By Kingsley Omonobi
Alhaji Jibrin Isa, an investment banker of repute is gunning for the governorship seat in Kogi state. With Kogi State celebrating 20 years of its creation today, he speaks on the journey so far and what he expects the state to look like in the next 20 years.

In the next few days, Kogi State will be 20. What can you say has been the achievements since its creation?

Alhaji Jibrin Isa

I will say that 20 years in the life of an individual or any entity is not enough for one to be able to have adequate assessment. I want to believe that successive governments in Kogi state in the last 20 years have done their best given the situation they found themselves.

During the military regime, that was when the state was created. The immediate concern was for the necessary infrastructure for the government housing scheme in Lokoja, the state capital.

That to them was the priority then. Then came on board the civilian regime that heralded Abubakar Audu. He also did the best he could, given the state of the economy of Kogi state then and that is when for example, he established the university which to him, was his priority anyway because of the educational backwardness of Kogi state. He also did a couple of things.

Of course, the records are there. To that extent, he did the best he could, given the resources available to him then and given the state of the economy then. Then thereafter, the incumbent governor took over the mantle of leadership of the state. He has done extremely well, especially in the areas of health sector, education too.

Unemployment persists in Kogi State and there are two giant sources of employment that are lying fallow, the Itakpe Rolling Mill and the Ajaokuta Steel Company. How can these companies be used to solve unemployment in the state?

If you followed my campaign programme, those two giant companies that are lying fallow would be my first point of call if I am given the opportunity to take over the position of leadership of Kogi state.

Successive governments including the incumbent, like I said, have done what they have done, given their reading of the state of economy of Kogi state. I would not want to apportion blame but then, those companies are actually federal government projects.

But to the extent, that they are on our land and on our soil, we should have an input with respect to how those industries are being administered, and that is where I come in. I feel that given my own background, I will be able to partner with some foreign investors to come up with some comprehensive proposals to the federal government on how we can turn around the fortunes of these two companies. It should be of interest to the federal government that those companies work because we have several of such white elephant projects all over the country.

How do you expect Kogi State to look like considering that resource allocation is increasing yearly in the next 20 years?

Firstly, let me say there may be some leakages but I do not have the capacity, the knowledge, and the background to talk about whatever the leakages are. But from a pure economic point of view, I believe that the problems we may be having may be due to inflation. What you could do with N10, 10 years ago, if you have N100 today, you might not be able to do it. So inflation may be attributable to that, may be the cause of some of those things. That much more money come in but maybe less work is being done. That may be attributable to inflation. Then, overhead, the number of hands that were employed 10 years ago, maybe the government would have doubled the staff strength by now. Of course, when you double your staff strength, even if the salary remains the same, the total cost naturally will be higher than what you incurred before.

What about peace, development, and the issue of democracy dividends. What do expect Kogi to be like?

Twenty years down the line, we expect a lot to happen in Kogi state. Starting from the area of peace in Kogi state which I told you Governor Ibrahim Idris has done a lot in terms of ensuring that the people co-exist peacefully, he has achieved a lot in this regard.

But I think we can improve on that to ensure that the major stakeholders hold quarterly meetings with the governor in power at any particular point in time. It is very important so that rumour can no longer have its place in Kogi state.

People go around parading all forms of rumour but when the governor sits with the major stakeholders on a monthly basis, between you and me, some of those rumours will not have any basis to thrive. I was with the Kogi State National Assembly members sometimes ago, and I told them that look, they need to have constant interface with the governor, formal interface, monthly basis with the governor, so that they can also have input as to how the state is being administered. Those are some areas that we should look out for in terms of looking for peace. The other source of peace is the issue of rotation of power.

It is very important so that at the end of the day, we should be able to allow each Senatorial district to have a taste of what it means to be at the helm of affairs of Kogi state.

Unemployment is a major problem today in Nigeria and of course, Kogi state is not an exception. If some of us are given the opportunity to take over the mantle of leadership of Kogi state, to continue with what the incumbent is doing, employment will be a key issue that we have to look at, as I did say earlier. That is why the issue of Ajaokuta Steel and Itakpe Iron ore is top priority.

Beyond that, because these are federal government projects we also have raw materials that we can harness to create employment opportunities for people in Kogi state.