course for our country. It is the reason why, according to Bello, Nigeria and its people will continue to face the clamour for secession from various tribes in all the regions of Nigeria.

Bello then began to ask, rather pointedly, how Nigeria intends to move forward if an aspirant says he wants to be President, yet is a leader of a regional political group clamouring for his presidency. He asked, to an audience spellbound to silence, how we are supposed to become the giant of Africa when security within our borders has been politicized, so much so that it is eating deep into the peace and tranquillity of our society. Bello also asked, this time to another, how we expect a President to carry the youth, women and people living with disabilities along in the corridors of governance when such an individual has no record of it in previous positions.

Serious questions with no answers in sight.

For someone like me, this is why I write. This piece represents the 12th time I took it upon myself to start writing on the actions of one of the most misunderstood human beings in Nigeria today. This edition marks the twelfth time I have attempted to – within the expanse of my political purview – paint a diverse picture that is very different from what we used to read and believe. That is because, as the reader must know, Kogi state is currently evolving at a pace it has never been on. Like I always say, this isn’t happening by magic. Someone made it happen.

That is why the 15th of every month is special. On that day, you learn something new about Kogi state and her Governor that you never knew before.

A few of which is the fact that Bello is currently the only Governor that has empowered women into governance more than any present Governor, and anyone before him. So much so that he possesses the only female Aide De Camp to a Governor in Nigeria. Other points include the fact that Bello has been able to secure his borders in a country rife with insecurity, united his people despite superintending over of the most culturally diverse state (alongside the much talked about ten borders with other states) in the country, employ all tribes in the state in a manner that has been satisfactory and free of tribal bigotry, such that even other tribes with a sizeable number living within the shores of the state have been carried along.

Bello has ensured that the youths accommodate the majority of the political positions in government, while giving the elders a voice in their capacity as advisory councillors, and has initiated the greatest infrastructural turnaround in Kogi state history despite the meagre resources made available due to the economic crunch. Kogi state has set a benchmark with all these trailblazing ideas, with Bello shepherding over a government of inclusivity and acceptability. He has found the solutions to the problems that seemed to have bothered his people for decades, with Nigeria, our dear country, facing similar issues on a larger scale.

We have lost sight of the reason we became a republic in the first place.

We have failed to understand that our diversity as a nation is not an opportunity for one tribe or religion to lord over others. We have failed to see the benefits of making the generation that continues to find new ways of survival through technology a frontrunner in the decision making process of our country. We have failed to carry women along, even though history and records have shown that they vote far more than men do, and deserve to contest on the same pedestal reserved for their male counterparts. We have failed to pacify regions that have suffered from the effect of wars whose injuries have never truly healed, and have, instead of opening our economy to new possibilities, continued to make the same mistakes over and over again, contributing to our downfall through the need for our leaders to feel safe in an economic haven that is continually facing the rot.

I think Bello can be that man.

Bello can serve as the bridge between warring tribes, proffering suitable solutions to the IPOB and Yoruba nation crisis if given the chance to rule this country. After all, he has provided the stitch in Kogi in very similar situations. Bello can put an end to the scourge of insecurity along our borders by employing an effective approach on a national level. His sterling efforts on the same subject have borne results tremendous in their magnitude in Kogi state. Bello can elevate women to their rightful place in society, disband the flock of nepotism and stop trends that seem to signal, to the disgust of millions of Nigerians, the partiality of one tribe or region over another.

Bello has all the needed qualities to become the stitch we need in our time.

He can only do this though, if we, the youth, think critically on these points, and conclude how we can return Nigeria’s lost glory by finally putting the right candidate in place. Like the person who helped Balewa turn the cup over after the 44th cup, we must put a stop to repetitive character traits when picking a candidate. These actions have ensured that Nigeria and her dreams remain submerged under an ocean of uncertainties due to a lack of purposeful leadership.

Divinity has granted us a man in our generation with the courage and determination to turn the tide. We must not misuse this opportunity. We must ensure that 2023 is remembered not just as another election year, but as a time in our history when a President was voted in by the youth and women to turn the tide in our nation’s favour.

Sunday Adelaja once said that “time is a running factor; once it goes, it cannot be reclaimed”. We cannot reclaim all the years the cankerworm has eaten, but we can determine what to do with what is to come.

We have to put Bello in a position to make things better.

It is time to save nine.