Richard Elesho
Monday 27 January 2025 was like no other day for many residents of Lokoja, the Kogi State capital. Unlike the usual rushing, bustling, and other preparations for a new week, that day, the people woke and rose to play. Although the government did not declare a public holiday, the people took the liberty to ignore work, safe for those on essential duty. Instead, they rolled out the drums as all roads practically led to the first anniversary in office of Alhaji Usman Ododo, who became governor in January last year.
From all walks of life, the people, clad in their best embroidery, migrated to Zone 8 Roundabout for a symbolic project inauguration and the Muhammadu Buhari Square, MBS, venue of the grand festivities. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, represented by his vice, Kashim Shettima, was the star guest of the celebration, cutting tape after tape. He inaugurated the 9km Zone 8 Roundabout/ Barracks/ Zango Daji/ Kaduna Junction and the 5.5km Zone 8 Roundabout/ Hassan Katsina/ Crusher Roads.
Easily rated as the most visible landmarks of the Ododo first year in Lugard House, the two roads have been in abject states of dereliction for about two decades. Hassan Katsina Road equates to the three-arms zone of the city. It hosts the state secretariat, several courts, zone 8 police headquarters, the Department of State Services, DSS, and indeed the House of Assembly. Road users, including judges, lawyers, lawmakers, security operatives, and civil servants, were daily forced to rehearse acrobatic dances on the road. The same discomfort applies to users of the twin road.
However, the story has recently changed following the completion of the roads. The double lane roads are with reinforced pedestrian shoulders and solar powered street lights. People now enjoy better travelling experience whenever they are on the roads.
The Ododo administration’s infrastructure touch in education is concentrated in the young Confluence University of Science and Technology, CUSTECH, Osara, and Kogi State University, KSU, Kabba. The two neophyte institutions were established by Ododo’s immediate predecessor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello. The administration has constructed several kilometres of roads in the schools, in addition to the completion of a demonstration farm, 350-bed capacity male and female hostels in Osara, and an ongoing Senate building in Kabba.
Ododo’s priority in the health sector is access to affordable primary medical facilities. The state, with support from the World Bank, is currently working to revitalise more than 150 Primary Health Centres, PHCs across its 21 local governments. The initiative started last year April with about 70 centres. The administration expanded the scope with an additional 88 PHCs this January.
The governor said that the upgrade of primary healthcare facilities is part of the strategic plan of his government to improve access to quality healthcare services in all parts of the state. Emphasizing that health is wealth, he said unhindered access to healthcare by all citizens and residents of the state is in the first line of his policies. As a value-added, Ododo approved free malaria testing and treatment in all government hospitals in the state.
The commissioning of a well-furnished military Forward Operation Base, FOB in Bagana, Omala Local Government Area, underscores Ododo’s commitment to peace and security. The administration has also donated hundreds of vehicles, motorcycles, and communication gadgets to a reformed state vigilante service and other security agencies. A sustained coded operation and onslaught on confirmed criminal hideouts have helped in ridding the state of the undesirable elements.
Much as the above may be altruistic, what makes Ododo truly enigmatic is the prompt payment of salary and emoluments. Before his ascension to the Kogi number one seat, irregular salary payment was the order. Today salary at the state and local government levels are not only paid as and when due, the governor is the first to approve the N72,000 minimum wage. The development has made him truly popular with the state workforce and retirees.
Another point of Ododo’s elastic popularity is his peaceful body language and social reinvestment program, a significant leg of which is the semi-free education policy in the state. The administration pays the West African School Certificate Examination, WASCE, and Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, for all final-year secondary school students in the state. In a related development, all Kogi state indigenes schooling in tertiary institutions across the country and abroad are enlisted in its bursary program.
Kingsley Fanwo, Commissioner for Information and Communication, offers an insight into governance under Ododo. “What we are celebrating is good governance. From agric to health, education, infrastructure, and social responsibility, the citizen is the first and only agenda of Governor Ododo. Our primary occupation is to provide the enabling environment for businesses to grow and the citizenry to thrive.”
He may be right. Not a few people praise the governor for a good first-year outing, amidst calls on him to spare some attention to the exploration of the vast solid mineral deposits of the Confluence State. The well-dressed women clapping and dancing to sonorous traditional tunes that Monday paint the picture of a people at peace with their leader.
For how long will the ovation continue? Time will tell.
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