The Campaign for Good Governance in Kogi State (CGGK) has kicked against mandate of a recently constituted committee to seek a second term in office for the state governor, Alhaji Usman Ododo.
The committee, which was set up by the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is headed by Senator Smart Adeyemi, and it is also tasked with the responsibility of having President Bola Tinubu re-elected for a second term.
In a statement, CGGK said that, while it was against the campaign for Ododo, it embraced the re-election move for President Tinubu.
It said: ‘CGGK notes that without a doubt, President Tinubu has earned his stripes for reelection come the 2027 general elections. His imprimatur is to be found across major developmental indices. From committing a whopping 95% of national earnings to debt servicing, the burden has reduced to 69% in less than two and half years of the Tinubu administration. Gross Domestic Product for the second quarter of 2025, grew by an impressive 4.23%, the best performance in about five years, inspired by increased oil production, agricultural and industrial activities.
‘Much more resources have been conscientiously availed the subnationals under the Tinubu government, to inspire development at the various strata of governance. In September, the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) disbursed a landmark N2.2 trillion to the three tiers of government. About 600,000 young Nigerians have benefitted from the students’ loan scheme of the Tinubu dispensation, a restatement of the President’s resolve on human capital development. Gradually, the country is witnessing an infrastructural revamp after decades of minimal attention to basic enablers of socioeconomic growth’.
It, however, knocked Ododo for poor performance, blaming the situation on the immediate past governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello.
CGGK said: ‘The system (in the state) remains inalienably tied to the apron strings of the puppeteer, Yahaya Bello, the immediate past governor and proxy administrator, who directs state affairs from his multiple addresses in Abuja the federal capital. Thirty-four years after the creation of the entity, Kogi State does not in anyway compare with its peers, some of which have earned much less resources over the same period. Rather, the state is a graphic epitome of mass plunder and blatant rape, wilful neglect and unconcerned abandonment.
‘State resources are reportedly butchered and shared by a quartet of buccaneers, the top two retaining as much as N2.5 billion each, on a monthly basis. It has been suggested, that the Commissioner for Local Government, and the Accountant-General of the state, receive monthly stipends of N300 million and N1 billion respectively. A substantial quantum of this kill, comes from funds allocated to the 21 Local Government Areas in the state, which often averages N600 million per local government council, per month. Figurehead council chairmen are allegedly credited with a monthly imprest of N4 million to help them posture as pseudo-bigmen in their localities’.
The group alleged that there is zero governance at the local government level, ‘where chairmen cannot as much as motivate security personnel to stand up to rampaging bandits, let alone effect salutary remediation on infrastructure under their watch. With errant, thieving governance in Lugard House, Lokoja, archaic hospitals, schools, boreholes, earth roads, culverts and drains, cannot be expected to be functional. This is the tragedy of local government administration in Kogi State under the subsisting state leadership template’.
The group said that the Ododo administration in ‘nearly two years has nothing to show, which explains its desperation to latch onto the tailcoat of President Tinubu’s profile’.
It further said: ‘CGGK challenges the Ododo government to point to landmark road projects it is executing outside of Ebiraland in any of the other non-Ebira-speaking local councils and communities in the state. Ododo should identify a major, modern water scheme it is erecting anywhere, or rural electrification infrastructure, or notable school or hospital rehabilitation works’.
CGGK reminded the governor that he would be assessed by his ‘tangible, visible performance in the provision of patriotic leadership; honest and accountable governance; enthroning functional and sustainable security across the state, and paying local government administrations their statutory dues as appropriated in the books by the Federal Government.
‘One million committees prospecting endorsement for Ododo on the horseback of the President will not secure endorsement and continuity for unimaginable cluelessness and grand failure. Ododo has two more years of his first term to serve. He should peep over his shoulders to see what his colleagues in Abia, Anambra, Enugu, Delta, even Osun State have done in their first term thus far and how a multiplicity of political parties are freely offering them platforms for their second term’.
Among the signatories to the statement are the group’s Chairman, Comrade Sadiq Maiwuka; Vice-Chairman, Elder David Kupolati; and Publicity Secretary, Captain Patrick Baiye (rtd.). Others are: General Secretary, Dr Stephen Ogu; and Youth Leader, Hon Abu Zekeri.
