INTERVIEW: I will break Buhari’s record – Kogi Governor-elect, Bello

 By the time he is sworn into office January 2016, Yahaya Bello, at 42, would be the youngest governor in Nigeria. He says his emergence as governor is an opportunity for the youth to prove that they can provide purposeful leadership, better than what the country experienced in previous years. Mr. Bello said an average Kogi and Nigerian youth would be proud after his four years as governor.
PREMIUM TIMES’ Sani Tukur and Jaafar Jaafar cornered Mr. Bello recently in Abuja for a short interview. He speaks about his plans for the state, corruption, and his deputy governor-elect, James Faleke.
PT: Shortly after your victory was announced, you said your party, the APC, and yourself, would embark on a kind of reconciliation with all aggrieved parties. How far has that gone?
Bello: Thank you very much. Like you rightly said, reconciliatory moves were made by both the national headquarters of our party, at the state level and at my own end and the leaders of our party, and it has yielded tremendous results.
Leaders from the east, west and central have substantially – over 90 percent – accepted my candidature and eventual success at the poll. That is why we have been able to draw up a list of personnel of high repute to partake in the transition as well as inauguration programme that is ahead of us. So we are very much in good shape.