Who is actually afraid of Yahaya Bello?

I am actually bewildered and shocked with the manner some “behind-the-scene” and unmasked political heavyweights have chosen to be growing too uncomfortable and frustrated with the meteoric and burgeoning political acceleration and voyages of the immediate past governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Adoza Bello.

In fact, they tirelessly fret, become too unsettled, paranoiac and disordered, that they begin to run and get tired out of the race when no one is actually chasing after them. They are momentarily disturbed that Yahaya Bello’s constant progressions might be their political drop-off and undoing. They keep chasing after shadows, and running the marathon race of mischievous witch-hunt behind the scenes; a clear indication and vindication of the fact that even though a python doesn’t venomously bite, its humongous size of 23 inches to 33 feet in length, is scary enough to send shivers down the spines of anyone.

In their chimerical and delusional wild hallucinations, “the boy’s political magnitude, momentum, importance and significance” is fast outgrowing, outshining and outweighing theirs, and as a matter of fact, must be humbled and prune down swiftly. To them, he must not be allowed to add feathers to his growing political wings so that he won’t fly out of sight.

Why the political persecution? For sure, Yahaya Bello isn’t the character of young Odewale, the tragic hero in Ola Rotimi’s play, “The Gods Are Not to Blame”, whose divination had it that he would rise to become the king by killing his own father, King Adetusa, then committing incest of sleeping with his own mother, Queen Ojuola, and that the only way the ill-fate can be aborted to kill him. Why do they now want to kill Bello politically?

Deep in the reprehensive murky water of Nigeria, where almost eighty, if not ninety per cent of politicians have their hands soiled in stenchy filth, I am shocked that these paranoiac politicians are now behind scenes, cladding the garb of celestial sainthood, canonizing themselves as saints, while in a hypocritical manner condemning others who they consider threats to their status quo as sinners.

They become too unnecessarily meddlesome in the affairs of Kogi state, labouring tirelessly in looking for non-existing holes in the former governor’s whole. They have been biding their time all these years, waiting patiently for the right time to strike. They have been waiting on the flanks for his tenure to elapse before pitching an anti-graft agency against him, hiring the services of treacherous fifth columnists to diffuse falsehood, campaign of calumny, and to do hatchet jobs for them. They are just sleeplessly, tirelessly and hellbent on painting him black, and rid him of his political clouts and influence.

Adding to their excruciating pains and frustration was the surfacing of posters of Yahaya Bello, in some locations in Abuja, including the national secretariat of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), barely two weeks ago, just two days after completing his two-tenure of eight years as Kogi State governor, indicating that he is vying for the seat of his party’s national chairman.

Even despite the fact that he later denied authorising anyone to paste his posters which had the inscription, “APC Next Level. Alhaji Yahaya Bello as APC National Chairman. Leading the Change, Building a Stronger APC”,. In a press conference, his veiled transducers would not just lay down their gauntlets, they want to drag him to the mud and see the end of him politically. The rising sun must not be allowed to shine according to them while forgetting that the ways of man are distinctively different from that of God. You don’t fall who God has risen.

If I may ask, where are the APC’s hierarchy, chieftains and top brass, as these dramas dragged on for close to two weeks now? This is a party Yahaya Bello has accumulated some level of influence, paying due allegiance to since his foray into politics close to a decade ago, and ensured it was successful in all ramifications in the last 2023 general elections.

Why the sepulchral and grave silence about Yahaya Bello’s travails in the hands of the EFCC despite the Kogi’s government denial that none of its funds is missing, as every of its kobo is working for the entire citizens of the state. Or is the EFCC crying more than the bereaved because it is doing the partisan bidding of certain bittered, battered and paranoiac politicians?

Who is actually afraid of Yahaya Bello and why are they after him using EFCC as an attack dog?

Are the politicians who were uncomfortable with his stance against the zoning arrangement in the APC and the fact that he might still harbor a presidential ambition come 2027 still after him?

Or are politicians who feel threatened and not comfortable with the calls from a section of the APC and its supporters that the former Governor of Kogi State should seek the office of the National Chairman of the party, the ones pitching EFCC against him?

Again, is it that many of those who were behind the plot to deny the APC victory in the November 11 governorship election in the state are still uncomforted by the fact the former Governor is emerging as a power broker within the party, hence the need for them to ‘cut him to size’ and reduce his influence in the party?

Or, is Bello’s bold stance on last year’s Naira redesign policy and 2020 COVID-19 national lockdown parts of his current ordeal in the hands of the EFCC?

In another random thought, is it that the proponents of the national lockdown who benefited largely from the proceeds of that arrangement are still at the cross with the former Governor of Kogi State, and they remain unhappy with his emergence as a patriot of that struggle to mitigate the consequence of a total national lockdown?

In as much as answers to these questions are readily alluding for now, it is, however, disheartening and heartbreaking that the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) has become a cheap tool of witchhunt in the hands of some unscrupulous politicians who fret that their status quo is threatened. It’s sad that the anti-graft agency’s reputation is becoming too questionable every passing day.

Amidst this storm notwithstanding, I remain upbeat that the light of truth will soon prevail over the darkness of their falsehood and political mischief. The marathon race of truth will soon catch up with their lies that have been running sprints.

You don’t wage war against a man whom God has earmarked for victories in all the wars waged against him. The trajectory of his political voyage from nowhere should be enough for all his political archenemies to know that Bello is a man shrouded in God’s grace and unmerited favour.

He will bounce back stronger than ever before soon.

Ozumi Abdul is a journalist, fact-checker and PR consultant.