A Promise Kept On The Hills Of Kabba-Bunu: Ododo Flags Off 38.5km Kabba–Oke-Offin–Iluke Road, As A People Find Governance At Their Doorstep
There are moments in the life of a people when a road ceases to be mere tar and gravel and becomes a testimony, and such was the moment when Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo flagged off the construction of the 38.5km Kabba–Oke-Offin–Iluke Road, a road that had for decades been the sorrow of Kabba-Bunu, the nightmare of commuters, the graveyard of farm produce and the symbol of promises made and broken.
This was not a flag-off for clout chasing, it was not a ceremony for the cameras, it was about resetting Kogi, about stepping up governance in a way that is unprecedented, and about proving, once again, that Governor Ododo is a perpetual promise keeper, a man whose word is his bond and whose works speak for him.
What manner of man will make a people feel governance by bringing democracy dividends to the doorsteps of the people? What manner of leader will look at a rural, agrarian corridor that successive governments ran away from because of its huge financial outlay and say, we will do it, and do it well? What manner of man will succeed where others preferred a whitewash, where others preferred patchwork, where others preferred to pour a little laterite on a wound that needed surgery? Yet this rare man has begun what others could not do, for as Aristotle once said, we are what we repeatedly do, and excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.
In Ododo, excellence has become a habit, in Ododo, promise-keeping has become a character, in Ododo, governance has become a daily devotion to the people, from Enjema in Ibaji now to Kabba-Bunu Local Government Area.
The people have suffered for too long, and anyone who has travelled the Kabba–Oke-Offin–Olle–Iluke corridor knows the story by heart, the story of mothers who could not reach the hospital in the rains, of farmers who watched yams, cassava, maize, cashew and coffee rot because no vehicle could come to evacuate them, of traders who lost their capital to a single journey, of schoolchildren who trekked through mud to reach knowledge, of a people cut off from their own local government headquarters, from Kabba, from markets, from life itself, and that is why the joy in Kabba-Bunu today will know no bounds.
This road is not just a road, it is life, it is economy, it is access, it is dignity, for in this agrarian community, a good road means farm produce will now move from the farm gate to the market in Kabba, in Lokoja, in Abuja, in Lagos without waste, it means the cost of transport will crash and the income of the farmer will rise, it means buyers will now come to Oke-Offin, to Olle, to Iluke and to all the villages along the corridor instead of farmers begging buyers to come, it means new shops, new motor parks, new processing centres, new jobs for youths and women, it means a pregnant woman in Iluke will no longer fear labour in the rainy season because the hospital in Kabba is now minutes away.
It means a sick child in Oke-Offin will no longer die on the way because the ambulance can now move, it means teachers will now accept posting to rural schools, it means land values will rise, it means the rural community will be opened to the world, and as Homer, the ancient Greek poet, sang in the Odyssey, a man who has suffered much and has seen many cities has wisdom, and the people of Kabba-Bunu have suffered much, and today, their suffering has produced a testimony.
This is why the flag-off must be understood in its proper context, for verifiable and published records show that this was no sudden decision, no political gimmick, no borrowed project, as the Kogi State Commissioner for Education, Hon. Wemi Jones, had clarified on behalf of the people of Kabba-Bunu in September 2026, following years of public outcry, the state government had commissioned a comprehensive survey and engineering design of the entire corridor about 12 months earlier, and the technical assessment found that ordinary rehabilitation would not resolve the failed sections, prompting engineers to recommend total reconstruction to deliver lasting relief, and on Friday, September 6, 2026, the Ministry of Works published an advertisement in national dailies inviting eligible contractors to bid under an Open Competitive Bidding process, alongside the Idah–Onyedega Road in Ibaji and the Odonyi–Oguma–Sheria Road in Bassa, with the government insisting, with documents, that the project was conceived, approved and financed entirely by the Kogi State Government under Governor Ododo, and not by the World Bank or any external body, and that same pattern of stepping up governance has been seen across the state.
For only days ago, on Monday, November 9, 2026, Governor Ododo flagged off the 37-kilometre Ejule–Ojeba–Unale–Onyedega Road linking Idah to Ibaji, a road abandoned for over twenty years, with six new bridges and a 30-month completion timeline, charging the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation to deliver quality, and before that, the flag-off of the International Cargo Airport, the rehabilitation of the Kabba Water Scheme, the erosion control projects and other interventions across the 21 local government areas, all pointing to one truth, that this administration is not sharing promises, it is sharing projects, and it is not governing from Lokoja alone, it is governing from the doorsteps of the people.
For Commander Jerry Omodara, the State Security Adviser to the Governor and a proud son of Oke-Offin, the flag-off of the road is a dream come true, a dream he has carried since childhood, a dream he has prayed for, a dream he has consistently reminded government about, and in his emotion-laden words, he described the day as the day God remembered his people, the day a generational burden was lifted, the day the children of Oke-Offin, Olle and Iluke will no longer inherit the suffering of their fathers, saying that for a man who has walked this road in pain, who has seen his kinsmen bury their hopes in the mud of this road, to stand and watch a Governor flag off its total reconstruction is to see prophecy fulfilled.
He thanked Governor Ododo for having the heart to listen, the courage to approve, and the will to execute, declaring that history will remember this day as the day Kabba-Bunu stopped crying and started rejoicing, and that the people will never forget who stood for them when it mattered most.
In the same spirit, Hon. Zacchaeus Dare Michael, the Chairman of Kabba-Bunu Local Government Area, said that with the flag-off, Governor Ododo has again demonstrated true leadership, and has remained a lover of Kabba-Bunu Local Government Area, a leader who does not discriminate, a leader who does not remember a people only during elections, but a leader who remembers them in budget, in projects, in appointments and in action, noting that the people of Kabba-Bunu asked, and Ododo answered.
They cried, and Ododo came, they waited, and Ododo delivered, and that is the definition of true leadership, for as Plato taught, the measure of a man is what he does with power, and Ododo has used power to serve, not to oppress, to build, not to destroy, to unite, not to divide.
Prince Mathew Kolawole, the immediate past Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly, added that the insistence to stand by Governor Ododo now and beyond 2027 has finally paid off, and he assured the people that their support has not been in vain, saying that those who said Kabba-Bunu was wasting its loyalty have now been shamed by this road.
Those who said standing with Ododo would bring nothing have now seen that loyalty has a reward, and he assured the Governor of the continued and total support of the people, now, in 2027 and beyond, because a leader who keeps his promise deserves to be kept in office.
For the Obaro of Kabba and Chairman of the Okun Area Traditional Council, His Royal Majesty, Oba Solomon Dele Owoniyi, Oweyomade I, the message was one of eternal gratitude, as he declared that the people of Kabba will remain grateful, that the people of Owe land will forever remain grateful, that this road is a gift that generations unborn will enjoy, and that the throne of Kabba blesses Governor Ododo and prays that God who gave him the heart to do this will give him the strength to finish it, for a king does not bless a man who forgets his people, a king blesses a man who remembers them.
And for the Special Adviser on Energy Matters and Chairman of the Forum of Special Advisers, Hon. Omoluabi Bode Adeyemi, the flag-off defines what the Ododo administration truly stands for, as he insisted that no space will be left vacant in the support of the people of Kabba-Bunu for the administration of Governor Usman Ahmed Ododo, declaring that from the first house in Kabba to the last house in Iluke, from the farm to the market, from the youth to the elders, from the women to the traditional rulers, there will be no vacuum, no gap, no silence in their support, because Ododo has left no gap in his love for them, and a people who have been remembered cannot forget the one who remembered them.
For every good, the reward from the people of Kabba-Bunu Local Government Area is to pay back when the time comes, and the time will come in 2027, when the ballot will speak, when the people will remember who built their road, who gave them water, who gave them peace, who gave them a sense of belonging.
As Sophocles, the great Greek tragedian, wrote, there is no greater evil than a man who forgets a good deed, and the people of Kabba-Bunu are not ungrateful, they are a people of honour, they are a people who remember, and they will remember Ododo, for as the ancient proverb goes, a good deed is never lost, he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants honesty reaps trust, and Governor Ododo has planted honesty in Kabba-Bunu, and he will reap trust, he has sown a road, and he will reap a harvest of loyalty.
Indeed, this flag-off has proven that governance can be brought to the doorsteps of a people when, like the people of Kabba-Bunu, they remain solid in their support for a leader in the mould of Governor Ododo, a leader who does not run from difficult projects, a leader who does not fear huge financial outlay when the people’s life is at stake.
A leader who believes, as Marcus Aurelius believed, that what we do now echoes in eternity, and the echo of this 38.5km road will be heard in the laughter of farmers, in the safety of mothers, in the success of traders, in the future of children, and in the history of Kogi State, for a road has been flagged off.
For the people of Kabba–Oke-Offin–Iluke and by extension Kabba-Bunu LGA, they are a people who have been lifted, a promise has been kept, and a hero has been revealed, not in words, but in works.
*Abu Michael, Special Adviser, South South Mobilization.*
