• Kogi governor balances work and home with unrivalled strength
There is an innate strength in Yahaya Bello that defies notions of valour applicable to his peer. Even though he is just 40, the executive governor of Kogi state grapples with the challenges of his new office and demands of running a home with three ravishing wives.
Very few men of his age and class can handle the onerous tasks of running a state and catering to the needs and desires of a large family. But Yahaya unfurls into the task without a crease in his brow or the oft dreaded fear of exhaustion. Governor Yahaya does not crumble in fear or anticipation of failure because he believes that even the greatest challenges and darkest days were made to sharpen a man’s wit and burnish his shine.
While older men struggle to keep pace with the demands of less tasking jobs and smaller number of wives, Yahaya internalizes strength in his sinewy frame. He epitomises the strength and compassion of the proverbial guardian carrying the fate of the people and land in his heart.
While he worries about feeding clans, communities and villages, nurturing earth guaranteeing security of lives and property in the state, Governor Yahaya also has to contend with the challenges of managing three wives at the homefront. He has to think of sheltering his wards from storms of the future and catering to the needs of his their mothers.
In a nutshell, he has to be a good administrator, astute politician, wonderful father to his kids and agile husband to his wives. Governor Yahaya, according to The Capital findings is up to the task.
He hardly falls short in measure and competence while running his home and office. This indeed is a rare feat in an age when official and marital demands often clash to the detriment of most marriages and homes. Recently he celebrated the birth of twin sons to him by one of his wives, Hajia Amina Bello. The latter delivered the bundles of joy on March 4, 2016 thus attesting to his competence at fulfilling his duties at home despite the demands of the governorship.
Governor Yahaya bears this great weight on his shoulders with admirable compassion and equanimity of spirit. He bears the absolute desolation that comes with challenges of work and home smilingly and with unrivalled vigor.
It is not that he is unmarked or unscarred by the harsh realities and burden of holding forte at home and Kogi’s State House but Yahaya summons absolute strength from a place unfamiliar to even his most dexterous peers.
Governor Yahaya rode to power in the wake of the demise of the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s winning candidate at last year’s governorship elections, Abubakar Audu. The party submitted Yahaya’s name as the party’s new candidate for Kogi governorship supplementary poll.
Bello replaced Audu, who died after leading the poll with 41,000 votes. Until he became governor, Yahaya was widely known as an astute business man and the Managing Director (MD) of FairPlus International Ltd. He was also the MD of the Kogi Youth Arise Forum.
Born June 18, 1975 in Agassa, Okene Local Government Area of Kogi State to the family of Alhaji Bello Ipemida Ochi and Hajia Hawa Bello Oziohu, Yahaya is the last of six siblings.
He started his early education in 1984 in LGEA Primary School, Agassa In Okene LGA. In 1989 he enrolled for College in Agassa Community Secondary School, Anyava, Agassa-Okene. His quest for qualitative education saw him changing schools five times until he finally settled for Government Secondary School, Suleja-Niger State, where he sat for his JSSCE.
He continued in the same school for his secondary education and wrote his SSCE Exams In 1994. He immediately enrolled for ‘A’ level exams in Kaduna State Polytechnic Zaria in 1995 and proceeded to the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University ABU Zaria in 1996 to study Accounting. He graduated in 1999 and bagged his Bachelor of Accounting Degree from the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria and Master of Business Administration from the same institution. While pursuing his Masters he also enrolled for professional certification with the Association of National Accountant of Nigeria (ANAN) at Jos (2002) and became a chattered fellow of ANAN in 2004.
Yahaya’s career started in 2001 when he was posted to Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) for his NYSC mandatory service to his fatherland. He distinguished himself during the course of the service and was offered an appointment in the same office as Revenue Officer II. His hard work singled him out for promotion to accountant in a very short period.
Yahaya mastered the art of informed stock trading and had a financial breakthrough right before the crash of the stock market. His stock portfolio investments cut across the oil and gas, finance, transportation, and agro related sectors.
