Kogi Central: When Will It Be Daybreak? By Yusuf Ozi-Usman

After listening to an online trending audio message by a female level 15 officer in the Kogi State ministry of education, I developed goos pimple. Though the story is not in any way different from what for a long time been the occurrences, this one jolted me to the reality about self-inflicted backwardness by a people that ordinarily should pride themselves as civilized.
To start with, it is not common with me to spare such length of time, about 50 minutes, listening to audio message, especially the one coming to me as “shared” stuff. But I found myself glued to the message with avid attention that even surprised me.
The woman’s narration, in summary, was about the brazen marginalization of Ebira, a tribe she belongs to. The marginalization, in the form of clever manipulative antics, is being perpetrated by not only the people of other tribes in the state, but are being aided and abetted from within, in a system that is being controlled by an actor who happened to come from the victimized Ebira.
As a matter of fact, the narration was one out of many that had defined the existence of the victimized Ebira that makes up Central Senatorial District.
Recall that when Kogi State was created: carved out from Kwara and Benue States, Igala that joined from Benue came with just six local governments while the self-vitimized Ebira joined with two Local Governments from Kwara. As I speak, Igala from Benue has nine local governments while the self-vitimized Ebira, because of the kind of leaders it is saddled with, has only five. The same thing happened in the population distribution, civil service structure, educational system and other socio-economic structures over the years
When Igala in the East Senatorial District came with determination and clear agrnda to dominate the state in all spheres of life, Ebira in the Central Senatorial District came in with confused agenda, and at best, “we are kind” posture. Of course, the kindness posture made the leadership of Ebira to concede the governorship position to Igala on a platter of gold at the beginning. Igala did not waste time to use the opportunity to implement their defined agenda: they took control of civil service, judiciary, economic, and even delved headlong into territorial expansion, even if it was illegal. Ebira was quiet. The excuse was of course, that Igala had the knife and the meat and could do what they were doing. The people in the West Senatorial District, seeing the quietness of Ebira in the face of obvious marginalization, joined Igala to rub pepper in the wounds of Ebira.

And, when God, in His mercy, thrust the position of governor to an Ebira man over ten years ago, there was hope that the marginalization would be corrected, not necessarily in a way to revenge. Of course, ex Governor Yahaya Bello tried to do just that, but Igala, in cahoots with Okuns from the West Senatorial District, had planted their tentacles in all facets of the government that unraveling them became almost impossible. The fact that another Ebira man, Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo succeeded Yahaya Bello as Governor has turned out to be the continuation of high level of cleverly knitted marginalization, especially, of Ebira.
The sad part of it is that Ebira leaders around the corridors of power, and even those inside it are the ones inadvertently supporting the marginalization. Imagine the level 15 civil servant being asked by one of the Ebira leaders around the corridors of power “who asked you to fight Ebira cause in the government?”
This is even when it became obvious that while the other two senatorial districts: East and West were playing smart game just to attract undue government patronages in the education sector, Ebira leaders are watching with careless abandon. For example, Kogi East senatorial district was said to have created over 140 secondary schools, even if most of them are phoney, whereas there are just 45 secondary schools purportedly in the central senatorial district, again, even if the number is sardonically whistled down by the forces from the same East and West senatorial districts. Facts also emerged that in one of the phoney schools in Okun land (West), only a student was found but the person in charge of compiling the list to be forwarded to the authority for action wrote 48 students. The person in charge wrote 15 students in one of the few schools in the Central Senatorial District where the number of students was 63. And the leaders from the Central Senatorial District would not raise an eyebrow. They would rather get angry with the people below them that are from the Central Senatorial District that draw their attention to the blatant anomaly.

There are many other antics of those from the other two senatorial districts against the people of the Central Senatorial District which the leaders from the same district treat with levity, instead of addressing them decisively with the urgency they deserved. To treat such matters as if they don’t deserve any attention amount to accumulation of issues that can burst out at any time. If the leaders from the Central Senatorial District now in charge of the affairs of the State do not correct the slanted development that started from the 16 year leadership of Igala, pray, what would such build-up slanted development turn to be when the position of governor slips off the hand of the Central Senatorial District?

Would Kogi Central Senatorial District ever be saved from the unfortunate darkness it has been thrown into through what looks clearly a conspiracy between the other two senatorial districts, with the leaders from within looking the other way, or even being ignorantly part of it? When is the daybreak going to come? when is the maneuvering of helpless Ebira by cunning neighbours going to end? And, will it end?