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2023: Who’s Afraid Of Yahaya Bello?

Yahaya Bello Will Deliver Kogi To APC Massively - Campaign Council

Who will become the next President? That is the question on the lips of Nigerians. It is one of the most discussed political topics in the country at the moment and it takes centre stage at political fora, on social media, electronic channels and the newspaper stands. Many names are bandied around from the perspectives of many viewpoints but only few individuals have openly come out to either declare their ambition to become the next Nigerian President or to accept others’ support for their aspiration.

Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello has welcomed emissaries and supporters from every part of Nigeria and has openly hinted that he nurses an aspiration for the Presidency in 2023. In fact, he has promised multiple delegations that when the time comes for aspirations to be publicly and legally unveiled he would not turn them down.

The writer Ann Voskamp once said, “When you are waiting, do what waiters (in restaurants) do: SERVE.’ Bello has proven himself a star student of this school of thought. While waiting for the coast to clear on 2023 presidential campaigns, he is serving Nigerians – at home in Kogi and across the country, selling himself to them.

In Kogi State where he is serving as Governor he has spent every day of his six years in office providing them security, unity, peace and prosperity. The state is one big construction site today with hundreds of projects completed or ongoing. However, as far as I am concerned, Bello’s masterpiece is what he has done with security, unity and peace.

These trio constitute the major problems confronting us in Nigeria at the moment and they are the factors which ought to determine who becomes our next president. Bello has proven that all three are easily possible for a leader to provide and I believe we should remember that for 2023, if we truly love ourselves and want the best for our nation.

He has actually turned Kogi, which is a microcosm of Nigeria and has one of the largest landmasses in the country, into an outlier in security, unity and peace. The state shares boundaries with 10 other states and the FCT which are mostly remote and inaccessible. And yet, despite this abundance of the sort of difficult terrains beloved by terrorists, kidnappers and bandits, it is today the safest state in the country.

When it comes to managing diversity, Bello has also succeeded rather well in Kogi. Sentiments aside, we cannot find any other contender for 2023 who has done as well, either in past or current office. Before he took over in 2016, the state used to have chasmic divides along tribal, religious and class lines, along with some of the nation’s lowest socioeconomic indicators. Today, a singular result of Bello’s stewardship is that Kogi’s populace has been coaxed to largely accept one another and to work together. By a deliberate policy of accelerated development and proportional allocation of appointments and projects the young man has achieved a measure of integration and cooperation in the Confluence State that should make his methods required learning for everyone seeking our presidency in 2023.

When it comes to socioeconomic progress, he has done well enough to attract multitudes of Nigerians to the state. He has also not done badly in foreign direct investment. Although it is early days yet, demographic shifts in Lokoja the Kogi State capital indicate that Nigerians from elsewhere are migrating into the city in droves to take advantage of the emerging security and economic opportunities. So much so that the United Nations rated Lokoja the fastest growing city on the planet in 2021.

Whether his traducers accept it or not, Governor Yahaya Bello has achieved stuff in Kogi State that should be exported to Nigeria quickly. If and when he does officially declare for the Presidency, he would be running on a strong record of solid achievements in Kogi – across the very areas that every praying Nigerian daily implores God to remember the nation.

On the national stage this Governor is very much in active service to the nation. He is probably the most newsworthy Governor today. Bello is one man who, while waiting for the presidential contest to open formally, is serving the country wherever the opportunity presents itself. He was the first sitting Governor to publicly support the #EndSARS protests and he was on air pleading for de-escalation after the initial successes of 5-for-5. Perhaps, if we had reasoned with him then the way the Black Lives Movement in the US did with the Biden Administration, maybe the nation would have been spared the subsequent debacles of prison breaks, wanton killing of both protesters and security operatives around Nigeria and the ultimate pain and division the country continues to suffer over the true events at Lekki Toll Plaza on 20-10-20.

Bello also stepped in to broker peace between the North and South of the country following the Shasha market incident which led to food embargo on the South by Northern producers due to killing of northern traders. The peace parley Bello organised and the subsequent peace he achieved not only restored supply lines between both halves of the country but it prevented looming bloody reprisals in the North against persons and interests of southern extraction. Mostly our leaders tend to ignore such gunpowder situations until they explode and there is blood in the streets. Thankfully, we had Governor Yahaya Bello this time.

Yahaya Bello Wins Hero Of Women's Inclusion Award

Aside from his peace-building advocacy, the man continues to find creative ways to positively reach out to the majority of Nigerians on his aspiration, nearly on a daily basis. In return, he currently enjoys widespread support in every region and across different sections of Nigerians. Bello goes to Daura, Bichi, Kano, Zaria, or Kaduna for personal events and inhabitants go wild and escort him for miles in a carnival procession. He goes to Anambra, Ondo or Ekiti for elections and the roads are clogged with clamouring supporters. He drives to Abia on party business via Enugu and Imo and Citizens of those SouthEast states throng streets and mount high rise balconies chanting ‘GYB!’ and ‘White Lion!’. Group after group of well known Niger Delta leaders and activists proudly go public with their support for him. Indeed, Yahaya Bello is morphing from man to idea and tingling the voting thumb of a lot of Nigerians.

These gradual and assured steps by the political wunderkind have not gone over well with those of his fellow politicians who are just as interested in the office but not as confident to come all out, but we ordinary citizens ‘no send them’, as we youthful Nigerians say when we want to say, ‘ignore’.

What GYB represents is far-reaching and touches base along every course and discourse in the country today. He comes from a region that has never produced a Nigerian President and represents a demographic that is just perfect for the job. A good mixture of experience from the past and the energy of the present is what Nigeria needs for the future. These qualities are no doubt huge enough to be looked at twice. To other aspirants, they are intimidating realities, which may be the reason for the recent tantrums thrown by some Nigerian political stalwarts.

Concerted efforts are being made by political interests who are not very confident of their public acceptance to orchestrate a walkover of the man instead of a contest with him. One of such underhand moves is the looming consensus in the two leading parties to zone out the man by imposing the National Chairmanship of the APC and PDP on his region. But the beauty of democracy is the opportunity it gives to whoever desires to vie for office to go ahead if the electorate is with him. His supporters hope that if this snarky plans becomes reality in the APC as it now is in the PDP, the young man will nevertheless ignore the distraction and forge ahead.

In a country like Nigeria, which has many difficult battles on its hands, a quick and alert mind in a young and healthy body is of great importance. Names of possible Presidential aspirants from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have been thrown up. Some of the most prominent are dealing with questions about their fitness for office from advanced age or questions about their nationalistic credentials. Some of them are no better than tribal warlords in talk and action. Likewise in the PDP. Bello’s cosmopolitan outlook and ability to work with every Nigerian comes across as a breath of fresh air.

Still, for now, no one has come forward to own or accept their desire to become President openly. If that is a result of engaging in the calculations that have dragged Africa and Nigeria further behind for many years or a show of naivety, the truth is GYB has not displayed any of such pusillanimity. By coming forth on time as a likely 2023 presidential aspirant, he has given Nigerians enough time and material to rate him based on how serious he is about Nigeria and the issues that border it.

Every potential aspirant and their supporters are fighting for what favours them. Many are yet to openly throw their hats in the ring as GYB has done, further putting Nigerians in a state of confusion about the authenticity of their ambitions. The coming months will decide who will pick what. Still, if there’s anything clear to Nigerians by now, it’s that Governor Yahaya Bello’s moves are unsettling different camps. They are realising that he has an inflexible will, goes after what he wants, generates results and will not be deterred as many may have mistakenly thought he would be.

The days ahead will tell.

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