The media has been awash lately with calls for the “youthful” Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello to contest for the 2023 presidential election. A call that has assumed great theatrics on many occasions.
Leading the charge for this call are youths, notably a self styled “Ambassador”, who goes by the name Oladele John Toluhi, who leads a group of youths known as GYB2PYB (Governor Yahaya Bello to President Yahaya Bello), a group that issued a 14-day ultimatum to Bello to accept their demand that he joins the presidential race or they occupy the streets all over the country until he accepts their demand.
It is interesting to note that Toluhi was the young man that embarked on a walk from Abuja to Otuoke, the home town of former President Goodluck Jonathan in Bayelsa State in 2015, to honour the former President after his electoral defeat by President Muhammadu Buhari. Toluhi’s walk to Otuoke, came after a northerner had embarked on a similar walk from Lagos to Abuja in honour of President Buhari after he won the election, making his own road expedition more of a copy.
Aside the call from the GYB2PYB, there has been a series of activities around the Kogi Governor lately that has given him good visibility and put him in the news constantly. There had been awards, notably the gender friendly award championed by the National Council of Women Societies (NCWS), which suggests that Bello’s administration is women friendly.
Another notable award is the one given by a group led by former Super Eagles player, Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha, which named Bello as the ‘Captain and Pillar of Nigerian Youths’.
Asides the awards, Bello has also played host to players in the Nigerian entertainment industry, especially Nollywood, who all sang his praises to high heavens and described him as the best thing to happen to Nigerian youths.
