By joshua ODODO: THE ACTION GOVERNOR REBUILDING KOGI, ONE COMMUNITY AT A TIME
By Abu Micheal
Thirty one months ago, His Excellency Alh. Ahmed Usman Ododo assumed office with a promise to consolidate on gains and deliver governance that touches the people. From January 2024 to January 2026, that promise has translated into clinics, classrooms, tractors, tarred roads, and peace in communities that once lived in fear.
Across Kogi State today, the story is not of big grammar but of visible results. In health, the Governor approved over ₦7 billion in 2024 for the rehabilitation of 88 Primary Healthcare Centres, while more than 70 others were already undergoing renovation. By November 2025, he personally commissioned the first phase of 80 fully revitalized PHCs, now powered by solar, stocked with drugs, and equipped with modern medical tools. The broader vision is even bolder, with over 150 PHCs targeted across all 21 LGAs so that no mother in Ibaji and no child in Yagba will have to travel hours to access basic care. To secure the future of that care, Governor Ododo also approved the construction of hostels for medical students and doctors’ quarters at the Confluence University of Science and Technology Teaching Hospital in Okene, ensuring that Kogi trains its doctors and keeps them to serve its people.
On roads and infrastructure, the administration has connected people to opportunity. From the Zone 8–Barracks–Zango Road to the Zone 8–Crusher Road in Lokoja, and to numerous urban and rural projects across Kogi East, West and Central, the sound of graders has become the sound of progress. The Governor did not stop at asphalt. Understanding that erosion has swallowed livelihoods, his government pushed the Omigbo Gully Channelization and Stabilization Project in Kabba to 98 percent completion by late 2025, saving homes and farmlands. Through ACReSAL and other climate programmes, he has also restored degraded land, sunk solar-powered boreholes in underserved communities, and brought water closer to the people.
In agriculture, Governor Ododo has treated food security as a matter of survival. In 2024 alone, his administration invested over ₦7 billion in wet-season farming, distributed inputs, and deployed more than 100 tractors to cultivate about 7,000 hectares. Through strategic partnerships with IFAD, ACReSAL and L-PRES, farmers, livestock producers and agro-processors have received renewed support for climate-smart and value-chain agriculture. In Kogi West, over 7,000 farmers were directly supported and 184 hectares restored through reforestation, proof that the Governor is determined to make Kogi an agrarian powerhouse.
Education has also received uncommon attention. Demonstrating his belief that no child should be denied an exam due to poverty, the Governor paid WAEC and other external examination fees for more than 18,000 public school students. At the tertiary level, he invested in the Faculty of Engineering at CUSTECH and in facilities for medical education, while driving the process for the revival and accreditation of the MBBS programme at Prince Abubakar Audu University, Anyigba. For many families, that single intervention means the dream of producing a doctor can now be realized at home.
Perhaps most applauded is the Governor’s firm hand on security. Through sustained support for security agencies and community-based initiatives, and with the strategic push for a Forward Operating Base in Bagana, Governor Ododo helped restore peace and commercial activity to areas once held hostage by criminals. The successful rescue of 20 students abducted from CUSTECH further affirmed his administration’s doctrine: that every Kogi life matters and no child will be abandoned.
In the area of governance, Governor Ododo strengthened accountability by commissioning the Kogi State Audit House in January 2026, bringing together the offices of the Auditor-General for the State and for Local Governments under one roof to deepen transparency and block leakages.
Two years in, the verdict of the people is becoming clear. Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo has chosen the path of action over rhetoric. He has opened clinics, fixed roads, empowered farmers, paid school fees, restored peace, and built institutions. From Lokoja to Ankpa, from Kabba to Idah, Kogites are beginning to see and feel government again.
As the administration progresses to its third year, expectations are high, but so is the confidence. With the foundation firmly laid, Kogi under Governor Ododo is not just moving, it is moving forward.