By Abu Micheal
I have tried very hard to like you, Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo, but I confess, I don’t like you. I don’t like you at all.
How can a governor make governance so simple that the mystique is gone? How can you demystify power like that? In the past, we saw governors from afar, like masquerades in a festival, heavily guarded, distant, and speaking big grammar from the podium. But now you, you are in every home, at every doorstep without us knowing. You are an amazing surprise we were not prepared for.
Chief Servant, I don’t like you because of the little things you do that end up big.
Tell me, which governor in the history of this state sits on the floor to eat with market women? Which governor stops his convoy to buy roasted corn by the roadside in Adavi and asks the woman, “How is your sales today, Mama?” Which governor remembers to call the Keke rider whose vehicle broke down and asks his ADC to sort him? Why will a governor stop his convoy at Zango Daji all because few persons gathered? You listened to them and discovered the gathering was about a transformer, and you ordered immediate delivery to the community. These small, irritating acts of simplicity have brought you face to face with the common man. You have refused to let us fear Government House. You have turned Lugard House to our parlour. I hate that.
And for those who say they don’t know what he has done, let me remind them of the building blocks he has added in just under three years.
Yes, aside from loving the common man, the children of nobody, and of no known address, this man we love to hate has quietly been building Kogi.
In Education: You made public basic education truly free. Not audio free. You removed levies in primary and secondary schools, paid WAEC, NECO, JAMB, and BECE fees for thousands of Kogi children, renovated over 100 schools, and you are building the new Kogi State University, Kabba.
Under Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo, Kogi AGILE – the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment, a World Bank-supported project – has become the backbone of his free education drive for the girl-child. The state has opened bids for the construction of 28 new combined Junior and Senior Secondary Schools across LGAs, with 61 bids received, designed with uniform prototype and strict quality compliance and to be completed in 12-14 months. This is part of a bigger envelope of between $40 to $50 million for Kogi, covering renovation of over 726 public secondary schools, provision of WASH facilities and teaching materials to create safe and conducive learning environments. e079a625
Beyond bricks, AGILE under Ododo is delivering empowerment. The project is providing digital literacy through 1,250 all-in-one desktops, projectors, solar power units and internet facilities in schools, vocational kits for secondary school girls, safe spaces in 100 secondary schools for mentorship and life-skills, scholarships and Conditional Cash Transfers, and a Second Chance Education programme launched in Anyigba to bring back girls who dropped out due to poverty or early marriage.
In Infrastructure: You refused to abandon projects. You continued the legacy and added yours. Roads now dot the landscape — Zone 8 – Zango – GYB Junction dualization, Obajana – Kabba road rehabilitation, rural access roads in 21 LGAs, erosion control in Lokoja, Ankpa, Okene. You lit up Lokoja.
In Health: You gave life to the primary healthcare system, upgraded General Hospitals, provided free healthcare for pregnant women and children under five, and strengthened the Kogi State Health Insurance Scheme.
In Agriculture: Your ACReSAL and APPEALS interventions and your wicked idea of giving grants to farmers to pay back with the quantity of harvest equivalent to the grant — no interest, no bank harassment — has returned Kogi to the farm.
In Security: You did not play politics with lives. You strengthened the Kogi State Vigilante Service, supported conventional security, bought patrol vehicles, and sustained the peace that allows us to sleep. On 18th October alone, your vigilantes rescued seven kidnapped victims in Okene forest. That is not luck. That is investment.
In Civil Service and Welfare: You pay salaries as and when due. You pay pensions and begin clearing gratuities, implemented promotions, and you treat workers as partners, not tools.
In Inclusivity: You are the first governor to truly build Kogi as one. Ebira, Igala, Okun, and now you remembered a people from the Kukuruku Hills who have lived in Lokoja for over a hundred years, neglected, and unmentioned. You sat with them, ate with them, and gave them an umbrella — a South-South People platform, like the three major groups that have enjoyed visibility. You told them, “You are Kogi too.” That is wicked love.
I hate you for free education. What kind of wickedness is that? Parents now sleep without thinking of school fees. You have removed class from the classroom. Where will those who were feeding fat on our poverty now go? You are truly wicked in loving the poor.
If this is why a few people hate you, if they hate you because you made life have meaning for the common masses you swore to protect, then we the South South people lovely hate you to hate them.
I write on behalf of the people of the South, who now have a voice. We have decided to hate to love those who hate your uncommon transformation of lives.
And to those who still hate you, we have a message, like the salvation message: It is not too late. Repent and join the kingdom, for it is at hand. Our heaven is in Governor Ododo’s Kogi, where all animals are equal, where the poor are seen, where the commoner is respected with empathy and a sense of belonging.
Your Excellency, continue your wickedness of good governance and loving the children of nobody’s. Continue to be wickedly kind in loving the common man you swore an oath to protect. Let me secretly inform you. We, the commoners that are brushed aside for long as nobody and unknown quantity, are in the majority. We are a revolution in your re-election, and nothing is stopping us.
We don’t like you. We love not to like you because you’re the face of hope beyond 2027. Above all, we don’t like you because of the way you always defer to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his renewed hope agenda. Every time you appear in public, you must praise and thank the president for his good works and for his support for Kogi. This habit has now contaminated your commissioners and other appointees and already spreads like wildfire among the citizens. As it is, you have joined in making all Kogi facing one political direction. No rancour. Just peace and unity.
Long live the people’s governor.
– Abu Micheal, President, South South States Residents in Kogi, writes from Lokoja.
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