Usman Ododo; a flower without petals? Kogi State at the Confluence of Lost Potential and Administrative Blindness

Usman Ododo; a flower without petals? Kogi State at the Confluence of Lost Potential and Administrative Blindness

By Citizen Bolaji O. Akinyemi

Kogi State is not just another state on the Nigerian map; it is a geographical prophecy waiting for a leader with vision to translate divine favour into developmental fortune. It is the very navel of the nation, a sacred meeting point of the River Niger and River Benue, a confluence whose grace has shaped the soil, sculpted the culture, irrigated the plains, and endowed the land with a potential that most regions can only dream about. When God carved rivers into the geography of nations, He made Kogi the marital consummation of two of Africa’s most historic waterways. What should have become the hub of inland maritime commerce, national food security, riverine transport systems, tourism, hydro-economy, and international trade, has instead become a metaphor for unfulfilled destiny.

Rather than flourishing as Nigeria’s freshwater Louisiana, Kogi today lies like a fertile bride married to a blind husband, unused, unappreciated, and mismanaged.

And at the centre of this tragedy stands Governor Usman Ododo, heir and political offspring of the immediate past Governor. The Chief Security Officer of a state that increasingly looks like an ungoverned, unprotected, and unproductive territory. A man whose name in Yoruba means Ododo—flower—yet whose leadership lacks the very thing that gives a flower its meaning: petals.

Before applying this symbolism, let us examine an obvious question:

What are petals to a flower?

Scientifically and ecologically, petals are not ornamental extras; they are functional organs essential to a plant’s survival, reproduction, and ecological interaction. Their functions include:

1. Attraction of pollinators (bees, birds, insects) through colour, scent, and shape.
2. Protection of reproductive organs at the centre of the flower.
3. Guiding pollinators to the nectar, ensuring efficient fertilization.
4. Assisting reproduction, since without petals many plants cannot set fruit or seed.
5. Contribution to ecosystem balance, supporting plant communities, food chains, and biodiversity.
6. Signalling health, because a flower without petals is either immature, diseased, dying, or under environmental stress.

A flower without petals is not a flower—it is an apology.

Now, applied to governance, petals symbolize:

Vision

Competence

Security focus

Educational investment

Agricultural development

Economic imagination

Partnership capacity

Administrative discipline

Kogi State, under the watch of Governor Ododo, is a flower without petals—a leadership structure without functions.

KOGI AS A FLOWER WITHOUT PETALS

1. Attraction of Pollinators → Attraction of Investors

Petals attract pollinators. In governance, this translates to attracting investors, partners, development agencies, industrialists, agritech firms, maritime developers, river transport companies, agro-logistics operators, and educational foundations.

But Kogi repels investors rather than attracts them.

Why?
Because insecurity has turned its forests into the habitations of pristine evil. Criminals now mine minerals as a pastime. Roads once safe are now corridors of kidnapping. Kogi became the first and only state where six Directors of the Ministry of Defence were abducted—an abomination that would have triggered a political earthquake in a saner system.

Investors do not go where Directors of Defence are abducted.

This is a flower without petals.

2. Protection of Reproductive Organs → Protection of Citizens

Petals protect the centre of the flower—the reproductive organs essential for life continuation. In governance, citizens are the centre. But in Kogi today, the citizen is unprotected. The farmer is unsafe. The student is endangered by collapsing education. The trader cannot travel without fear. The miner is underground in the hands of criminals. Even civil servants are not exempt from terror.

When a government cannot protect its people, it has lost legitimacy.

This is why Kogi,l despite having a Governor, behaves like an ungoverned space decorated with wickedness.

A flower without petals cannot protect its life.
A state without protection mechanisms cannot guarantee survival.

3. Guiding Pollinators → Guiding Stakeholders

Petals have pathways—colour lines and scent trails that guide bees to nectar.
A functional government must guide:

farmers to markets,

youths to skills,

investors to opportunities,

educators to reform pathways,

security agencies to strategies.

But what do we see in Kogi?

A Governor comfortable in chaos, uninterested in guiding anyone to anything. No roadmap for education. No marshal plan for agriculture. No blueprint for inland waterways. No civil defence architecture. No forward-leaning security posture.

Ododo seems to inhabit the office but not the responsibility.

4. Reproduction → Developmental Growth

Petals enable fertilization—seed formation, fruiting, and multiplication.
Governance should do the same: multiply value, resources, productivity, revenue, agricultural output, educational performance, and security infrastructure.

Yet Kogi experiences developmental infertility.
Its potential is pregnant but never delivers.
Its resources are abundant but never multiply.
Its youth population isl energetic but never empowered.
Its rivers flow endlessly but never translate into maritime commerce.

A flower without petals cannot reproduce.
A government without leadership cannot develop.

5. Contribution to the Ecosystem → Contribution to National Economy

Kogi should be a national asset—the inland maritime capital of Nigeria.
With the Niger and Benue meeting on its soil, the state could:

run national ferry systems,

host river ports,

operate barge transport,

support hydro-agriculture,

become a logistics hub connecting North and South,

reduce pressure on highways,

anchor national food movement,

and serve as a gateway for international inland shipping ecosystems.

But instead of being an ecosystem contributor, Kogi is becoming an ecosystem destabilizer—exporting insecurity instead of agricultural produce.

A flower without petals cannot feed its ecosystem.
A state without functional leadership cannot enrich a nation.

KOGI: THE STATE THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN GREAT

Kogi State should be:

Nigeria’s inland maritime capital

North Central’s agricultural powerhouse

A model of educational revival

A blueprint for state-federal partnership

A centre of mineral regulation, not criminal extraction

Instead, it is:

a kidnapping highway,

a mining black market,

a refuge for armed groups,

a shrinking educational landscape,

a sleeping agricultural giant,

a state governed by a flower without petals.

Governor Usman Ododo inherited a state yearning for transformation but seems content to simply maintain the inherited decay.

CONCLUSION: THE SERIES TO COME

This introduction has established the divine, geographic, economic, agricultural, and ecological potential of Kogi State. A state that should be one of the greatest, not just in the nation but on the continent, trapped under uninspired, unimaginative, and insecure leadership.

The next three parts of this series will explore:

1. Security — Why Kogi is turning into an ungoverned space.
2. Education — How the state is producing a generation underprepared for the future.
3. Agriculture — How the confluence of two rivers still cannot irrigate the mind of the Governor.

Watch out for the next in the series: Security – Kogi as an Ungoverned Space.

Citizen Bolaji O. Akinyemi
Founding President, PVC-Naija
Chairman, Board of Trustees
Apostle & Nation Builder

Dr. Bolaji O. Akinyemi is an Apostle and Nation Builder. He’s also President Voice of His Word Ministries and Convener Apostolic Round Table. BoT Chairman, Project Victory Call Initiative, AKA PVC Naija. He is a strategic Communicator and the C.E.O, Masterbuilder Communications.

Email:bolajiakinyemi66@gmail.com
X:Bolaji O Akinyemi
Instagram:bolajioakinyemi
Phone:+2348033041236