My Fears for the next Kogi Guber election

With the swearing of State House of Assembly members in Lokoja, the political discussion is now shifted to Kogi Guber election slated for 2016. The people of Kogi State will have opportunity by next year to elect a new Governor who will steer the ship of the State for another four years.

As the current Governor, Capt Idris Wada has every constitutional right to renew his mandate so also any other capable hands in the State have constitutional right to wrestle power from him too. The current Governor of the State by my observation is doing everything possible to renew his mandate going by his recent political activities in the state.

On the happening in the State, i have palpable fears on the outcome of the forthcoming Kogi Guber election despite peoples’ complaint and resolved that the State Governor needs to be kicked out of office as a result of his abysmal performance.

Well, my fear is not on the basis that there would be an ethnic war in the state with the removal of the current Governor, Capt Wada or in event that he eventually got elected. Also, do i fear that election will not hold in the State? I do not also envisage that we might run short of credible individual who can do it better than Capt. Wada in case he is eventually removed from office.

My fear is that the current power shift or power rotation as being agitated by the people of Kogi Central and Kogi West might not see the light of the day and efforts made in this regard will amount to nullity, thus person from Kogi East will still emerge again as Kogi Governor.

I want to make it clear to my readers that as a true Son of Ebira, i strongly support power shift or Power rotation just like how many of our people feel. People should not misinterpret my analysis in this article. Recall that i have written series of article where i strongly canvassed for power rotation of Governorship seat among the three senatorial districts in the State.

Notwithstanding that i am an advocate of power shift, that will not stop me from speaking out when where I need to most especially when i sense what could hindered our chances for power shift. From my observation, the people of Kogi Central and Kogi West are presently not serious in their call for power shift or power shift as agitated by cross section of the state.

Recall that this is not the first time the call for power shift and power rotation was brought to the front burner of the State. The tactic adopted by the advocate of Power shift and Power rotation in the time past which led to their failure has not really change to what i am seeing today. The currently agitation is merely championed by Youths as Kogi elders or political brokers in the State who can make this materialised are not truly showing interest.

How can you call for power shift and power rotation when aspirants from either Kogi central or Kogi west are individualistic in their approach? How can the Youths of Kogi West and Kogi Central call for power shift when the major political actors in these areas have not come to term to nominate a consensus candidate for the Guber contest?

What we are presently having is that Aspirants from Kogi Central and Kogi West are individually soliciting support of people of the State for the primary election of their party. Presently, not less than 6 aspirants from Kogi West are rumoured to be showing interest, Kogi Central has 5 and that of East is 7 too.

If you critically analyse this, Aspirant from Kogi East stands the chance to win party’s ticket because they always show understanding in the political game unlike people of Kogi West and Kogi central. They know how to play their game by throwing their weight behind one candidate in spite of their large number at a start when the chips are down going by my research work in the past elections. Aspirants in Kogi West and Kogi Central hardly marry their interest together which always caused their failure in the past elections.

Thus, if individualistic approach is adopted for Kogi Governorship tussle as currently observed, person from Kogi East also has chance to secure their party’s ticket in view of high number of local government from their areas. My take on this is that, the party’s delegates from Kogi Central and Kogi West are not truly trusted to stand by their people unlike their counterpart in Kogi East.

I will not stop by saying that it is high time political stakeholders from Kogi West and Kogi Central shopped for consensus candidate for the contest as i am not pleased with the present call for power shift and power rotation which i regard as mere academic work.

We should understand that when the North wanted to wrestle power from Jonathan by all means then, they adopted Muhammadu Buhari as their consensus candidate which later worked well for him at the general election.

If the people of Kogi Central and Kogi West cannot come together to adopt one of their own as consensus candidate in either PDP or APC for the forthcoming election, the call for power shift will be a mirage. If they don’t adopt consensus candidate to stand for the election, we might end up having split of Votes from Kogi Central and Kogi West by party’s delegates which will work in favour of Aspirant from Kogi East in the primary election. We should not also forget that Igallas people will vote their own no matter how bad the Aspirant is.

Shaibu Stephen Ojate is the Managing Editor of EAGLE REPORTERS, an International Online news media in Abuja writes from Abuja. He is reachable on 08052666344 or 08102658380.