Olu Samuel, Lokoja

The Kogi state Governor, Alhaji Yayaha Bello has said that the choice of Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo as All Progressive Congress, APC preferred candidate to succeed him was to ensure continuity and also improve on the legacy built in the last eight years.

The Governor stated this on Sunday in an address to the people of the State to mark 32 years of the creation of the state.

Alhaji Ododo Ahmed Usman is the candidate that we have selected and presented to Kogi State as the candidate for the 2023 Gubernatorial Elections and our preferred successor to the GYB years. He is well known for his humility and humanness, underlined by professionalism and strong leadership skills. I am confident in his ability to continue the upward trend in our growth graph established by our New Direction Administration and I solicit your support for him in the November 11 Kogi State Governorship Elections.

He said that the new Direction government of the past eight year which he led had succeeded in building a stronger and more vibrant state in spite of its cheqered history.

He described the ocassion as historic as it was a day of remembrance and recommitment toward progress

“Kogi State emerged as an entity from parts of Benue, Niger, and Kwara States on the 27th day of August, 1991 full of the promise and possibility of a new era for our people. Since that day, we have come a long way. In the process we have overcome challenges and though our history has been chequered, we have continued to journey towards a stronger and more vibrant Kogi State”. He said

The governor however acknowledged the contribution of his predecessors which he said have contributed to what the State has become today.

” As for my predecessors, it suffices to say that their times in office, including their triumphs and failures, all contribute to the land and people we have become and are becoming as we march resolutely towards the greater future that we dream of. I salute each and everyone of them and do thank them sincerely, on behalf of all of us, for their Services.”

Governor Bello said that his commitment to the ideals of the new Direction blueprint has been the major driver of his actions and decisions.

“This policy plan has served us well as our guiding light, leading us towards the accelerated and proportional development we envisaged from inception across all constituencies in our State.

In education, health, infrastructure, youth empowerment, civil service reform, security, agriculture, and more, we have taken remarkable strides that are both visible and impactful today – even to the worst naysayer or skeptic. We have been able to do so much irrespective of the back to back years of financial underdelivery which has characterized our tenure from start to finish.”

According to him “Our advances have been made possible because of our determination to display both astuteness and probity in Public Financial Management. We have diligently reformed our budgeting, procurement, debt management, revenue generation systems, and more.

” It is no longer news that our commitment to financial transparency and accountability has earned us the top position among Nigerian states in the World Bank’s States’ Financial Transparency, Accountability, and Sustainability (SFTAS) index, time and again.

“Our success in leadership and governance has been meticulously planned and executed, and it is with the same intentionality that we embarked on the creation of the Kogi State 32-Year Development Plan earlier in the year.

This plan will project our developmental aspirations for the next three decades, outlining both the short-term objectives that will derive from it and the longer term aspirations that we must pursue. Just as Alan Lakein once said, “Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.”
He added.