Why Kogi residents shun the nationwide protest

By Obansa Ibrahim, Lokoja

As the nationwide protest entered day three, residents and Government have been speaking on the reasons why the planned nationwide protest failed to hold in Kogi.

Kogi State has remained peaceful, even on the third day of the protest, as the popular Lokoja market was opened for businesses, while commercial places were booming with activities.

Some of the citizens who spoke with our correspondent in Lokoja attributed it to the humble disposition of Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo who has been engaging with citizens at various levels since his assumption of office in January this year.

A Civil servant, Usman Isa, noted that aside the governor’s humane disposition, since he took over the mantle of leadership, has been very committed to the prompt payment of salaries at state and local government level, empowering the youths and women, providing the necessary inputs for the farmers, saying that he has been having constructive engagements with the people.

“With the governor doing all this, it’s only fair for citizens to give him a chance to do more, by meeting the needs of the people. He has been doing very well and we must continue to appreciate him so that we can get more.

“Yes, things are hard generally, but the governor’s approach is commendable. He has been very proactive. Look at the time he started providing palliatives to the people, long before the federal government even thought of it.

Others like the civil society groups in the state, market women and youths who spoke with our correspondent, said agitations must not necessarily be on the street. They noted that after the street jamboree, the whole thing will still snowballed to the board rooms where the issues are ironed out.

They were unanimous in their positions that citizens must always avoid violent protests and rather engage in constructive engagements.

They said “Government must also try to prevent this scenario, by engaging with citizens as we have seen in Kogi state. They must also be seen to be doing the right thing by keeping to their promises. This is also largely responsible for the failure of the planned protest in Kogi.

On the part of the government, it said the only way to prevent anarchy and violent agitation is by
engaging the people directly and taking steps to improve the economy.

Speaking in Lokoja on the day three of the planned protest, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, Ismaila Isah said, the Governor, Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo is focused on pro-people policies and programmes such as free education, free health care for vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in the state including pregnant women, the elderly, children from 0-5 years and people living with disabilities.

Speaking further he said “Our inclusive approach to governance which is derived from the servant leadership philosophy of the Governor has endeared him to the people of the state and that is why he was able to convince the people to be a little patient based on visible evidence of progress in workers’ welfare, security, agriculture, physical infrastructure and efforts to make life generally more meaningful to the people.

“All these can only get better and the people trust the Governor and the administration that things will be better sooner than later in Kogi State.

“Apart from our investment in youth and education, we have invested nearly N10 Billion Naira in machine refurbishment and direct farm inputs across the 76 Farm clusters in about 10,000 hectares with over 8,000 farmers, most of them youth and women in this wet season farming alone.

“Our plan is to scale up our investment in agriculture and food security to about 50,000 hectares with over N20 Billion to be spent in all-year round farming beginning from October this year and our youths have all keyed into this.

“All the 140 tractors fully deployed to the farms have engaged over 1000 persons per cluster including farmers, machine operators and security operatives who are guiding the farms spread across the 21 local government areas in the state.

“We gave invested over 2 Billion Naira in equipment to rehabilitate all township roads in the state.

“We have earmarked over 3Billion Naira to revamp over 70 Primary Health Care Centres in the state and more are coming soon.

Speaking with our correspondent in Lokoja, also the Commissioner of Information and communications, Kingsley Fanwo, said the people do not see any reason to protest since the Governor is already addressing their concerns.

“They also believe that the policies of the President are being replicated in the state and are already yielding good fruits. He stressed.