The Former Deputy Governor of the then Benue State, His Excellency ,Elder Sule Iyaji is an indegine of Omala LGA of the present Kogi State,elected into the House of Assembly of the then Benue State in 1979 on the political platform of National Party of Nigeria (NPN).
In view of the fact that, his constituency ( Ife ) State Constituency gave the highest numbers of valid votes that lead to the victory of the party at the state level as at that time,he was appointed commissioner by the administration of His Excellency Governor Aper Aku as the then Executive Governor of Benue State.
Having performed excellently well, he served in the following ministries during the said administration:
(1) Hon. Commissioner,
Ministry of Agriculture and rural development
(2) Ministry of environment
(3) Ministry of local government and primary education.
By October,1983,he became the Deputy Governor of the defunct Benue State.
Having demonstrated competence and capacity in the various ministries and gotten the required adequate experience in the administration he was promoted.
A position he occupied till the impromptu end of the Second Republic by a military coup.
During the period of His reign in office, he was able to attract the following monumental development to the entire Igala kingdom .
As Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Department, he embarked on aggressive rural department projects which includes;
(1) Opening and mentainance of rural feeder roads in all the nooks and crannies of igalaland.
Most of these roads are still serving our people till date.
As commissioner for LG and primary education, primary schools were built with adequate functional instructional materials for all public schools.
In addition to the above ,he supervised the creation of many LGAs in igalaland, namely :
Omala,Olamaboro,Ofu, Okura with the headquarters at Egume and others.
In his home local government,he was able to be instrumental to the realization of the following developmental projects :
(1) Construction of Ankpa – Abejukolo 46 kilometers road network
(2) Construction of Anyigba – Abejukolo 64 kilometers road network
(3) Connection of Abejukolo to national grid making Abejukolo to be the third town in igala land to have electricity supply as at then.
(4) He brought the construction of the best water works in igala land
(5) The establishment of first bank in Abejukolo town.
He provided an effective and efficient political leadership in Omala LGA and igala land as a whole. He arranged and provided support for rural farmers through the establishment of co-operative society, provision of agricultural inputs and implementation of various value chains in agricultural processes, exposure of rural farmers to products marketing through hosting of trade fears and direct product buying and other services aimed at the development of the Igalaland.
His Excellency,Alh. Sule Iyaji headed and represented the igala kingdom in the Mbanefor national Committee on the creation of more states in Nigeria.
It is worth to note here that His Excellency Elder Sule Iyaji is still serving the Igala kingdom,the state and Nigeria as a whole.
Having known the background of the personality under review,its expedient for all Igala sons and daughters to hold him on high esteem with the needed respect while he is still alive. To date he is well known for standing for the truth.
The man was not a governor or minister yet he achieved great things. This i believe is as a result of his love for the people of the kingdom.
Its is based on the above findings that , we call on some faceless and unserious political jobers paid to malign the character of this elder statesman to desist from such as nobody’s life is any under threat as reported by some section of the media.
His Excellency ,Alh. Sule Iyaji will and shall continue to fight for the unity, progress, justice and development of the Igala kingdom in respective of name calling , threat and intimidation to silent the voice of the igala speaking people of kogi state. We shall continue to resist with all available legal means in defense of our kingdom
*Hon. Solomon Agada, Public Affairs Analyst,CEO/ Publisher,The Confluence Trust Newspaper,Abuja*
