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No fewer than 29 politicians are jostling in the race to occupy Lugard House, seat of government of Kogi State with 28 of them from the All Progressives Congress, while Governor Idris Wada has been given the mandate to go for a second term by his Peoples Democratic Party in the governorship election slated for November 21

| By Olu Ojewale | Aug 31, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT |

THE race to Lugard House, seat of governor of Kogi State, is seriously gathering momentum. Although there are about 19 political parties in the state, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the All Progressives Congress, APC, remain the two major visible and dominant ones among them. One of them is expected to produce the next governor in the governorship election slated for November 21. According to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, timetable the two parties are to hold their primaries between August 25 and September 15.

As the election date draws near, the state has become a beehive of political activities with those interested in the plum job working hard to outwit each other in the political game. Barring any unforeseen circumstance, Governor Idris Wada, who picked up his nomination form on Thursday, August 20, remains the candidate of choice for the PDP.

Wada secured the party’s mandate for a second term ticket, courtesy of various interest groups in the state. Aside from the market women, youths, students and artisans who have already given the go-ahead signal to the governor to contest, the PDP elders crowned it all with their endorsement.

On Monday, August 17, the PDP Elders’ Advisory Council held a meeting at Government House, Lokoja, and formally adopted Wada as the party candidate. The meeting, chaired by Ibrahim Idris, former governor of the state, said Wada’s adoption was borne out of his monumental achievements in the past three and half years. The council also resolved that power rotation would be entrenched in the party, to rotate between the West and Central senatorial districts and that it would only occur in 2019.

The former governor who read the communiqué of the council decision said that the decision to allow power shift was to engender unity and a sense of belonging. He said the machinery to achieve a smooth power rotation to the West or Central Senatorial district after Wada’s tenure would be worked out. “However, machinery will be put in place for power shift toward 2019 governorship election. Part of the machinery that will be put in place is the setting up of a committee to look into the issue of power shift immediately after the election,” communiqué said.

From all indications, Wada has no doubt, secured the backing of his party to contest the next gubernatorial election in the state. He will soon know who will be his opponent from the APC, which has 28 persons jostling for the party ticket.

On Monday, August 17, the APC cleared 28 governorship aspirants to contest the party primaries slated for Saturday, August 29. Each of the aspirants paid N5.5 million to pick the APC intent and nomination forms, except the only woman in their midst who got the form free.

At the presentation of certificate of clearance to the aspirants, the APC expressed optimism that it would win the upcoming governorship election in Kogi State and warned all aspirants and their supporters to shun violence during the process.

Osita Izunaso, a senator and the APC national organising secretary, while receiving the report of the committee which screened the party’s aspirants for the election at the party’s secretariat in Abuja, said that the number of contestants was an indication that Kogi was for the APC. “The situation where we have 28 aspirants is a good omen for our party; what it means is that people of Kogi State believe in our party, Kogi is APC and APC is Kogi,” he said.

Making reference to the last general elections, Izunaso said that with three senatorial seats, six House of Representatives seats and 75 percent contribution in the presidential election, it was no longer news that Kogi had become an APC state.

All the party governorship aspirants were made to sign an undertaking that they would not incite violence in the state.

Prominent among those cleared by the APC to contest the primaries are Abubabar Audu, first civilian governor of the state; retired Air Vice Marshall Saliu Atawodi; Yakubu Mohammed, former deputy chief executive director, Newswatch Communications Limited; Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo, former managing director, Daily Times of Nigeria Limited and Hadiza Ibrahim, the only lady in the pack. Others are Haliru Sani Shuaibu, a senator; James Ocholi, a lawyer; Olusola Olumoroti; Yahaya Bello; Nicholas Yahaya Ugbane; Suleiman Baba Ali; Muhammad Abdullahi; Nuruddeen Abatemi Usman, a senator, among others.

Perhaps, alarmed at the number of people interested, Audu accused the PDP in the state of sponsoring about 15 aspirants. The former governor alleged that the PDP gave each of sponsored candidate N10 million each to pick the APC intent and nomination forms so as to act as spoilers for him at the party’s primaries to hold in another week. He did not disclose who the PDP sponsored candidates were.

“For me, there is no single storm. That is the gimmick of the PDP. They joined our party last week and by Monday they were at the secretariat to pick the form… Some of them are there to carry out the bid of the PDP. But as far as we are concerned, even if they are 100, it would have been better for the party because the more the merrier,” he said. Audu did not disclose who the PDP sponsored candidates were.

Also unfazed by the number of aspirants of his party is Yakubu Mohammed. He told the Realnews that his chances of picking the party ticket were very bright. “We are selling ourselves to delegates; we are going round to sell our programmes to delegates and voters. You know the political terrain is very dynamic. The situation you find in the morning may be different from what you find in the afternoon, and that of afternoon is different from what you have in the evening. Each aspirant has his or her own programmes on how to govern and develop the state. During the screening they even scored us. So, I am not disturbed. I know power comes from God. Anyone God wants to be there will be there; if God wants someone, delegates cannot reject him; if God wants someone to be the governor, even voters cannot reject him,” Mohammed said.

On a possibility of picking a consensus candidate in view of the high number of aspirants, Mohammed said there was no talk about that yet. Nevertheless, he said all the candidates regarded themselves as brothers and sister talking to themselves on how the problems of the state and how the state could be made better. Besides, he said the scoring by the screening committee might also influence delegates on how to vote.

In any case, the one boiling issue that may swing votes in favour of any candidate in the state now is power shift. The question of power shift has been a big challenge for politicians in the state. When Kogi State was created in 1991, from the old Kwara and Benue states, political elites in Kogi West, Eastern and West axis held stakeholders’ meeting at Okene. At the meeting, chaired by Atta Adamu, a former governor of old Kwara State, and an Ebiraman, the elites of the three senatorial districts unanimously decided that leadership in the state would be by power rotation. They also resolved that Igalla people should first produce the state governor because they were never given the opportunity to produce governor in the old Benue State.

The stakeholders also resolved that on expiration of the tenure of the elected governor of the state then, the power should shift to Kogi West which had not produced any in either newly created Kogi or old Kwara State.

But once the Igalla people, who are in majority got power, the zoning arrangement was discarded. Audu, Idris and Wada were all elected governors from Kogi Eastern axis who have been ruling the state since the inception of Kogi State. Even with the unfolding political situation, it has become obvious that politicians of Igalla extractions, having ruled for 16 years, are not still ready for power shift.

The dominance of Igalla in the state politics has been causing serious disaffection among other ethnic groups, who argue that every tribe in Kogi State contributed immensely for its creation and that the Igalla did not fight for it alone.

Thus, there has been an agitation from different groups clamouring for power rotation or power shift.

The heat seemed to affecting a good number of aspirants. This, has no doubt, prompted Audu to promise to actualise the much agitated “power shift” by the people of central and western part of the state, if given the opportunity to serve the state again. Speaking in Lokoja, capital of Kogi State, in the past weekend during his formal declaration of intent to contest for the governorship of the state, Audu said: “We are all brothers and sisters. The only way to foster unity and true love among ourselves in the state is when power goes round. The Igalas, Ebiras and Okuns by history belong to old Kabba province and as such whatever we have in the state should be shared up to the minorities. That is the only way we can live peacefully and harmoniously in Kogi State.”

Many other APC governorship aspirants have similarly expressed same sentiments. But Shuaibu, one of the aspirants, has cautioned that the concentration of power in the Igala speaking part of Kogi State should not be blamed for the backwardness of the state. He said it was the responsibility of the citizenry in the state to vote into power persons whose requisite exposure and competence could take the state out of the woods.

Shuaibu, who hails from the Igala speaking part of the state, blamed the successive PDP-led administrations for all the problems besetting the state. He said: “Kogi State is backward today not because it doesn’t have the right calibre of persons to take it out of the wood. I have heard a section of our citizenry say the problem lies with power shift; that the state is backward because my Igala people have been administering it without tangible results for all to see.

“I beg to differ on this proposition. For me, such talks are a creation of the opposition PDP. The PDP had a hand in the backwardness of the state because for the past twelve years, it produced the governors that brought the state to its knees.”

Indeed, the PDP has had a firm grip on the state since 2003 when former Governor Idris defeated the then incumbent Governor Audu of the defunct All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP.

Apart from the defunct ANPP that has had the opportunity to lead the confluence state for four years from 1999 and 2003, the PDP has been ruling in the past 12 years. Idris had led the state from 2003 to 2011 and handed over to the incumbent Governor Wada of the same PDP after defeating Audu, who contested on the platform of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in the 2011 governorship election.

In the coming November 21, governorship election, however, pundits believe that the APC may have the chance to secure the needed victory, being a product of the amalgamation of the ACN, the ANPP, and defunct Congress for Progressive Change, CPC.

This was the view of Haddi Amentur, APC chairman in Kogi State, who expressed confidence on the ability of his party to emerge victorious. Amentur said the chance of the APC was very bright considering woeful performance the PDP in all aspects of development.

“When you look at the state, the only positive development that is visible in the state is what the opposition did under former governor, Abubakar Audu. PDP has spent 13 years with nothing to show for it. What will they use to campaign? Is it all the bad roads that dotted the capital city and other parts of the state?” he asked.

The APC said the party would repeat its performance during the presidential and National Assembly elections in the state because the people of the state had become tired of the PDP. “The people are tired of the PDP and need a change which the APC represents. The PDP cannot boast of any achievement over the past 13 years in governance, which is a plus for the APC. The people want development and not hopelessness. The people are yearning for change and that change will come through the APC,” he said.

Amentur may have a point there. The setback experienced by the PDP at the last general elections was the first of its kind since the party took the baton of leadership of the state in 2003. President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC polled 264,851 votes to defeat former President Goodluck Jonathan who got 149,987 votes in the state.

Besides, the APC also won all the three Senate seats and six out of the nine House of Reps seats, while the PDP got three. The outcome of the March 28 and April 11, polls was a reversal of the trend of elections in the state since 2003 when the PDP, at various elections, dominated winning the three senatorial slots and virtually all nine House of Representatives seats with the exception of one in 2003 and two federal seats in 2011. The PDP also had 20 of the 25 State House of Assembly seats in the 2011 elections against the 14 it was able to get in the current Assembly.

The onus, some analysts say, is now on the APC to produce a worthy and acceptable candidate if it wants to win the gubernatorial contest.

“The two parties have a 50-50 chance of dominating the politics of the state as of now. The APC now has the national strength but the PDP still controls the state till 2016 and controls the grassroots (local governments),” Kabir Jamiu, a Lokoja-based political analyst, said in a newspaper report. According to him, any of both parties can win the next governorship election in the state.

Jamiu argued: “Based on the current strengths of the two parties, the governorship poll provides a level playing field for one to prove its superiority over the other. It is left to be seen if the opposition will bring PDP’s 13-year dominance over Kogi State to a halt.”

Yori Afolabi, a former minority leader in the state House of Assembly, said the APC would win the election if it presented a credible candidate and observed due process in the primary election, where the governorship candidate would emerge. Afolabi said that the opposition party in the state would have a better chance in the governorship election considering the dismal performances of the ruling PDP.

He said: “As it is now, the personality and character of the person that would be presented by the opposition party matter a lot in the coming governorship election. Nigerians are becoming wiser and politically enlightened. They don’t vote for party alone. They consider the candidates involved. People are tired of the PDP. They want change and they see that change in Muhammadu Buhari. If such is replicated in the state, then there is no hope for the PDP.”

Nevertheless, Idris said the party had learnt its lesson and thus, assured supporters that the PDP would still win. He said the PDP lost the last election because of its pride and insincerity in treating issues.

He warned: “It will be the biggest mistake if any other party takes over Kogi from the PDP. I cannot imagine any other party taking away power from us. It will be the highest level of disgrace to us. Kogi is still a PDP state, nothing has shaken us, we are not afraid of the opposition. We (PDP) have all it takes to deal with the opposition.”

Similarly, Kabir Yusuf, a chieftain of the PDP, said that the PDP would emerge victorious in the forthcoming election. “When you look at the victory of the APC in Kogi during the presidential election, it was the PDP that gave them the victory. Many PDP members voted for the APC. This is a governorship election. So, the PDP members who voted for the APC will now vote for the PDP candidate. The chances of the PDP are very bright,” Yusuf said.

He argued that Governor Wada had done his best for the state in terms of development with the available resources. He said civil servants in Kogi State received higher salary under Wada than all the neighbouring states, adding that people would not forget him.

“Everybody keeps blaming Wada. They forget that the problem they are talking about were inherited ones. I think that the problem we have as a government is that we don’t use the media very well. If you don’t talk, nobody will talk for you. So, his performance remains unnoticed,” Yusuf said.

Besides, he said that most of the people who defected to the APC were from the PDP, stressing that the PDP would come out stronger to win the governorship election after the ongoing reconciliation mission.

As it is, the battle of Kogi has started in earnest. The electorate has about one week left to know who is going to contest against incumbent Governor Wada. But above all the ultimate deciders are still the electorate who are going to exercise their franchise on November 21.

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