The Yahaya Bello in all Nigerian politicians

When you watch some of the videos uploaded online, particularly the one where he was walking out in a gym, showing his muscles in “I have arrived” manner, you would not believe that a day would come that he would be shaking like a jellyleaf.

Yahaya Bello was an enfante terrible when he presided over Kogi State. He boasted of many things, particularly, the use of brute force to obtain election victory. Ask Dino Melaye and Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan they would tell you how intolerable Bello was in any political position in Kogi, especially, where he had interest.

But his brutal nature is a story for another day. The focus here is his fear of the future and of the unknown. The former two-term governor is being accused of diverting the state’s funds amounting to N82 billion.

While he is still engaged in shameful gymnastics over whether to appear or not appear before the court to speak for himself, a school where he hurriedly made an advanced payment of $760,000 fees for his children has since refunded the money to the Federal Government, through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

It is said that the former governor moved the money from the state government’s tills to a bureau de change before leaving office. He had wanted to secure tomorrow, when he would have no other commitment to anybody, except to just enjoy himself to the fullest. It is possible that he may have also opened offshore accounts and built mansions for each of the children so that as soon as they graduate tomorrow, they become instant millionaires and billionaires without doing any work.

Bello may be in the news today, but there is nothing he did that is different from what many Nigerian politicians do today. Because they are afraid of tomorrow, they steal even more than they need. Many of them, despite their wealthy status that is evident to the public, they are still slaves to acquisitive tendencies, inflicting enormous pains to those they ordinarily should be serving. They are greedy, self-serving and hard-hearted. Nigeria is what it is today because there are too many Yahaya Bellos in the system to whom the aphorism, “live and let live” makes no sense at all. Who can bell the cat?