Critical Evaluation of Some Kogi Leaders: The Future in Focus

 By: Farouk Ozigi Onimisi

(The White Orator)

Ever wondered why some self-acclaimed leaders are not living up to expectations? This morning, your doubt shall be clarified. How can a leader perform when he or she does not love him or herself? It sounds ridiculous but the affirmative truth is that when one lacks self-love, one fails to meet expectations of the society. Those who prove the self love in them equally have this reciprocated in many folds. 

It is therefore, no wonder, love is seen as an all-encompassing emotion that is reserved for those closest to us. Put succinctly, those dear individuals who have found their way into our hearts are the lucky recipients of our affection. 

Remember, I earlier stated before we can show deep feelings towards others, we must first start with ourselves. Self-love is the purest and most important form of love, but it is not always the easiest to express.

As we journey on the path of greatness to a new confluence state of opportunities, there is critical need of evaluating some great men and women in Kogi State and why the future is believed to have them playing incredible role. At this level, they shall be evaluated at the seven social sins and how they have been able to overcome them thus passing this stage of evaluation. 

The seven social sins are wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice and politics without principle. 

As objective as this piece and without being politically sentimental, the leaders worthy of recognition in this context are Hajia Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, Ph.D, Honourable Minister of State, FCT, Chief Edward David Onoja, the Deputy Governor of Kogi State, Alh. (Engr.) Abubakar Ohere (FNSE), immediate Honourable Commissioner for Works and Housing, and APC Candidate for 2023 Kogi Central Senatorial Election, Chief Pharmacist Abdulkareem Muh'd Jamiu Asuku, Chief of Staff to Kogi State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Sanni Ozomata, Kogi State Coordinator, APPEALS-Project and Ozigis Muhammed Tijjani, APC Candidate for Okene/Ogori Magongo House of Representatives election. 

These great men and woman are highly placed individuals who occupy sensitive positions and posterity is there for them always. One cannot talk about sustainable development in Kogi State without a mention of any of these great personalities. It is what they have done for humanity we are looking at and not who they are. 

Why I feel they have great role to play in the next dispensation, let's briefly look at their antecedents and why they fit in this context. 

Hajia Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu

 Hajia Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, Ph.D Ramatu is a politician from Kogi State. She is the incumbent Honourable Minister of State for Federal Capital Territory (FCT) appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari on August 21st, 2019.

Ramatu was previously the National Woman Leader of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) later All Progressives Congress (APC) after the party and other political parties merged in 2014 - 2018. 

In 2004, she was appointed as Special Adviser on Women Affairs, Youth and Social Development to the Chairman of Gwagwalada Area Council, FCT, Abuja. 

In 2007, she ran for political office to represent Abaji/Kwali Federal Constituency in the National Assembly but her bid was unsuccessful. Later a year in 2008, she was appointed Vice National Chairman of her party, which was the major opposition political party in Nigeria at the time where she served as the Overseer, North Central Zone. In 2010, she was given the National Woman Leader of the party and concurrently served as the President of the Council of African Political Parties (CAPP) after she successfully contested and won the election which took place in Khartoum, Sudan. 

In 2014, after three opposition political parties in Nigeria merged into one, including her own party, ANPP, she was appointed the Woman Leader of the new All Progressives Congress (APC), which she served until 2018 and appointed as Honourable Minister of State, FCT, in 2019 as earlier stated. Worth with her contributions in the Nigeria's growth, she usually says her concern was not whether God was on her side but to be on God's side, for God is always right. She equally live by the quote which says "there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right." (Martin Luther King Jr.).

Chief Edward David Onoja

 Before he was elected as the Deputy Governor in the November 16th 2019 gubernatorial election which returned GYB reelected,  Edward became Head of Campaigns and Chief Strategist for the Yahaya Bello Campaign Organisation. He led a team of hitherto unknown, but equally passionate, youngsters into all the nooks and crannies of Kogi State canvassing for his candidate. The All Progressives Congress (APC) defeated incumbent PDP's Wada to make Yahaya Bello the 4th Executive Governor of Kogi State. Edward Onoja then served as Chief of Staff to Yahaya Bello until his assumption as the Deputy Governor weeks to the Novembello election. Talking of youth emancipation and bringing governance closer to the people, you have Onoja to beat. 

Commissioner Abubakar Ohere

 Alh. (Engr). Abubakar Sadiku Ohere is a strong advocate for change and development. In 2016, he was appointed Special Adviser on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs to the Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, where he rose to become the Commissioner of Local Government and Chieftaincy in 2019. The proactive leader was later appointed Commissioner of Works and Housing, Kogi State on January 27th, 2020 to consolidate on GYB's second term bid.

Ohere is one of the mission conscious team players of the New Direction Government of Yahaya Bello. A political leader who is tenacious, committed, loyal and dedicated, and of strong character in discharge of his role as the Commissioner for Works and Housing, he has impacted both the state and the populate. No better way other than the good people of Kogi Central settling for him as the next Distinguished Senator of the senatorial district. If it is possible to backward life, I will refer you to yesterday, his 56th birthday and the number of birthday wishes from people in different walks of life. 

Ohere once told me to empty my mind, "be formless and shapeless like water. To him, if you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend." Then, I refer to him as water. You will agree with me water has no enemy. This is the person of Abubakar Ohere, the next Kogi Central Distinguished Senator.

Chief Abdulkareem Muh'd Jamiu Asuku

 Asuku is the current Chief of Staff to Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello. Following the declaration of Alhaji Yahaya Bello to contest for Governor of Kogi State, Asuku keyed into the project and built a structure around it. He would constantly flew in from his station, Akwa Ibom, to attend political meetings in support of Alhaji Yahaya Bello. Not knowing Bello was noticing his commitment to serve and monetary contributions to his campaign, Asuku was dumbfounded when he was invited by Bello to inform him of his intentions to have him serve in his cabinet and following GYB's inauguration in 2016, he (Asuku) was appointed the DG Protocol to the Governor. 

Progressing, Asuku was later appointed as the Chief of Staff to the Governor following the resignation of Edward Onoja in 2019. This made him the youngest Chief of Staff to a seating Governor in Nigeria. 

As the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Asuku has demonstrated lots of tremendous and jaw dropping high quality attributes of a good leader. He has been able to inject a long list of changes in the administration of Governor Yahaya Bello, making his government the best so far in the history of Kogi State. 

Dr. Abdullahi Sanni Ozomata

Dr. Abdullahi Ozomata, a seasoned Veterinary Epidemiology and Agropreneur with outstanding performance in internationally funded agricultural projects and researches, has over ten years of postgraduate experience in volunteering, management and leadership responsibilities across the nation and beyond. It is no surprise that the administration of His Excellency, Governor Yahaya Bello, recommended Dr. Abdullahi's appointment as the State Project Coordinator for the Agro-processing Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Support Project (APPEALS-P), a Federal Government of Nigeria-World Bank-funded project. 

In his personal dispositions, Dr. Abdullahi has used his wealth of experience and youthful energy to boost the agricultural productivity of the state's small and medium-scale farmers.

Since his appointment, the APPEALS Project in Kogi State has benefited over 10,000 farmers, women, and youth. 

Dr. Ozomata is not just a distinguished personality, but a certain kind of leader who is unique on the political stage. He is a modulated blend of common sense, empathy and authority. He is a man dedicated to the proposition that people can live together despite their differences. Even as he lost APC primary election to contest for the Green Chambers office, Okene/Ogori Magongo Federal Constituency, he remains absolute saying his intentions for Kogites remain key and Almighty God on his side, he won't rest until the works of the Almighty has been accomplished as required by him. Briefly, Ozomata's penchants for youth development is second to none.

Hon. Ozigis Muhammed Tijjani

 Popularly known as TAO, Ozigis Muhammed Tijjani is the APC candidate for Okene/Ogori Magongo Federal Constituency in the next Green Chambers election. 

In life assessment, it is commonly known and accepted that it is basically not how far but how well and by extension, it is not how long you have been in a place but how much you have utilised the opportunities to impact on the lives of the common ones around you, your ability to display your capacity of affecting and strengthening a system in which you are given by privilege. 

For Hon. TAO, his abilities to impact on the society whereever he found himself is upheld as his utmost priority. He is embarking on restoration of rapid sustainable development for the good people of Okene/Ogori Magongo Federal Constituency.

With respect to the development discourse, the role of these elites over these few years has been twofold. First of all, they have been able to save developmentalism from the impasse it precipitated because of the many theoretical criticisms and empirical failures (exemplified by the lost decade of development in PDP misrule), by adjusting it consistently with sensitivities. 

On the other hand, they have contributed to mitigating the most drastic demands expressed by niches, incorporating the topic of  sustainable development, taking seriously into account, the problems connected to the very topic of development in the society. I reiterate the next fold of Kogi State Government no doubt would have these personalities playing great role having passed the seven social sins. 

In all, they have proven societal demands of leadership and have broaden the political psyche of Kogi politics where community development is placed above stomach infrastructure. All thanks to Yahaya Bello and Muhammadu Buhari finding them worthy. 

Farouk Ozigi Onimisi writes from Abuja, FCT