By joshua 
LETTER TO HIS EXCELLENCY, ALHAJI AHMED USMAN ODODO, FCA, ON HIS TWO YEARS IN OFFICE AS GOVERNOR OF KOGI STATE
Your Excellency,
Exactly two years ago, the people of Kogi State placed their trust in your hands. Today, with gratitude in our hearts, Kogites celebrate you for turning that trust into service, sacrifice, and visible progress. I therefore join every Kogite across the State to congratulate you on your successful and impactful two years in office today.
Through what you have done in just two years in office, Kogi children, youths, students, market men and women, farmers, workers, pensioners, widows, orphans, the poor, the less privileged, the deaf and dumb, the rich and super rich and Stakeholders, Traditional Rulers and people across Ebiraland, Igala land, Okun land, Bassa Nge and Bassa Konu, Ogori-Magongo, Oworo, Kupa and all in all, have all felt your positive impacts in their lives in one memorable way or the other.
In the farms, Kogi farmers have enjoyed the grants, fertilizers and other farm inputs and capacity building that you freely provided for them through the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Livestocks, ADP, ACReSAL and L-Pres Projects etc. Even the soil is happily yielding foods and fruits in greater abundance more than ever before.
In the schools and institutions of higher learning, Kogi pupils, students, teachers and lecturers have continued to hail the free education system, payment of Registration Fees for JAMB UTME, WASSCE, NECO, BECE etc for all affected students as well as rolling out Scholarships and Bursary Awards by your administration. This is in addition to improved teaching and learning infrastructures and facilities. Teacher and lecturers are not left out as you have lessened the burden of their work through prompt payment of salaries and other incentives. Many people had feared that you may not be willing to sustain the three State Universities, but you proved them wrong. You have taken the three institutions to greater heights, yet not relenting.
In Commerce and Industry, your campaign promise to take the sector to a higher level is superbly being realized. The Kogi State International Market located along Hassan Katsina Road, Zone 8, Lokoja that is nearing completion is a ready testimony. Through prompt payment of salaries and other forms of empowerment, you have increased the purchasing power of Kogites and directly and indirectly boosted commerce and economic activities in the State. Kogi market men and women have in many fora openly confessed that they have never had it so good than in this your administration.
In the health sector, many people who would have died as a result of one ailment or the other have continued to benefit from your numerous interventions in the sector. Through strategic investment in the State Health Insurance Scheme, renovation and revitalisation of Primary Healthcare centers across the State, upscaling of the salaries of health workers, especially Doctors to halt the ‘jakpa’ syndrome, launching of Drug Revolving Scheme and provision of many general and sophisticated medical equipment etc, you have saved many lives and given many Kogites reason to enjoy longer life in serenity of body and mind.
Your Excellency, your leadership is not a noisy or arrogant type, yet it is strong, responsive and decisive.
Your investment in infrastructure is not just about roads and buildings because you have built so many already— it is about connecting destinies and building legacies. A typical example is the State Audit House, the best in Nigeria today.
Your care for Kogi workers is not just about enhanced and prompt payment of salaries — it is about restoring their dignity and acknowledging their important contributions to the growth and development of the state.
Your focus on education is not just about free education, payment of all Exam fees and constructing classrooms— it is about securing the future of Kogi children and youths who will lead the State when we are retired or gone.
Your great attention to health is not just about hospitals and hospital equipment or enhanced salaries for health workers— it is about protecting lives and reducing morbidity and mortality in the families and communities.
Your investment in security is not just about equipment, recruitment and training of personnel and patrols — it is about preserving and attracting investments and maintaining peaceful atmosphere for everyone to freely go about his/her legitimate business for meaningful progress to take place in all parts of the State.
Your empowerment of farmers, youths, and women is not just about programmes and promises— it is about creating opportunities and restoring hope to the broken hearted.
Your Excellency, history will be kind to you for choosing stability over uncertainty; continuity and consolidation over confusion and stagnation; simplicity over recklessness flamboyancy; sacrifice over excuses; humility over arrogance; progress over retrogression; service over selfishness and fear of God over the fear of man.
Beyond policies and projects, Your Excellency, what touches hearts most is your humanity and humility — the lives you have lifted, the widows and orphans you have comforted, the poor and the powerful alike who have felt your kindness.
Notably, your strong and cordial relationship with the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, in particular and Federal Government in general continues to open doors of opportunities for Kogi State, strengthening federal presence and positioning Kogi State firmly on the national development map.
As we look ahead to 2027, when you will be competing your first tenure in office, the confidence of Kogi people in your leadership will continue to grow. Those who believed in you in 2023 are encouraged by your performance, those who doubted are being convinced by your results, and many who stood neutral are now identifying with your vision. With the grace of God and the will of the people, Kogi State looks forward to sustaining this journey of progress by queuing behind you come 2027.
Your Excellency, needless to reiterate that leadership is not measured by how loud one speaks, but by how many lives are touched and the legacies the leader bequeathed on the unborn generations. And in two short years, you have touched many lives across the State and beyond and put in place many legacy projects, policies and programmes that will stand the test of time and may be unsurpassed even in the next 100 years. Indeed, the impacts of your good governance is being felt in homes, streets, schools, hospitals, farms, markets and in public and private places.
As you mark this second anniversary, we celebrate not only what you have done, but what you still intend to do. We pray that God grants you long life, strong health, uncommon wisdom, and renewed strength to take Kogi State to even greater heights.
Congratulations, Your Excellency, on your two remarkable years of purposeful leadership.
Long live Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo!
Long live Kogi State!
God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria! 🇳🇬 in
Signed:
Chief Hon. Emmanuel Obasi
Special Adviser to Kogi State Governor on Federal Project Implementation in the State