“Effective leaders prioritize people, build trust, and empower others to achieve their best” Stephen Covey
By Oyibo Salihu, Lokoja.
The famous American Leadership Expert, Warren George Bennis, the founding chairman of the Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California, says, “Leadership is the capacity to transform vision into reality”
This quotation coming from the father of leadership studies gives meaning to the leadership capacity of Yahaya Bello, as the man whose leadership style has shaped Kogi State even after he held sway as the fourth executive governor of the state.
His eight years ( 2016-2023) of transformational leadership as evidenced in the numerous developmental projects that has direct impact on the lives of his people.
Without mincing words, former Governor Yahaya Bello has recorded several achievements as governor of Kogi state for eight years. Some of the notable achievements of his administration include:
Infrastructural development:
The Bello administration embarked on several infrastructural projects across the state. These projects include the construction of roads, bridges, and flyovers. His administration has also invested in the renovation and construction of schools and hospitals, particularly, the Okene Reference hospital now upgraded to CUSTECH Teaching Hospital for the training of medical students.
Agriculture:
The efforts of Yahaya Bello’s administration at agricultural transformation and the implications of the aggressive and sustained policy on food production to guarantee food security, lends credence to his leadership capacity. His administration’s resolve towards food Security; a significant mantra of the Governor Yahaya Bello (GYB) administration in Kogi State has significantly improved agricultural production in the state.
This has brought about numerous verifiable projects in the agriculture sector. Bello’s administration’s policy response to food security is in the areas of promotion of sustainable agricultural technologies, increased nutrition and building farmers’ confidence to shocks, arising from perennial post flood losses.
His investment in agricultural development as one of the key priorities of the administration, has brought a 571-hectre irrigation project at Omi Dam, Kogi west senatorial district.
The project was designed to support massive food production with all-year-round farming in the area, where Bello’s led administration also built the Kogi Confluence Rice Mill.
The rice mill is being adjudged by political observers as the largest rice mill in the north central part of the country. The factory mills several tones of rice grown in the area, and processes it with the attendant benefits to businesses within the rice value chain.
Former Governor Bello’s administration distributed 100 tractors to some farmers, the tractors are being put to use till date to cultivate large hectares of arable land for crop cultivation across the state.
Aside this achievements, Bello’s led administration trained 700 youths and mobilized them to produced cassava in Adavi; Okehi; Ibaji; Olamaboro; Dekina; Lokoja and Kabba-Bunu local government areas putting Kogi state as one of the largest producer of cassava in the northern part of Nigeria.
Also in the area of state counterpart funding to agricultural partnership projects, the Bello’s administration made prompt payments to international donor agencies and development partners such as the World Bank and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to implement the Appeals project with bearing on agriculture finance, which supports the state food sufficiency drive even after he left office two years ago.
Security:
The Bello administration has made significant strides in improving security in the state . Even his nay sayers admitted that he has done a lot in the area of security. The administration collaborated with security agencies to tackle crime and criminality in the state. His administration also invested in the procurement of security equipment and vehicles to aid security agencies in their operations.
Youth Empowerment:
The Bello administration has prioritized youth empowerment through the establishment of several programmes aimed at creating job opportunities for youths in the state. The administration has also provided training and skills acquisition programmes to equip youths with the necessary skills to enable them becomes self-reliant and to be job providers instead of job seekers.
In addition , the governor stood tall in his commitment to educational upliftment of the state.
An educationist, a retired principal in the state Mallam Diyo Salihu Omuya said “The Governor has changed education no doubt. He established two universities making the state the first in the entire north central that has three functioning state universities. We are very grateful to him for this vision”
Former Governor Yahaya Bello also performed creditably well in the health sector of the state. Within eight years he established the Reference hospital in Okene, Specialist Hospitals in Gegu Beki, Isanlu and Ajaokuta along with the rehabilitation of Primary Health Centres in more than 120 communities across the state.
As part of his development stride, the people’s governor as often referred to in the state, converted the old Lokoja township stadium into a multipurpose event centre named after the former president of Nigeria, the Muhammadu Buhari Square. This edifice now accommodates 15,000 regular sitters and 600 VIPs.
Irked by deplorable condition of offices in some parastatals and agencies, former governor Bello provided befitting office accommodation for the Graphic Newspaper and Kogi State Internal Revenue Service among others. This effort has created conducive working environment for the staff of these organizations. In fact former Governor Bello deserves accolades from the people of the state for his giant strides aimed at putting the state on a threshold of development.
Despite all of these effort put together by the fourth executive governor of Kogi state, his tenure ended in January 27, 2023.
Since he left office his kinsmen from Kogi Central Senatorial District has been beckoning on him to at least represent them at the senate.
In one of the fora at the palace of the paramount ruler of Ebiraland in Okene , Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo appealed to the Ohinoyi of Ebiraland Alhaji Ahmed Tijani Anaje to prevailed on the former governor to heed to the clarion calls of his people to represent them at the senate comes 2027 general election.
To support Governor Ododo’s appeal at the palace of Ohinoyi, a group tagged ‘Kogi Central Good Governance Forum’ declared unequivocally that they were ready to present a check to the former governor for the purchase of his nomination form.
The forum’s spokesman Usman Ada’ava, said the former governor deserve to occupy whatever political position that exist in Kogi central senatorial district as a way to reciprocate his gesture, love and concern he had for his people while he occupied the position of chief executive of the state.
He said with a louder voice that “No free born of the district can forget in a hurry what they pass through before God brought Yahaya Bello to wipe away the tears of the people.
“We can still remember vividly between 2005 down to 2014 indigenes of Kogi central senatorial district living outside the district can not come home because of fear of either being kidnapped for ransom or the area boys billed you heavily before you can organize any occasion.
“Former Governor Yahaya Bello came and liberated his people from all sort of precarious situations and lay a peaceful environment for people to live in. That is why we members of Kogi Central Good Governance Forum have decided to send him back to the leadership stage so that he can use his contacts and connections to further advance the cause of our district”
A market women in Ajaokuta local government area who identified herself as Seriya Umar also declared her support for Bello to vie for the senate position in the forthcoming 2027 general election.
She mentioned categorically without mincing words that Bello did not need to campaign to win the election, saying his performance and the love he has for youth and women through his several empowernment programmes in agriculture will speaks for him during campaign.
Bye and large, people of Kogi central senatorial district will not forget Tuesday, December 30th, 2025 in a hurry. It was the day the prayers to their long held agitations for Yahaya Bello to vie for senate position was answered when he declared his intention to contest the Kogi Central Senatorial seat in the 2027 general elections during a courtesy visit to the palace of the Ohinoyi of Ebiraland, stating, “I accept to run for the Senate in 2027”
This declaration coming from the former governor was widely received across the entire five local government areas that formed central senatorial district.
Joseph Aniko a civil servant in Adavi local government area who could not hide his feelings and excitement when he heard Bello’s acceptance to contest the senatorial seat of Kogi central , said “Former Governor Bello (GYB) has performed excellently in the area of agriculture, healthcare, education, civil service reforms, capacity building, youth and women inclusion, security and many others. Bello will definitely win the election with a landslide margin because the electorate in the district are well abreast of his performances and we need him to go there and do more for us”
Apparently, former Governor Bello’s monumental achievements in all sectors and the overall impact of the multi-sectoral transformation on development of the state and its people, will positively enhance the chances of winning the senate seat in the forthcoming January 2027 senatorial election in Kogi state as the choice now lies in the hands of citizens of Kogi central district to choose their next senator out of their wish.
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