Re: Kogi 2012 – Will history repeat itself?

Writing under the heading, “Kogi 2012: Will history repeat itself?” on page 25 of the October 16, 2011 edition of Sunday Trust newspaper, Egwudu demonstrated crass ignorance of the political climate in Kogi State, which he pretended to know very well. He was not happy about the impending victory of the Action Congress of Nigeria […]

Writing under the heading, “Kogi 2012: Will history repeat itself?” on page 25 of the October 16, 2011 edition of Sunday Trust newspaper, Egwudu demonstrated crass ignorance of the political climate in Kogi State, which he pretended to know very well. He was not happy about the impending victory of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governorship candidate, Prince Abubakar Audu.

However, given the timing of this incoherent and shallow views expressed by this writer, one is forced to educate Egwudu and his co-travellers on the virtue of this long expected decision by Audu to rescue and return the dying state to life. To better educate people like Egwudu, the only free and fair elections ever held in the history of this nation were those conducted by the military regime. The first time Audu ran for the position of governor of Kogi State under the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC) in 1991, the election was conducted under the military regime of Ibrahim Babangida.

Recall that soldiers under General Abdulsalami Abubakar similarly conducted the 1999 general elections in which Abubakar emerged victorious under the All Peoples Party (APP), now All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).

Let me also awaken the dormant consciousness of Egwudu that it was the emergence of Ahaji Ibrahim Idris on the political scene in Kogi State in 2003 that has pushed Kogi into a state of oblivion among the comity of states.

Egwudu in the article noted, “however, when an unassuming Abuja-based businessman, by the name Ibrahim Idris, picked up the gauntlet despite obvious handicap against him, including Audu’s menacing incumbency advantage, the wining streak of the prince was promptly tested and challenged.”

He went further to say that “since the PDP got it right with a relatively transparent nomination process that produced Ibrahim Idris…Audu’s earlier victories had been made to look like flukes. Thus, in 2003, 2007 and 2008, Idris consistently and effectively kept Audu out of power.”

I think Egwudu is cut off completely from the political evolution of the state and the country, since 2003. After the 1999 general elections conducted by the military, the first election conducted by the civilian administration was in 2003 under former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

It was wrong to postulate that Idris consistently and effectively kept Audu out of power in 2003, 2007 and 2008, because Idris has not clearly won elections since the period under review. In fact, security men armed to the teeth were deployed to Kogi State to ensure Audu was stopped.

What do you say of armed hooligans and ruffians engaged by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to terrorise electorate to “win” these do-or-die affair elections?

It was internationally acknowledged that Obasanjo’s administration conducted the most dubious elections in the country in 2003 and 2007 when he introduced the do-or-die politics. The popular means to get to power during the era was by rigging and violence. And Idris’ “winning” formulae were devised, aided by state apparatuses. Idris was far from being a popular candidate in the state.

With the emergence of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the do-or-die politics and Thugscrazy initiated by Obasanjo in the South West during the 2003 general elections, has been defeated. The zone has a history of political resistance which dates back to the first republic.

So, the ACN is in Kogi State to also restore hope to the hopeless people who have been deceived, deprived and dehumanised by the PDP. ACN administered states of Lagos, Oyo, Edo, Ekiti, Osun and Ogun are living testimonies of what Kogi will become when Audu assumes office in 2012.

Audu’s political structures and followership transcends the landscape of Kogi State.  As an internationally recognised politician cum business mogul, Audu is not an individual in the political scene of the nation as erroneously being expressed by Egwudu.

Audu being a household name in Kogi State, represents the agent of change.  With unprecedented political followership across the nooks and crannies of the state and granted a free and fair election, he will be back to Lugard House.

Egwudu and his ilk need to know just one thing: The ACN structure and followership will only help to smoothen and add colour to the impending colossal defeat that awaits the PDP at the poll.

Clement Ameh, 12 Ankpa Road, Dekina, Kogi State