He promised to fix Kogi State with his transformation agenda, but four years after, Governor Idris Ichala Wada's promises have remained largely unfulfilled!
At virtually all his campaign rallies in 2011, the Governor of Kogi State, Captain Idris Ichala Wada got the crowds to see him as one of them. His smiling face advertised him as that who does not belong in the sphere of the inordinately ambitious inhabited by most of the country's politicians.
Indeed, Wada rode to the office on the back of one heart-winning campaign slogan: ' a transformation agenda'. Although he didn't outline specific agenda. His niche was that he was going to make a change.
Not a simple change, he said, but a superlative change. He promised a transformation, which the dictionaries described as a ' marked or radical change', usually for the better. And he said he would, like Usain Bolt, hit the ground running, once he got into office.
Therefore, assessing Wada, four years after, presents a simple task to us, the assessors. The questions to ask are:
How far has he fulfilled his promise to effect change in our state?
How far has his transformation agenda gone?
Unless they live in Afghanistan, even Wada's ardent supporters will agree with critics that nothing much has changed in Kogi State in the last three years and seven months.
Water supply has not improved; sometimes it sink to the pre-2010 level, despite the billions of naira the immediate past governor, Ibrahim Idris claimed to have extended on the state 'Greater Water Project'.The roads are still terrible in many parts of the state.
"The condition of our roads in Lokoja the state capital and roads in most of our local government areas beggars imagination. And here I must ask the question; do our governor, commissioners and leaders who travel often and see the condition in other states ever feel embarrassed by the condition of roads in our resource-rich state. Do they notice the large potholes that litter the roads and even bridges?"
Those words, coming from Alhaji Usman Yakubu, President, Movement for Social Justice, MSJ, vividly captures the dismal failure of Kogi State roads in an interview with Kogiwatch Newsmagazine at Lokoja recently.
Infact, there are palpable impression that the state has sunk deeper into the morass, in the last four years. Many Kogites are horrified that the Wada, who promised a transformation agenda has failed.
As the driver of transformation, Wada ought to lead by action and words that will rouse and inspire his people for change.
By Amuda Dan Sulaiman Fab, Kogi Voice for Change
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