I Underrated Ododo

When Ahmed Usman Ododo emerged as the APC candidate ahead of the 2023 governorship election, I gave him no chance. I told anyone who would listen that Kogi was heading for disaster.

Today, I am eating my words, and I am doing it in public.

Many governors before him built schools, and others will still build schools. Many built hospitals, and others will still build hospitals. But no one before Ododo dared to dream of an airport.

The Kogi International Airport project is a legacy in the truest sense, a bold bet that will open our state to the world. There may never be another governor who builds an airport for Kogi, and that alone secures his place in our history.

Alongside it is the multi-billion naira ultra-modern market now under construction, a project positioned to turn Kogi, the meeting point of North and South, into a true commercial hub for Nigeria. To connect our people to these opportunities, he has embarked on an ambitious promise of 10 kilometres of road in every local government area, 210 kilometres across all 21 LGAs when complete.

Not every LGA has been covered yet, but many have, and each completed stretch tells the next community that its turn is coming.

The same vision has reached our farms. The governor has backed farmers to produce at scale, easing the cost of food in the state. Through ACReSAL, more than five million cashew and oil palm seedlings have been planted across Kogi, and in a few years those trees could turn ordinary farmers into wealthy entrepreneurs.

He has also protected the land itself. Across Kogi West, Kogi East and Kogi Central, billions of naira have gone into ecological projects that save communities from erosion, flooding and other environmental disasters. There were no loud ceremonies and no endless press releases.

The governor simply got on with the work, and families who once feared the next rainy season now sleep easier.

Perhaps his quietest revolution is in health. The state health insurance scheme has been expanded so that workers and students are now covered, while pregnant women and children aged zero to five enjoy free healthcare. Primary healthcare centres have been revitalised and many now run on solar power, so a midwife no longer delivers a baby by torchlight.

Education has received the same seriousness. In 2024 the governor signed an education law that makes schooling compulsory for every child of school age in Kogi; keeping a child at home is now a violation of the law. But he did not stop at telling parents what to do.

Education is free, including registration for both internal and external examinations, and students in higher institutions receive bursaries. Projects are running simultaneously at Kogi State University, Kabba, the Confluence University of Science and Technology, Osara, and Prince Abubakar Audu University, Anyigba.

Teachers are paid promptly, and schools have been renovated across all three senatorial districts.

Beyond the classroom, thousands of young people are being trained in skills and then equipped with the tools to put those skills to work. Our graduates are leaving school ready to create jobs, not just queue for them.

Workers, too, have found a friend in Government House. Ododo was the first governor in Nigeria to sign the new minimum wage into law at the state level, raising it from the agreed ₦70,000 to ₦72,500. Salaries and pensions are paid as and when due, promotions are being released, and workers are now on health insurance. Medical doctors receive a ₦300,000 monthly allowance on top of their salaries, which is drawing practitioners back into the state and strengthening healthcare delivery.

Security remains the hardest test in Kogi. Yet Ododo has invested in some of the most sophisticated security equipment available to combat extremism and criminality, while insisting that lasting peace also comes from education, jobs and empowered young people. The work is not finished, but the seriousness is unmistakable.

So, Your Excellency, I underrated you. I judged you before you had a chance to work, and you have answered my doubts with results. Citizens like me will keep watching and asking questions, as we should. But fairness demands credit where it is due. Ahmed Usman Ododo is fast becoming one of the best governors in the history of Kogi State.

I was wrong about him, and I have never been happier to be wrong.

Ahmadu Mohammed is a good governance advocate and public commentator