By:
Farouk Ozigi Onimisi
This article is a rejoinder against an acclaimed founding father of APC in Kogi State, our father, ageing Dr. Tom Ohikere who will rather advise his son (GYB) and political party on social media forgetting what privacy means.
Perhaps, our ageing one time Information Commissioner is forgetting he could have visited Gov. Yahaya Bello’s inbox and make his observations if at all, his calls are no longer relevant (I find this hard to believe anyways).
According to Aldous Huxley “the secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.”
Friedrich Nietzsche postulated that “when marrying, ask yourself this question: do you believe that you will be able to converse well with this person into your old age? Everything else in marriage is transitory.” He added “one must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.”
It is evident to recall Tom Ohikere has been an online party man well favoured on unsubstantiated political analysis. In the party he claimed to be one of its founding fathers, he has never been part of any of our victories since he returned from PDP.
His envy and hate did not change the fortune of our party rather we are cruising with hospitals, flyover, roads and very impactful infrastructures. He has been on this hate track since 2015.
With the huge crisis of fake and adulterated fake delegates saga in PDP, he still see hope there as against the cleanest primaries conducted by APC and well adopted party. We sincerely don’t care if he opens up his secret admiration of calling Natasha Akpoti mummy.
While I will painstakingly put our ageing Tom Ohikere through the landslide achievements of Yahaya Bello over the six years he has governed Kogi State, it is expected at the end of the article, he would have known the answers to his question, of course, the future of the ruling All Progressives Congress is very bright in the confluence state as GYB has mentored great leaders who will take over the mantle of leadership after him.
Verily, the achievements of Yahaya Bello are so numerous but I will take our ageing father down the below feat of His Excellency and Jagaban of Kogi State.
Looking at the available land mass of Lokoja after the water body has taken nearly half of it coupled with the surrounding mountains and hills, the best any good administrator can do is to invest on strategic infrastructures that take the peculiarities of our location into consideration.
Furthermore, looking at the flooding challenges and even the ones occassioned by the heavy storm waters… GYB constructed drains with engineering specifics that openly addressed these menace.
Then, the first of its kind Ganaja Flyover in the state capital. The GYB led-administration saw to its construction so as to meet the traffic jam usually confronting Ganaja Junction and it is greatly transforming the state capital.
There is, Muhammadu Buhari Civic Centre which was meant at overcoming the joblessness of Kogi youths through the creation of social contract between the public and private sectors. GYB’s intent in this incredible project is borne out of the decaying infrastructural deficits Kogi State was subjected to.
Tom Ohikere may turn blind eyes to the beautification of Kogi Central by this very administration but I hope he won’t forget to acknowledge and applaud the quality road that pass through his family house, idi Kokori to AAAMCO. What does he know as capacity after following PDP for nine years and that road can’t be fixed by him?
Had it been he had done little when he was under PDP’s misrule, Kogi Central would have been been better than GYB met it… not even a television station under his watch as a Commissioner for Information. What we have today as television station at Okene Eba was provided by the same GYB and his men he is so much castigating for a bottle of beer.
I will put him through a run-on of some projects embarked upon by the GYB-led administration and it is evident that when all ongoing projects are completed and put into use, definitely, infrastructures that produced 2 Teaching Hospitals and about 7 Specialist Hospitals, over 200 classrooms for primary schools, in addition to numbers of Model Science Secondary Schools (1 in Lokoja), birthed a Confluence University of Science and Technology, Osara, other tertiary institutions facilities, township roads network at Ankpa, Okene, Kabba, Lokoja and 55kms Anyigba to Idah highway, Police Sq. Hqs office, the magnificent Kogi Revenue House, series of electrification and street lighting components, etc. may have truly transformed and will continue to improve our local economy as a state. How does it sound to Tom Ohikere thinking the consolidation of these legacies would run into the hands of some desperate/opposition elements in the state?
In 2019 General Elections, when Tom Ohikere was cruising on social media with fake tendencies of GYB’s second term, the young and vibrant governor, together with his trusted men, delivered for the first time, an unprecedented victory for the ruling All Progressives Congress by winning the Presidency and also the three senatorial districts as well as 7/9 House of Representative Members for the 9th Assembly. As if that was not enough, GYB and APC cleared the 25 members of the House of Assembly for the confluence state and in November 16th, 2019, the gubernatorial election of the state returned GYB reelected with a very wide margin.
This very government also gave recognition for the 30% women inclusion in governance as we now have 21 Vice Chairpersons in the 21 Local Government Areas of Kogi State. Without forgetting of course, women councillors and notable appointments given to women in GYB’s administration.
In 2022 APC Primary Elections, which has become nightmare to the ageing Tom Ohikere, Yahaya Bello, having built trusted men, had some of his mentored students winning the party’s ticket to contest for various positions in the Green and Red Chambers. All of them have traceable antecedents bedeviled with sustainable development. Our victory is just before the dawn and we will rather advise Tom to keep his observations as we know the angle he is speaking from.
APC in Kogi State has come to stay and I wish to assure Tom that when a palm branch reaches its height, it gives room for the fresh one’s to grow. He should equally know that no one takes painkiller for another man’s headache.
No one betrayed GYB in the recently concluded APC Presidential election as the youthful leader accepted the outcome of the election and has even donated his Abuja Campaign Office to our candidate and National Leader of our great party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, coasting to victory. What was done in 2019 elections shall be repeated in 2023, if not times three as APC shall clear all that belong to her in Kogi State and by extension, Nigeria at large.
As Tom continues envying the progress of APC in Kogi State which has no trace to his name, I leave him with the following words: he who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand, walk, run, climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.
Farouk Ozigi Onimisi writes from Abuja