Dino And The Confusion Of His Gang

Just when you think that one Dino Melaye, regrettably a Senator representing the proud and hardworking people of Kogi West, can sink no lower in his continuously tanking public displays of senselessness, he goes and falls below the abyss again.

We know he prides himself as something of a troublemaker, but there is a difference between a goofy bad boy persona and an utter scumbag. Hard words, yes. But how else should we address one who made the deliberate choice to address the Sultan of Sokoto and his royal entourage as ‘the Sultan and Co.’, lashes and lambasts them throughout a lengthy article, then proudly seals and signs the insult with his name and circulates it in the media.

Is there any deliberate insult more demeaning than that? Any misrepresentation of our state and cultures worse than that? How can we prove to the people of Nigeria and the Sultanate of Sokoto that we disavow the miscreant who has the idiocy to utter such anathema? Shouldn’t politicking and the angling for undue advantage have some decency, some respect?

We can accept Dino’s insults against the Kogi State Government, but we would be terribly amiss to overlook them when they are aimed at His Eminence the Sultan of Sokoto – and all because the hugely respected Royal Father and Leader of all Muslim faithful in Nigeria gave us the pleasure of joining us to celebrate our state.

There seem to be no end to the mischief Dino is prepared to make in his fruitless bids to turn the truth of events in Kogi on its head. His preoccupation with the New Direction Government of Governor Yahaya Bello is really a compliment in a roundabout kind of way. It shows the Governor is doing things that the Senator finds frightening or uncomfortable. Considering his affinity for the uncouth and his dislike for the truth, who does not think that whatever makes Dino uncomfortable or frightened is a good thing?

Of course, while Dino thinks he is on the warpath with Governor Bello and runs frenetically from the proverbial pillar to post looking for dirt that will stick, His Excellency and the Administration are so consumed with the work of delivering on the mandate given to him by the good people of Kogi State. That is, unless and until he crosses certain lines of propriety which must not be tolerated or overlooked, at which point some official response has to be made to balance the equation.

This is one such response. .

On January 27, 2017, the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Amirul Mumineen, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III was in Lokoja to felicitate with the Government and People of Kogi State on the 1st Anniversary of the New Direction Administration of Governor Yahaya Bello. His Eminence was in Kogi State with HRH Alhaji (Dr) Shehu Idris (Sarkin Zazzau), Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi and numerous other dignitaries.

His Eminence was invited as the Special Guest of Honour, and graciously accepted to cut the tape at the commissioning of the new headquarters of the Kogi Board of Internal Revenue. The 4-storey purpose-built edifice called Revenue House was built from scratch by the Administration in less than one year.

It is clear that something got Dino’s goat over the Revenue House. Could it be that having thrived on the false narrative that Governor Bello’s first year in office has mirrored his own long and futile legislative years in fruitlessness, he is appalled that there is such an edifice to commission? Or maybe like an ant-sting on bare buttocks, he feels the sharp rebuke of failure as Kogi People begin to feel the early stirrings of the fresh wind that is rising in their land?

It has been Mr. Melaye’s constant prayers that Governor Bello will fail in Kogi so he can have him as a peer in non-performance. He is alarmed now that the Governor is proving him wrong with his sterling achievements in just one year despite the huge nuisance that he and his ilk frequently constitutes themselves into. Dino desperately needs others to fail so he can continue to justify the huge waste of legislative votes that he has become to Kogi People. Unfortunately for him, an accounting is just ahead. And this time, unlike in 2015, the President’s coat-tails on which he rode to the Senate will no longer avail him. The desperation is palpable, the antics laughable and the crash inevitable. You cannot fool all of the people all of the time.

‘The very fact that other traditional rulers and Christian leaders were not part of Governor Bello’s scheme was another issue that requires proper dissection given the secularized nature of the state’. Again, we have no idea what the anguished Senator is babbling about here because a whole cross-section of dignitaries besides the Sultan joined the Kogi State Government for the 1st Anniversary Celebrations. They include: Mallam Ibrahim Bala Gubi, the National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who led 4 other National Working Committee members to represent the Governing Party at the event.

The full complement of Royal Fathers across Kogi State led by HRM (Gabaidu) Dr. Michael Ameh Oboni II, the Attah of Igala and Chairman, Kogi State Council of Traditional Rulers and HRM Alhaji Ado Ibrahim, Attah III, the Ohinoyi of Ebiraland and Vice Chairman, Kogi State Council of Traditional Rulers.

Respected Christian Clerics from across Kogi State such as the Chairman and key members of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Kogi State Chapter as well as the Chairman and members, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Kogi State.

Respected Muslim Clerics and Associations from all over Kogi State were fully on ground.

The RT. Honourable Umar Imam, Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly leading over 90% of the  State Assembly members.

A serving Senator and 4 out of 9 House of Representatives members from Kogi State. Chief Clarence Olafemi, the former Acting Governor of Kogi State and the Asiwaju of Okunland.

Others include LGA Chairmen, 15 members of the APC State Executives including the State Youth and Women Leaders, scores of other leaders too numerous to mention.

This partial list is just to show the diverse crowd of persons at the Celebrations on Friday, 27th January, 2017, all representing one or more spectrum of the diversity that makes Nigeria and Kogi so great. One therefore wonders what Dino Melaye was droning on and on about in his ill-conceived denunciation of our esteemed guests?

It pains us to our marrows that Mr. Melaye felt the need to prosecute his imaginary fight against Governor Yahaya Bello to the point of disrespecting the very eminent Nigerians who visited his own state in solidarity by trying to cast aspersions and slurs on both their persons and their intentions. And for what? Cheap political gain?

He claims to have no ‘grudge against His Eminence the Sultan of Sokoto and the respected Emir of Zazzua as well the Islamic cleric invited by governor  Bello’ so who was Melaye referring to when he rants dismissively about Governor Yahaya Bello’s alleged romance with ‘northern religious leaders’ while pronouncing it the precursor to ‘endemic religious crisis’ in the Confluence State?

What exactly did Dino mean by, ‘Since it has been rumoured that the northern political and religious elites galvanized supports for Bello’s emergence, Kogites will continue to watch if this glaring Islamic enslavement of the state and squandering of the state’s funds to perpetuate a sinking agenda is Bello’s way of rewarding his unseen political kingmakers’? Whatever he means or aims at by this dangerous drivel, we assert on behalf of the Government and People of Kogi State that Dino does not speak for us.

We frankly are disappointed that a SenatSen at ft by or of the Federal Republic could sink to the level of playing religious politics with a very public and purely secular event attended by eminent Nigerians in their personal capacities, to the extent of alleging ‘lopsided approach employed in inviting (His Eminence and the Islamic leaders who accompanied him) without considering other religion faithfuls in the state’?

Which traditional ruler of the Christian or any other non-Muslim faith in the whole of Nigeria should we have invited who Dino and religious irredentists like him would accept as a fitting double for the Sultan? Or are we to invite the national leader of one of the Christian denominations in order to have done the right thing in Melaye’s eyes? This endless comparison of what should be mutually affirming, where does it begin, and how does it end? Of course, these are rhetorical questions. The answers are self evident – one must be charitable and not pay too much attention to the pride and prejudices of folks who should know better.

Governor Yahaya Bello is a detribalised Nigerian without any religious biases, and will continue to do what is best for the State. Afterall, he has received the  revered Pastor W.F Kumuyi, the General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church twice in Lokoja for his mega crusades, hosting him and his entourage once in Government House and sent high ranking officials of the state to represent the state both times at the crusades in Confluence Stadium. Nobody heard Senator Melaye whine about ‘lopsidedness’ then.

Maybe Melaye should have waited until Governor Bello completes the proposed Government House Chapel, the first after 25 years of Kogi State’s existence to believe that Governor Bello has no need of support from religious bigots like him.

We promise Dino Melaye and those who have latched onto the Staff Screening and Verification Exercise to create disaffection in Kogi State to wait a little while more. It will end in praise. Our workers will smile across the length and breadth of our State. We know what we mean by no genuine worker left behind. We are going to deny them even that tool in a couple of weeks.

By the way, we heard they have given Governor Bello four weeks starting from the date of their ill-fated Press Conference to do something about the Screening Exercise or they would make the state ungovernable. How disingenuous. So His Excellency sets up a final appeals and complaints committee with a 6-week timeline to finish their work and submit their report for his next executive actions. Two weeks later, some jokers claim they are giving him 4 weeks? Guys be thinking they are smart. So if the Governor acts on the report of his own Committee in four weeks’ time,  Dino and some discredited semi-APC, full-opposition moles will caper and prance around their captive media like silly simians, claiming they forced Bello to act? They must think Kogites are as vacuous as themselves.

It goes without saying, our people are more United than ever. They are United by their desire for positive development. They are United by their quest for good education for their children. They are United in the fight against corruption and waste in government. This is a New Direction for Kogi State and we represent a New Nigeria where tribe and religion are secondary to capacity and credibility.

People like Dino are dinosaurs, petrified by the fear of losing relevance and fossilized in the residues of the past, and out of touch with the present. He needs to grow up. We are building a nation devoid of base parochial sentiments. Old divisive tactics will serve no purpose. Change is here and we have chosen to move in a new direction.

It is an incontrovertible fact that Sen. Dino Melaye had never won any election on his own integrity. He had always clang on the integrity of others, from Marwa to Buhari. He should know that the game is up.

Dino has always taken the public for a ride. He claimed to be an anti-corruption crusader, yet he bought houses and automobiles that are beyond his earnings. It has come to be known that if Dino is attacking you, then you are a success.

The allegation by Dino that it was the northern oligarchy that facilitated the emergence of Governor Yahaya Bello days after the maverick Senator apologized to Kogites for being the facilitator of the Governor’s emergence clearly defines the confusion of the blackmailer called Dino Melaye. For the records, the glory of Governor Yahaya Bello’s emergence goes to the Almighty God.

More revealing is the fact that the likes of Senator Alex Kadiri, AVM Saliu Atawodi RTD Senator Nicholas Ugbane, Senator Mohammed Ohiare, Abdullahi Bello, Gbadebo Ashagun and others are now been led by Mr. Dino Melaye. What this mirror is why Kogi remained what it was before the emergence of Governor Yahaya Bello to burst the bandwagon of fraud and inefficiency. These are leaders who were applauding the failure of the past because of the crumbs they were getting from the expired powers. If Dino is the rallying point of these leaders, who were erroneously revered in times past, then, Kogi should be celebrating their new found hope and liberation as encapsulated in the leadership of GYB.

The voyage of a decapitated body doesn’t end in reality. The Sultanate is one of the most respected institutions across the world and every Kogite holds the institution in high esteem, except people in Dino’s inglorious track. Nigerians know Dino. The SGF album is one  of his latest comedy.

We are marching on with our dream of repositioning our dear state.

*This article was written by the Media Office of the Governor of Kogi State.