By joshua 
Gov Ododo: A reformist in Civil servants salaries payments and unprecedented development
By Hon Chris Ben-Kato Senior Special Assistant on information and communication strategy
With no apology, the Chief Servant of Kogi State, His Excellency Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo has etched a mark so wide among his political peers in the country which is difficult to match. He is a rare Chief Executive of a state who has continued to construct his state with magic hands and practical results on ground.
This write up is not a masterpiece show or a eulogy for His Excellency Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo but permit to say here that where truth is found, let it be sounded loud and clear for all and sundry to appreciate the great achievements of the Chief Servant of Kogi State.
I have seen many arguing blindly that salary payment is not an achievement. I think such arguments are for people without knowledge of the indices of human living and development. In a state where the population of civil servants is over twenty thousand, will it not be a deliberate witch hunt to say early and prompt payments of salaries to civil servants is not an achievement?
If salary payments is not an achievement, is it withholding the salaries of workers till the end or the beginning of a new month that is an achievement? Certainly No.
Since assumption of office on January 27, 2024, His Excellency Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo has placed the welfare of the civil servants of the state as top priority. Several times he has paid salaries to workers on 12th, 13th or 14th of the month whenever the civil servants of the state are about to celebrate their religious festivals. This month, the governor has once again demonstrated his respect to Allah whom he served and paid salaries on 13th of March, 2026 to enable the Moslem faithfuls prepare for Sallah celebration. Kudos to His Excellency who doubles as the peoples governor.
One thing that is very very unique to the Chief Servant of the state is that he does not make noise when he intends to do anything for the benefit of the people of the state. He works underground and before people could know about it he would have executed it with precision. In local pidgin parlance, it is called ” Mr talk and do governor.”
To the parents and guardians in the state, governor Ododo has continued to pay the yearly West Africa School Certificate (WAEC) fees of all the final year students in public schools across the state. And he has continued to do so in the last two years. He has also ensured that scholarship of indigent Kogi State students in tertiary institutions across the federation are continually paid. All these efforts are to ensure that the education system in the state is greatly enhanced and sustained.
On the nine tertiary institutions owned by the Kogi State government, the governor expended millions of naira in improving basic educational infrastructure. The measure has continued to fast track the accreditation of old and new courses in all the Tertiary institutions in the state.
In terms of empowering the youths in the state, the governor ensured that majority of the youths in the state are appointed as Special Advisers, Senior Special Assistants, members of Boards, Agencies and Parastaltas, Council Chairmen and Councillors etc. Today majority of Kogi youths have been engaged in the administration of the state.
On security, Governor Ododo has not left any one in the state in doubt on his commitment towards making the state a no go area for criminals. Few months into his administration, the governor bought vehicles and gadgets and distributed them to all the security agencies in the state. This he did to ease the job of the security agents in tackling the men of the underworld who might be plotting to creep into the state. Only recently the governor ordered the demolition of criminal hideouts across the three Senatorial districts of the state. This in effect has made criminals to stay clear from the state. If one compares the insurgency raging in some states of the federation it would not be an understatement to say Kogi is safe.
The women populace in the state has fully been integrated in the administration of Governor Ododo. Due to the governor’s inclusive administration, the governor has helped the women in the state to keep participating actively in the state political activities. Today the women in the state are Vice Chairmen, House Leaders across the twenty one Local Government Areas of the state. Many of them are also Councillors in the Local Government Areas. What’s more, many women in the state are members of Boards, Agencies and Parastaltas. Some of them are commissioners while the State Secretary to Kogi State Government is a female.
As a great leader of our time, His Excellency Alhaji Ahmed Usman has already taken a bond of fifty billion naira for the construction of an Airport and modern market in the state. This twin projects are geared towards generating massive employment for the good people of the state. This viable projects would be great legacies he would leave behind when by the grace of Allah he leaves office by 2032.
Let me state here and clearly too, that no one should decieve the teeming Kogi State civil servants in the state. Governor Ododo is doing what no other governor in the state wether dead or alive has done and is still doing for them.
“A bird at hand,” they say, “is worth a million in the bush.” It would be wise therefore for the entire Kogi State workforce to rally round governor Ododo for his victory at the polls come November 2027.
FOR HIS EXCELLENCY, THE CHIEF SERVANT OF THE STATE, IT IS APT TO STATE THAT, ONE GOOD TERM DESERVES ANOTHER TERM
Hon Chris Ben-Kato is the Senior Special Assistant on information and communication strategy to the Chief Servant of Kogi State, His Excellency, Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo.