By joshua Lokoja I: Why Continuity With Team-best Serves The Greater Good
By Abu Micheal
There has never been in history where a Lawmaker at the state level has met all the yearnings and aspirations of his constituents 100%. I have had the privilege to live within the confines of our unbroken democratic experiment since the creation of Kogi State to know that Lokoja, as privileged as it has been, has made choices in Assembly members.
If truth be told, let us point to accomplishments that are in legacy standing to be compared to what is obtainable now under the current lawmaker representing Lokoja I State Constituency, Hon. Bin-Ebaiya Shehu Tijjani that outweighs his legislative accomplishments. There is always room for improvement no doubt about that, but it does not come with throwing away the baby with the dirty water.
The first duty in facing a challenge is to recognise what you cannot accomplish alone, within the ambit of available responsibilities and resources. Let it be stated that no individual no matter how gifted as a Lawmaker can complete the task of meeting the yearnings of the people in isolation.
The building of roads and bridges amongst other infrastructure some person may ignorantly attribute to a Lawmaker are misnomer, reason why there is more of enlightenment as to the expected role of what should be expected of a Lawmaker other than having a voice for the people which I think, the Lawmaker representing Lokoja 1 has achieved.
There is a need to build this background to underscore the fact that some persons, as lucky as they are, are pushed to stardom by the effort of a few to pull him down which is what is happening in Lokoja 1. Unfortunately, those throwing tantrums at the Lawmaker representing Lokoja 1 cannot adduce any reason for their crab mentality.
A Lawmaker is not an Executive Chairman, not a Commissioner, not a contractor. In the context of a State House of Assembly, his constitutional roles are three: Lawmaking, Representation and Oversight.
Judged by these yardsticks, in the ensuing contest, Hon. Ebaiya has done well.
History will have it on good authority that he was one of the most active voices on bills that have direct bearing on the lives of the people. Record also don’t lie, he has to his credit over 15 motions, one of the highest by a current serving lawmaker in the 8th Kogi Assembly. A check of verified proceedings shows his footprints:
Bills and Legislative Contributions verifiably traced to him:
1. Contribution to Kogi State Anti-Corruption Agency Bill – Where he argued forcefully for a homegrown anti-graft mechanism.
2. Kogi State Free Maternal and Neonatal Healthcare Services Bill, 2025 – Passed by the Assembly to guarantee free healthcare for mothers and newborns.
3. Kogi State College of Agriculture, Ochaja-Egume Establishment Bill, 2026 – For agricultural education and diversification.
Some of his Motions on the floor:
– Motion on the need to expand and strengthen the Lokoja Urban Mass Transit System to protect residents from arbitrary Keke and Okada charges.
– Motion urging Kogi State Government to prioritize provision of safe and potable water to residents of Lokoja and environs – as Chairman House Committee on Water Resources.
– Motion on youth unemployment and urban pressure peculiar to Lokoja as a state capital.
– Motion on the need for the State Government to develop and implement a Comprehensive Social Protection Policy Framework in Kogi State – 3rd December, 2025 – to protect the aged, PWDs, women and children when floods, fire and shocks occur.
If lawmaking was wired for performance, Ebaiya deserves a second term.
The Team-Best We Knew Before Office
There was a time Hon. Bin-Ebaiya Shehu Tijjani held no political office, yet his name rang loudest in Lokoja. From far away Lagos where he built his business, he was touching lives at home, paying school fees, settling hospital bills, fixing water problems and intervening for youths. He did it methodically, stretching his modest resources to meet needs as they came. That reservoir of goodwill is why his election in 2023 was not just an election, it was a referendum. Lokoja did not vote for a stranger, the people voted for a man they already knew and trusted. That context has been conveniently forgotten by a few in the current debate.
To be a lawmaker for Lokoja I is not the same as being a private philanthropist. Lokoja I is not a quiet Ward, it is the metropolis itself, it is the state capital where every indigene, resident, trader, student, okada rider and civil servant believes you are his personal representative. Needs are infinite and resources are finite, and in an austere economy no one man can meet all expectations at once. In private life you choose who to help and when, in public office everyone queues at your door at the same time. It is in managing that immense pressure with grace and equanimity that Hon. Bin-Ebaiya has distinguished himself.
His greatest strength, however, has been his strategic closeness to government and his capacity for quiet lobbying that delivers tangible results. Working in seamless synergy with his brother lawmaker and Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Aliyu Umar Yusuf who represents Lokoja II, he has leveraged that relationship to attract dividends of democracy to the entire Lokoja metropolis. Where others shout on social media, he lobbies quietly in the corridors of power and results come home.
His record is verifiable and predates his time in the Assembly. As a private citizen and later as Senior Special Adviser on Water Resources, he undertook water reticulation and the repair of moribund pipes from Karaworo to Up Garage, Felele and other traditional wards, an intervention that was publicly commended by the Hakimi of Ward C. As lawmaker he has sustained that passion with boreholes and facilitation of state interventions to ease the water crisis.
In education his impact is equally clear and well documented. Under his Educational Development Programme he paid for 500 free JAMB forms for constituents, organized free computer-based pre-examination lessons for JAMB, WAEC, NECO and NABTEB candidates, and instituted a special reward system for the best ten male and female students who excel. These are not token gestures, they are deliberate investments in the future of Lokoja children.
He is by nature very unassuming, and that simplicity has been misconstrued by some as weakness, but it is not weakness, it is his greatest strength, reflected in his calm ability to build bridges, to listen, to forgive and to keep working while others make noise.
The Pull-Him-Down Syndrome
This is where we must pause and reflect on the danger of the pull-him-down syndrome that has crept into our politics. As the great Chinua Achebe warned, “A man who does not know where the rain began to beat him cannot know where he dried his body.” We have forgotten where we started with Team-Best and we risk destroying what we built with our own hands.
The renowned American civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr., put it more directly when he said, “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” If we choose to pull down our own because of temporary anger, we all perish politically as fools.
The Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka has also reminded us that, “The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny,” and today tyranny takes the form of unsubstantiated criticism, of calumny without facts, of anger without reason.
William Shakespeare captured this self-destructive trait centuries ago when he wrote in Julius Caesar that, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” The fault in Lokoja I is not in lack of performance by Hon. Bin-Ebaiya, the fault is in ourselves, in our impatience, in our crab mentality that rejoices when one of us falls. And as the late sage Obafemi Awolowo cautioned, “The worst thing that can happen to a people is to lose a good leader to the intrigues of a few disgruntled elements.”
Why Second Term Is Logical
In every second term contest there will be hurdles and Lokoja I is no exception. Findings show that the loudest tantrums against Hon. Bin-Ebaiya are coming from one axis, Ward A, where there was a perception that it was their turn. Aspiration is legitimate and contest is allowed in a democracy, but what is not normal is for dissent to continue after a credible process has been concluded.
In Lokoja I, stakeholders subjected all aspirants to an open secret ballot, every aspirant agreed to the process, and the result was emphatic with 18 votes for Bin-Ebaiya against 6 and 1 for others. His own Ward B, which had agitated for years for representation, the time is now to solidly rally behind its son.
This is therefore a passionate appeal to the few aggrieved persons still holding on to grievances to let go and look at the bigger picture. If the lawmaker when accosted has sincerely apologized and appealed for forgiveness for any perceived slight, to what extent should our anger go except there is something else not known politically.
Politics should not be about pull-him-down, people can raise objections in positive light, but not unsubstantiated criticism driven by malice. You cannot stab a man you hardly can point to one sin you hold against him.
For now APC has become the mainstay in Kogi State and in Lokoja, it would be foolhardy for Lokoja I to go the way of the opposition. Change is important in politics, but change for change sake does not serve the yearning and aspirations of the people.
What is currently available does not match what Team-Best offers in experience, accessibility, party loyalty and proven performance. He may not have done everything, no leader does, but his best far outweighs his shortcomings when juxtaposed with available resources and the performance of other lawmakers in the Assembly.
Hon. Bin-Ebaiya has used his first term to lay a veritable springboard that will enable constituents to see visible and verifiable accomplishments in his second term. First terms are for learning the ropes, for understanding the system and for building contacts, second terms are for consolidating and delivering. He has learnt, he has listened and he is ready to do more.
As the American President John F. Kennedy famously said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” and now is the time to ask what we can do for Lokoja I by returning a man who has already shown what he can do for us.
The bottom line is a rethink. Let his sincere appeal make meaning. Allow APC supporters rally behind him for victory. It may not be their turn now but Providence has a way of smiling on people who wait patiently. For continuity, for sustainability and for the greater good of Lokoja I, Team-Best deserves a second term.