Kogi: Expecting a new dawn

Eight years in power under the Alhaji Ibrahim Idris administration has brought the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) into sharp focus as politicians in the state begin to jostle for power. At the risk of sounding immodest, the likes of Chief Bayo Ojo (SAN), Alhaji Yakubu Muhammed, Mr James Enejo Ocholi (SAN), Prince Sola Akanmode, […]

Eight years in power under the Alhaji Ibrahim Idris administration has brought the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) into sharp focus as politicians in the state begin to jostle for power. At the risk of sounding immodest, the likes of Chief Bayo Ojo (SAN), Alhaji Yakubu Muhammed, Mr James Enejo Ocholi (SAN), Prince Sola Akanmode, Alhaji Sule Ogirima, Air Vice Marshal Salihu Atawodi (rtd) and Alhaji Abdulrazaq Kutepa outstandingly stepped forward and sold their programmes to the people. They showcased the human resource potentials of Kogi State to the outside world. This set of aspirants did not just have their popularity thrust upon them overnight but earned it by correct conduct, high work rate, good programmes, focus and great vision.

Alas, the robust leadership these men would have provided for the state under the platform of the PDP was squandered when, with last minute events preceding the January 9 governorship primary election, some people decided to put their interests over and above the party’s interest. It would have been better still for the PDP and the state had those in the saddle of leadership done a little bit of introspection and save the party from themselves.

The starting point would be to look at the composition of the state. Kogi has three majority tribes: Ebira in the Central, Igala in the East and Yoruba in the West. The Igala have had the upper hand on all occasions because of their 45 percent strength. Meanwhile, Kutepa does not belong to any of these three majority ethnic groups: Born in Lokoja, a minority axis of Kogi West, he had his origin in Bassa, another core-minority group in Kogi East. He speaks Yoruba fluently having worked all his life in Lagos. He cuts across all the groups.

With age on his side and a sound private sector background, these combined to make Kutepa run an unrivalled campaign in the election. He supported and sponsored candidates who aspired for the various elective posts under the PDP platform. His residence in Lokoja soon turned into a Mecca for PDP members seeking one political office or the other from across the state. He became the rave of the moment and was tipped by bookmakers to clinch the PDP ticket. Alas, his governor friend, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, who all along urged him on, was his albatross in waiting. Whereas Alhaji Idris for seven years of his administration of the state played lip service to power shift advocacy, like King Pharaoh to the Israelites, the governor, to the chagrin of all, changed heart and swapped support to his Igala kinsman and in-law, Jibrin Isah. The governor’s volte face came at the 11th hour. All sorts of machinations were devised and Kutepa ended with 303 votes, 58 votes short of Jibrin Isah’s 361 votes. Yet the voting pattern showed wide acceptability of a minority candidate in an election where old war horses and majority candidates were caught off guards.

Kutepa had gone to court because he believed he had won the primary but at the end of the day, they gave it to his opponent. He, alongside other aggrieved aspirants, prominently Bayo Ojo, went to Abuja and they protested. The protests found a fertile ground, the primaries were cancelled and rerun was announced by the party. It was published in the papers. It was announced on the television. We all came back to Lokoja on the date fixed for rerun, ready for primaries again but the Lokoja Township Stadium, venue of the primaries was locked. Among all the aspirants, Kutepa went to court; he sued the PDP to say that ‘you have cancelled the primaries and you said we are going to do a rerun and you refused to conduct the rerun’. Some of us knew why they failed to do the rerun but unfortunately the court verdict was not in kutepa’s favour.

That the failure to hold the rerun primary election had been stage-managed is not the issue now. The issue now is that the events of January 9 and other events that followed have succeeded in giving birth to new bridges and mindsets across the divides such that it would be suicidal for PDP to ignore its consequences for the party’s chances at the general election.

There is no gainsaying that Kogi PDP is walking on a tightrope, depending on the handling of the forthcoming primaries.

Jude Ogunjobi, an alumnus of University of Ilorin is the General Secretary of the Kogi Yoruba socio-political organization, Okun Youth Initiative (OYI)