Kogi State Governor, Alh. Yahaya Bello has urged the people of the state to continue to support his New Direction Agenda for the development of the state.

Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State

The Governor who stated this through his Director General on Media and Publicity at a Media Roubdtable in London said the Thematic Areas of the Agenda is already “sparking a revolution” in the state.

“Before the present administration in Kogi State, there was no direction or succinctly put, we were on an old, negative, corrupt and inept Direction. The emergence of Governor Yahaya Bello has changed the development narrative of the Confluence State of Kogi State.

“Our focus is on Education, Agriculture, Healthcare, Job Creation through Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, Eco-tourism as well as massive infrastructural development across the state.
We discovered our roads were in shambles on assumption of office and the Governor has declared a state of emergency on the roads. Kogi is currently a construction hub. The Federal Government has also approved the reconstruction of major Trunk A roads in the state”.

The Governor also urged the international community to support his drive towards education and healthcare development in the state, saying his administration is creating “the right environment” for international support.

“We are reshaping our education. The facilities and the quality of teaching are not good enough.

We are not completely exonerating government from blame. We need to build from the foundation and make our public schools more attractive. That is exactly what we are doing with our Model Primary Education Schools.

It is not about the structure or the environment, but more about the system. We need to rescue the system.

“We undertook a thorough Staff Verification Exercise as the first step of a wholistic Civil Service Reform. The state was dangerously operating a civil service without data, discipline or efficiency. We had to stop that.

Everything is going digital in our civil service. It didn’t come without bashing from people who are resistant to change. But we had to campaign ourselves through months of rigorous and intent screening and digitalization. We are poised for a rejuvenated, rebranded, reinvigorated and refined civil service.

“On Agriculture, we need the world. We need technology import and modern agricultural expertise to turn our state to a world-beating agriculture destination. We have the geographical conditions to be the food basket of Africa. We are working hard to achieve results”.

Governor Bello said his administration is “silently achieving results in revamping the healthcare system in the state”, saying emphasis is placed on “strengthening the primary healthcare system as well as strive to drag down maternal and infant mortality”.

“It is our desire to ensure mothers don’t die in the process of giving birth to life. We are aware no development can be achieved when people have no access to decent healthcare facilities. The Government of Kogi State is working hard to achieve good health for Kogites”, he said.

He expressed shock at the “devastating floods in Texas”, saying the people of Kogi State are in “bond with the international community to show support to the people who are devastated by floods”.

“Kogi State went through devastating floods in 2012. We lost lives, properties and man hours. We know what floods could do. Our sympathies go to the Texas people for the agonizing experience.

“The world must pay increasing attention to the issue of environment and flooding. Our Ministry of Environment in Kogi State is doing a lot in that regard to create awareness and institutional framework to defend our environment. We need the support of the West in this regard”.