The political bickering in Kogi State
The occasion, which was an interactive dinner for APC stakeholders, was well attended by many party and non-party stalwarts, including Prince Audu himself, the three Senators representing each of the senatorial district in the state and surprisingly, some well-known faces in the PDP. The dinner, which was convened by one Mrs Folashade Joseph, who is […]
The occasion, which was an interactive dinner for APC stakeholders, was well attended by many party and non-party stalwarts, including Prince Audu himself, the three Senators representing each of the senatorial district in the state and surprisingly, some well-known faces in the PDP. The dinner, which was convened by one Mrs Folashade Joseph, who is believed to have close ties with the family of the Vice President, was very instructive and it brought out contending issues in the state APC.
Shade had presented her opening remark with lucidity and relentless logic and caught the attention of all guests exceptionally well, urging members to shun parochial interests, grandiose power abuse and other vices that might pull the party apart in the state. Before concluding, she momentarily stopped, looked in the direction of the Vice President, and warned in a clear voice that the party must avoid imposition of any candidate in the incoming governorship election in the state. I believe the word ‘imposition’ reverberated through the hall and drew loud applause from the guests. It took some minutes for the hall to calm down before she could conclude the address.
Even though the word ‘ imposition ‘ of candidates in elections has become a cliché in the political history of Nigeria, it refers to a situation where political godfathers handpick candidates usually by organizing shoddy primaries as opposed to allowing a proper free and fair election to determine who clinches the party ticket. Some members of the party have alleged that such imposition took place during the last primaries in the state, when candidates were handpicked to vie for posts in the last elections.
Other speakers at the event seized the opportunity to echo similar warnings of ‘no imposition’ of candidate to even greater applause. I sat on the same table with two current governorship aspirants of the party and was surprised by the side talks bemoaning the habit of imposition which had riddled our political landscape for so long. Many stakeholders have talked about seclusion tendencies and lack of internal democracy in the party, which they view as potentially risky for the party in the next election. Indeed, this dissatisfaction has led to several publications and comments sponsored by different groups in the media in recent times.
A glaring fact to me is that the APC may have a tough fight ahead in winning subsequent elections if it does not put its house in order now. Truth be told, a substantial part of the victories the party recorded in the last election were largely attributable to the personality of President Muhammadu Buhari, which had a bandwagon effect that many have now termed ‘Buhari Tsunami’. If the APC therefore underrates the possibility of a rebound of PDP in subsequent elections in the state, it would be a miscalculation.
The state itself is in dire strait, not due to incapability of current governor whom I know very closely, but due to poor fiscal finances and declining federal allocation since the abolition of payment of ecological funds to states. The state, being peculiarly poor, offers little comfort to anyone. Indeed it will be foolhardy for APC to overwork itself even before the race begins. The party must know that it can be defeated by the PDP with the sort of political bickering going around now about impositions.
The challenge for all stakeholders is to debunk the political permutation that usually confers power to any candidate that emerges from the Eastern Senatorial district. Chief Alex Kadiri has made paltry remarks to this effect in one of his online publications, which I read. He argued that no senatorial district can singly make the required numbers of votes to overrun the other two in the state if there is proper alliance among politicians.
It will be recalled that in the last general election, for example, when the INEC card reader was used, it expunged fictitious figures from the voter’s list and new figures indicated that the combined numbers of registered voters in both the Western and Central senatorial districts are more than that of the eastern senatorial district that usually recorded more voters in previous elections. Meaning that all sides now need one another to actually win free and fair primaries and subsequent elections.
It is my humble opinion, therefore, that the state’s APC leaders must begin to read the politics correctly and reduce the alienation of concerned stakeholders in the party.
I have taken the liberty to write about this not because I belong to any deprived group whatsoever in the party. If anything, I have enjoyed unfettered accommodation by all the groups, many of which have approached me at different times on general political issues. However, I feel strongly obliged to make this public on account of my personal work experience and someone from the Okun axis of the Western senatorial district.
If the busy dinner night was such an epoch-making rhetoric event, the usual smooth speeches by politicians doused the tension of guests present; Senators Dino Malaye, representing Western Senatorial District, Mohammed Ohiare of Central Senatorial District and Abubabakr Abdurahman of the Eastern district in that order, spoke eloquently to draw the attention of the Vice President to the execution of developmental projects in their districts of representation. Senator Melaye particularly asked the Vice President to jot them down!
The subtle innuendos were not lost on the Vice President that night, I’ll bet, but instead of direct responses to them, he chose the occasion to call on all parties in the state to unite and focus on how to best benefit the state through the utilization of its unique position of being very close to a new government in terms of distance and representation. With hopefully the right intention in the hearts of our leaders at the helm of affairs, Kogi State would enjoy better years ahead.
Ajibola, immediate past Managing Director of Media Trust Limited, is Chairman of CBD MediaEdge Communications Ltd, Abuja <[email protected]>