Governor Bago Is Not a Magician.
We live in a country where people want instant miracles. The moment a new Governor assumes office, the expectation is that when we sleep on the night he is sworn into office potholes should vanish, classrooms should shine with new paint, hospitals should become like those in Europe, and salaries should triple overnight. It doesn’t work that way not in Nigeria, not anywhere in the world everything is a gradual process.
Let’s face it, Niger State did not collapse in two years. The dilapidated classrooms where children sit on broken benches or the floor with roofs blown off by the winds, the primary health care centers, the general hospitals, the federal and state roads where accidents claim lives were not caused by Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago. These problems have roots stretching back to decades. They were the direct results of serial neglect by governments that made promises but failed to deliver.
Yet today, some people shout as though Bago personally built the potholes or dilapidated the schools and the hospitals. It is unfair. It is dishonest. And it is lazy commentary which is becoming trite.
Governor Bago is not a magician. What he inherited was a battered state that needed nothing less than open-heart surgery. And whether we like his style or not, we cannot deny that in two years he has rolled up his sleeves and gone headfirst into rebuilding Niger State in a way we have never seen before.
Let us start with the roads. Nigerlites know too well what it means to travel on crumbling highways. Some journeys that should take two hours drag into six because of failed roads. The dust, the accidents, the wasted man-hours are part of our collective memory. Today, for the first time since the creation of the state, we are seeing an audacious attempt to fix this mess. Over 1,000 kilometers of roads are under construction. This is the highest number of kilometers ever attempted by a single state government in Nigeria’s history. Since independence, no state has tried it. That is not small talk. That is not cosmetic patchwork. That is history.
Flyovers, the sort we once admired only in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt or Kano are now rising in Niger State. Think about what that means for a state, long dismissed as “too rural” or “too backward,” is daring to build what others said was impossible. For once, Niger State is not whispering small dreams, it is shouting big ones.
Healthcare system too, is being revived. Many of Nigerlites still remember the state of the General hospital in the capital city and what it looked like, the IBB Specialist Hospital and it has been clear that the facilities were shadows of what they should be. Today, those hospitals are being upgraded, Doctors’ quarters are being built to give medical staff dignity. General hospitals Minna are undergoing reconstruction and the flagship project the IBB University Teaching Hospital is already underway. This is not just a hospital. It is an institution that will serve two purposes: heal the sick and train the next generation of doctors. That is vision.
Education is not left behind. The conversion of Zungeru Polytechnic into a university, the transformation of the School of Agriculture in Mokwa into a university, and the creation of Abdulkadir Kure University are not just name changes. They are investments in knowledge and the future. These institutions will anchor Niger State’s place as a hub for learning in northern Nigeria. The governor has understood a truth many before him ignored: without knowledge, there is no development.
But here comes the biggest question: with all this work going on, where is the money coming from? How much is Niger State’s monthly federal allocation? How much is internally generated revenue? Anyone who has ever glanced at the books knows it cannot fund flyovers, over a thousand kilometers of roads, hospitals, and universities all at once. Salaries alone swallow a huge chunk of the allocation.
This is why the governor has gone for borrowing. And suddenly, critics shout “debt! debt!” as though Niger State invented borrowing. Let us be honest with ourselves, past governments borrowed too , other states borrow too and even the Federal government does too. The difference is that in those past governments the loans vanished without traces but today, every borrowed naira is being laid out in concrete, steel, tar, classrooms, and hospital beds. They are physical, they are ongoing and they are traceable. That is the difference.
Governor Bago is human, therefore not perfect. He will make mistakes that much is agreed. But to see certain media outlets and individuals deliberately painting a picture as though he has achieved absolutely nothing is embarrassing to them, not to him. We extend an open invitation, come to Niger State, walk its roads, see its hospitals and schools, visit its construction sites, go to the airport and judge for yourself. Do not sit in the comfort of your room, throwing stones from afar, and pretend to know what is happening on the ground. Those who judge from afar should not claim to know the heat of the fire.
Of course, the governor is human. He is not flawless. But the question is not whether he could stumble or have. The real question is whether Niger State is moving forward under him. And the answer, if we are honest, is yes. Slowly, unevenly, sometimes painfully but yes, Niger State is moving.
What some people are asking of him is nothing short of magic to fix in two years what collapsed through decades. That is unrealistic. Rome was not built in a day. Even in countries we admire, like Singapore or Rwanda, progress took years of consistent effort. Why then do we demand instant results in Niger State?
There is an Igbo saying: “Agbacha oso a guo mile” You count the miles only when the race is over. The race here is not two years. It is four. That is when the judgment should come.
Governor Bago is not a magician. He is a man with a mission. A man who inherited decay and is choosing to rebuild rather than complain. A man whose ambition, whether you like him or not, has already pushed Niger State further in two years than decades of complacency did.
Give him time. At the end of four years, open the books, walk the roads, visit the schools and hospitals, then write your judgment. But for now, let us be fair. Transformation is not a miracle. It is work. And work takes time.
If we can’t praise him for what he is doing in the state, then he shouldn’t be called a nonperforming Governor.
Bago is not a magician, He has no magic wand, no abracadabra, no hocus pocus. What he has is a mission of building a Niger State brick by brick, promise by promise for a greater Niger State. No attack or distraction will deter him. His focus is clear and it is to deliver on his promises. Let Governor Bago breathe.
Aisha Wakaso
Special Adviser to the Governor on Print Media
