Kogi state Governor, Yahaya Bello has been commended for his appointment as the National Youth Coordinator in the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council by the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
A statement by the Barristers Moses Okezie-Okafor, to the Director-General, Research and Development in Kogi state said Governor Bello is the most qualified person to man the post entrusted to him by Asiwaju Tinubu.
Barrister Okezie-Okafor said: “Yahaya Bello’s proven successes in his mandate as the Governor of Kogi State was the starting point for his success in the present assignment, noting that Nigerians now have a deep-rooted aversion for politicians who come to them with rosy plans for a future they have failed to demonstrate in their past or present positions of trust.
‘So, our leader Tinubu displayed his legendary astuteness in his choice of Yahaya Bello for this role. Now, he has an emissary in my principal who will be going to Nigerian youths as one of them, obviously, but also as an effective politician and charismatic leader who is walking the talk powerfully in his current duty post.”
He said Yahaya Bello’s achievements span all the areas in which Nigerian youths are yearning for more starting with the provision of critical infrastructure and utilities across all sectors which are so humongous they have now become impossible to deny, even by his most rabid detractors.
”He has managed the vast diversity of Kogi State in a manner people want to see in Nigeria. He has appointed more youth and women into top offices in this 4th Republic, including persons with disabilities, with a proportional mix of tribes and religions. He has ensured security of his state at a most trying time in that area nationally. Even the vexatious disruptions to the tertiary education calendar affecting many youths today has been resolved long ago in Kogi state.
“These are all areas Nigerian youths want to hear from someone who has earned the street credibility for them’, Barr. Okezie-Okafor added. ‘Yahaya Bello will be a salesman for Asiwaju Tinubu who has no body odour or other failings of his own to detract from the marketability of his product,” he said.
Okezie-Okafor also said in addition to his direct efforts in good governance, Yahaya Bello has proven himself to be a leader that the nation and the APC has turned to time and time again when tensions needed to be doused among the youth, recalling Governor Bello’s peacemaking roles during the #EndSARS protests and in brokering peace when aggrieved northern youths imposed a food embargo on the south due to the killing of some northerners in parts of the south. He also referred to the great success of Governor Yahaya Bello when he chaired the APC’s Women and Youth Mobilisation and Sensitisation Committee in 2020 which brought in millions of youths into the folds of the governing party.
On his own part, the Deputy Governor of Kogi state, Chief Edward Onoja, noted that his boss does not take assignments lightly and that having accepted to work in this capacity, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the APC should expect nothing but runaway success from his boss, emphasizing that Yahaya Bello has handled a similar role successfully for the APC before.
‘In 2014/2015, Yahaya Bello singlehandedly funded the Kogi Youth Arise Group as a duly registered Category A support group for the Buhari/Osinbajo Presidential Campaign and they not only helped to galvanize a resounding win in Kogi State for the APC’s flag-bearers then, but contributed substantially to the new ruling party’s takeover of the state from the PDP a few months later which brought him into office as Governor. Today, Yahaya Bello is a two term Governor, the representative and face of the youth in government and a much stronger force in politics. He has always worked well with his primary demography, the youth. You can take my word for it that he will repeat the feat with even more outstanding results for Tinubu/Shettima,” he said.
