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From Joseph Amedu, Lokoja
It is no longer news to the people of Kogi state that the governorship election would hold on November 16, 2019.. What is news is which party will have the capacity to wrestle power from the APC administration that has allegedly been synonymous with hardship and wickedness to the people. However, the romance of the people with the PDP as a vehicle to liberate and emancipate them is gradually becoming blurred by every passing day. The recently concluded general elections has also shown the people that although there are multitude of parties, the state is actually a two party state – the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), both of which have been alternating powers in the state. However, the drama unfolding in the PDP camp in the state, has become a source of concern to the people. The sheep appears to have lost their shepherd and they are set to scatter. The PDP in her wisdom zoned its governorship ticket to Kogi East, the zone believed to have the highest numbers of registered voters. The party had thought that with a secured ticket in the zone, the entire population of the state would cruise the party to victory regardless of the power of the incumbency. From past experience, it had discovered that the zone used their population to gain electoral advantage against the other zones. But that was at the time the zone had leaders who never abandoned the sheep. With the well -publicised zoning of the party ticket to Kogi East, therefore, the rat race began in earnest. The center can no longer hold and the election catastrophe looms in the zone. Not only the politicians that have lost their bearings, the traditional rulers, the students, professional bodies and in fact every one and everything has gone awry. Those who are supposed to be the leaders have become the aspirants just as those who can barely afford three square meals have signified interest to vie for the coveted seat even as nine of them have become the guest of Wadata House headquarter of the party in Abuja and assumed the image of Automatic Teller Machines (ATM ) to some smart people of the other zones who now serves them as Director General of Campaign Councils at cut throat fees. In the last count, Ibrahim Idris, hitherto regarded as the Baba Kogi politics has entered the race through his son Abubakar, while his estranged godson, the immediate past governor of the state Captain Idris Wada also joined the race. Having lost needed direction from their leaders, every aspirant assumes it is the turn of their families to produce the next governor. And on the dot of closing date for the sale of forms, the Wadata House had eleven aspirants from the Eastern zone contributing a whooping sum of N264m, at twenty four million naira each from an aspirant in a zone considered as the headquarters of the poor people in the state regardless of having held powers for close to twenty years. Although the battle is to be fiercely fought between Ibrahim Idris through his son Abubakar against Captain Idris Wada who is hoping to use the window to correct his previous mistakes, a neophyte in the chest game of state politics, Aminu Abubakar Suleiman had commenced in earnest their- first- meet -the –delegates, journey. It is believed from the rough estimate of what these three aspirants had doled out when they interacted with the delegates and stakeholders per Local Government, should cumulatively be in the neighborhood of three hundred million naira, N300m, which is considered a waste as the money could have provided over 300 workable boreholes across the nine local governments that have no access to pipe borne water , not withstanding the deplorable roads and other social economic activities that are not available for the people with a huge army of youths with questionable means of livelihood. However, the two other zones, the Central and West have kept a sealed ambition as one apiece picked the PDP ticket to watch from the sidelines. In the year 2015, APC , the then opposition party in the state played a similar game. Out of the 28 aspirants that vied for the primary election that year, those from the East were about 16, while the Central contributed only three and the West, 9. Paradoxically, it was the political dexterity of late Prince Abubakar Audu who was regarded as the founder and the promoter of the party in the state, that saved the zone from the heat of defeat in the race while the three Central aspirants emerged second , third and fourth, leaving the pack of Igala aspirants licking their wounds. Ironically, four years down the line, none of the fifteen who contested in that infamous election showed up again as new entrants of thirteen (13 ) out of APC 16 aspirants are from the East Zone and they too have contributed N292m at N22.500, 000.00m each. As it is customary for the zone, eleven out of over 22 who initially signified interest in the PDP for the coveted office have bought their forms, even as the frontline ones have propped their campaign from a mere wish to meeting the party excos and would be delegates at their door steps. In these chequered battle for Lugard House by the zone whose last landlord was evicted less than four years ago, they appear to hold their fingers in their mouths in delusion that they can wrestle back the power with ease. They were unawares of the tempestuous delegates election in which the Zone does not command a comfortable advantage like they have in the general election. This is so because in the primary election which will come on the September 3, 2019, for the PDP, pitiable though, the Kogi East will have if all things being equal , nine out of the 11 aspirants that picked their forms as at closing of sales. They include the immediate past governor Captain Idris Wada, his younger brother Engineer Musa Wada , AVM Atawodi Salihu , a serial contestant ; Alhaji Abubakar Idris, son of Wada’s estranged godfather Ibrahim Idris. Others includes, Suleiman Abubakar a tutelage in the state politics, Joseph Ameh Erico , Victor Adoji , a banker who has just lost his bid to represent the zone in the Senate, while Muhammed Tetes, Kabiru Sarha and the only woman in the ship Mrs Mary Adoji may play spoiler roles. Unfortunately, they will have to share the total delegates votes of 985 from the nine local government areas in the Eastern zone among themselves as against Dino Melaye from Kogi West with a comfortable and sophisticated 849 delegates who will vote with their brains while a relatively known Bayo Averehi, although from the Central zone as the incumbent APC governor Alhaji Yahaya Bello, could spring a surprise with 470 delegates in his kitty. According to Akoji Okpanachi, a commentator on Igala politics of the state, there is dearth of natural leaders of the zone, which has contributed to the mad rush to contest governorship elections at every dispensation. He lamented at the collapse of a novel idea by some leaders from the zone led by the former National Chairman of PDP Senator Ahmodu Ali, and Alhaji Sule Iyaji, former Deputy Governor of Benue state, to streamline the plethora of aspirants, but regrettable was truncated by primordial sentiments. He warned that unless the aspirants bury their ego and unite for the sake of the political survival of the zone to project one aspirant who possesses the highest acceptability credentials from among themselves, the zone may be heading toward a catastrophic defeat. He particularly advised the former governor Alhaji Ibrahim Idris whose son is in the race to urgently meet with notable opinion leaders and leaders of thought from the zone to advise him on how to redeem the battered image of the zone in the governorship election even as Dino Melaye is waiting in the wings to latch unto the confusion created by the aspirants from the East. |
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