By Yusuf, M.A.
A recent publication has attempted to romanticize the defection of Capt. Idris Ichalla Wada to the APC, packaging it in metaphors about “pilots,” “flights,” and calls for Igala people to “calm down.” But politics is not governed by poetic imagery or emotional persuasion. Politics is governed by hard realities, historical memory, numbers that cannot be massaged, and the lived experience of the people who bear the consequences of every political choice.
And the reality in Kogi is simple: no defection, no sentimental write-up, and no literary gymnastics can override what the Igala people decisively established in 2023. The political centre of gravity has shifted, and it did not shift in the direction of recycled actors returning to old political shelters. It shifted toward the man who confronted tyranny when others bowed. It shifted toward the only figure who ignited a genuine mass movement in Kogi’s recent history. It shifted toward His Excellency Yakubu Murtala Ajaka.
The numbers alone tell the story more powerfully than any metaphor ever could. In a single election, Ajaka secured 259,052 votes—over 33 percent of all valid ballots cast—under the Social Democratic Party, a platform without federal patronage, without state infrastructure, and without the security blanket enjoyed by the ruling party. This was not an ordinary performance; it was a political phenomenon.
Compare this with the last two major opposition figures:
Musa Wada (PDP, 2019) — 189,704 votes
Dino Melaye (PDP, 2023) — 46,362 votes
Ajaka did not just outperform them—he eclipsed them. He surpassed the combined strength of PDP’s opposition machinery across two cycles, all while carrying the burden of a people who were determined to resist injustice at any cost. These facts cannot be brushed aside by symbolic gestures or nostalgic praise-singing. They are the highest level of political legitimacy: legitimacy earned by the people through the ballot, not assigned by essays.
This is why the sudden attempt to cast Capt. Wada as a new “pilot” for the Igala nation collapses upon contact with evidence. Capt. Wada is respected, but he belongs to an older political generation whose influence does not resonate with the awakened, politically literate youth of today. His defection to the APC may suit personal calculations, but it does not redefine the destiny of a people who have tasted political consciousness for the first time in decades.
And the Igala must confront an uncomfortable truth: Yahaya Bello has perfected the art of using Igala people against themselves, and many Igala actors repeatedly fall into the same trap. The political coordination of just five local governments in Kogi Central often surpasses the disorganized spread of nine local governments in Kogi East. This imbalance is not due to population, intelligence, or capability. It is due to disunity—a disunity that is artificially maintained by recycling older political actors who benefit from perpetual fragmentation.
As one political observer bluntly put it: “Igala does not lack numbers; Igala lacks cohesion.” And nothing fuels that lack of cohesion more than constantly abandoning emerging leadership for old political comfort zones disguised as fresh opportunities.
But the youths are no longer falling for the same political choreography. The youth bloc that rallied behind Ajaka in 2023 remains the most organized political force in Kogi East today. They are disciplined, determined, and deeply aware of the tactics used to divide them in the past. They do not respond to metaphors. They respond to courage. They respond to sacrifice. They respond to the truth. And they remain prepared to return to the political battleground the moment Ajaka signals readiness.
Those calling on Igala to “calm down” are misreading the moment. There is nothing to calm down from. Igala is not in turbulence; Igala is in transition. Not from weakness to strength, but from old political cycles to new political consciousness. The people are not confused. They have already chosen their path through their votes, their voices, and their resistance in 2023.
The attempt to reassign leadership to Igala through sentimental writing collapses before the evidence of what actually happened at the ballot box. Leadership is not proclaimed by essays; it is validated by people who are tired of manipulation. And the Igala people validated only one leader in 2023: Yakubu Murtala Ajaka.
No defection can rewrite that.
No metaphor can overshadow it.
No sentimental narrative can replace it.
The Igala nation is no longer seeking a pilot. It already has a leader—chosen by history, confirmed by numbers, and defended by the youth whose political awakening cannot be reversed.
That leader is Yakubu Murtala Ajaka.
And the future of Igala will not be dictated by nostalgia or convenience, but by the man who has already earned the people’s trust through sacrifice, courage, and overwhelming democratic legitimacy.
– Yusuf, M.A. is a Distinguished Lecturer and Researcher, Federal University Wukari.
