Governor-Elect Yahaya Bello Says He and James Faleke Are Good Friends (Revealing)

Kogi State Governor-elect, Yahaya Bello, in a spoke frankly with Premium Times on issues bordering on his plans for the state after his inauguration, his relationship with his "deputy", James Faleke, the dream of the late Prince Audu Abubakar, among other things.

Below are 8 key things to note from his interesting chat...

1. APC leaders have reconciled
Following the death of Audu Abubakar while bearing APC’s flag in the governorship race of Kogi state, party leaders couldn’t agree on whom to hand the mantle, but eventually Bello emerged as consensus candidate. The governor-elect speaks on the reconciliation process after the supplementary elections and the party’s victory.

“Reconciliatory moves were made by both the national headquarters of our party, at the state level and at my own end and the leaders of our party, and it has yielded tremendous results.

“Leaders from the east, west and central have substantially – over 90 percent – accepted my candidature and eventual success at the poll. That is why we have been able to draw up a list of personnel of high repute to partake in the transition as well as inauguration programme that is ahead of us. So we are very much in good shape.”

2. Despite the candidacy tussle, Faleke and Bello are friends
Following Prince Audu’s demise and Bello’s emergence, the latter’s running mate, James Faleke had refused to run as deputy under Bello.

He was however, compelled by INEC to run as it was stated that a person had no such power to withdraw himself from a nomination, only his political party can.

Bello’s victory saw Faleke swearing not to attend the younger man’s inauguration ceremony, where he also would be sworn in as deputy governor.

Bello revealed his stand in the tussle and relationship with James Faleke.

“I have maintained this position, which I would still maintain, that as at the time of the vacancy of the governorship position, I was chosen and as at that time, there was a deputy governorship candidate as running mate. I am concerned about myself then as the governorship candidate and now the governor-elect. The party can better explain the position of deputy.”

“We speak regularly. Honourable James Faleke and myself are good friends. We maintain our friendship and the relationship is a wonderful one.”

3. He is working harmoniously with Idris Wada

As opposed to the norm of slinging mud at political opponents as soon as a victor emerges from an electoral process, especially when an opposition party emerges as the winner, Bello has declared that the outgoing governor of Kogi state, Idris Wada, in a show of good sportsmanship has extended a hand to harmoniously work on the transitioning process.

“Immediately after my victory at the poll and emergence as governor-elect, His Excellency, Captain Idris Wada, the executive governor of Kogi state, called and congratulated me. He also told me that he would immediately put up his own transition committee members and urged me to do same and forward my own team members to him.

“My team is being constituted now and within the week I am going to unveil, inaugurate and forward them to him. We are going to work harmoniously together.”

4. Kogi state is bleeding
The governor-elect also spoke on the current situation of the state and his, and his party’s plan to turn things around.

“I always say that the state is bleeding as a result of mismanagement and wasteful way of doing things. We would correct all this. Going by the manifesto of our party of diversifying the economy of our country, we equally want to look inwards as a state by improving our IGR (Internally Generated Revenue). What are those areas that are currently being tapped and those that are not tapped? Is what is being tapped maximally utilised? We also want to block all leakages that exist now.

“Agriculture is going to be of serious priority. We are also going to partner with the Federal Government as well as get foreign and local investors to tap into our mineral resources because we don’t have the exclusive right of tapping into these resources.

“Kogi State cannot be sitting on a gold mine and we are where we are today. We also want to look into the educational sector because at present it is seriously down. We want to completely overhaul it. In the health sector, our women and children are dying, that is going to be taken seriously. As for job creation, we cannot continue to employ as a state government. We must create that enabling environment for investors to come in and as such a lot of jobs would be created.”

5. He has no reason not to perform
Already gearing to work as the elected governor of the state, Yahaya Bello has revealed that his government will not be the type that gives excuses for failure. He stated what the electorate should expect from him.

“Performance! By the grace of God I would have no reason not to perform excellently. I will break the record of even our president, His Excellency, Muhammadu Buhari. After four years, Kogi state will never be the same again. Expectations are high, and we know there are challenges out there, but we are going to move in aggressively to ensure we do well.

“I will equally urge the youth to come on board, give us ideas to harmonize with ours so that we can build the state of our dream.”

6. Allah is my godfather
He also addressed rumors of his emergence as consensus candidate of the APC as compensation for dancing to the tune of a master puppeteer, also know as godfather in political terms.

He states who his godfather is without mincing words “Almighty Allah!”

“I have no reason not to appreciate God by performing after I am sworn in. I would have no reason not to perform and justify the support that the youth and Kogi people gave to me. If I don’t do that, I would have disappointed God, the youth and even the leaders who assisted us in getting to the point we are today.”

7. The powers of the youth cannot be challenged
Yahaya Bello, after his swearing in as executive governor of Kogi state, would be making history as the youngest state governor in Nigeria. He harped on the power in the unity of youths as well as the influence youths exert on electoral processes in the country.

“Coming down, everybody knew that Kogi state is backward, and we can’t fight for change for the country, get it and we can’t fight for it in our state. Remember that the powers of the youth cannot be challenged. We have the voting population, we are vibrant and we have all the ideas. So, we were able to put ourselves together and say look lets tell those who held us to this level that they should let us free. God then crowned all our efforts with this success.”

8. Kogi state must ensure that Audu’s dreams come true
The tragic death of Prince Abubakar Audu was a massive shock to the whole nation. The prince was contesting, and was on course to win his third term as the governor of Kogi state before the election was considered inconclusive by INEC. Inheriting the late Audu’s mandate, Bello wants the legacies of the late politician to remain and his dreams for the state to be actualized.

“Our leader, Abubakar Audu, may his soul rest in peace, was the first governor of our dear state and was as well as the second executive governor of the state. His developmental landmarks are still there. One way we can show appreciation for what he stood for is to ensure that his dreams come true by ensuring that we marry together almost all the developmental programmes he had and then embark on actualizing them aggressively. The state would be good for it.”