Your Excellency,
I am writing this open letter to you first as one of those who supported you and believed you are the best man for the job of leading Kogi state to the land of development in all its physicality at the time of your aspiring for the job to be the governor of our dear state and your subsequent election as the substantive governor of the state brought great joy to me because of the victory of my often held conviction that tribe, religion and ethnicity should never be the basis of one being elected at any given point to govern a state. Your public declaration of a cabal in your administration is an insult to all. Your proclamation is an insult on the APC stakeholders and a dangerous political provocation to the people of the state.
This public declaration by you of a so called existence of a cabal is a deliberate revelation which we can not attribute to a slip of tongue nor political humor and strategic transparency declaration but a grave insult, reckless provocation of the people of the state and a direct humiliation of the political stakeholders of the party that brought you to power and its members in general across the state particularly across Kogi East, Kogi West and the entire state. This open declaration, Mr governor amounts to a public confession that your governance of Kogi state is indeed drifting away from its required inclusiveness and the needed democratic balance into a sectional control by a narrow clique against the interest of the state which you can never deny.
I am writing this open letter to you as one of those who supported you when you were aspiring to be the governor of our dear state. As an apostle of a new type of politics dispensation in our state that seeks to eliminate ethnicity, tribe, religion and geographical consideration as a basis for electing those who govern the state at every turn to the entrenchment of a political system that emphasizes the election of the best man to do the job of developing the state in all its physicality.
Your recent shocking declaration, disclosure and open confession of the existence of a cabal supported and endorsed by you in your government is a direct insult to the people of the state, the APC stakeholders across the state and all like me who put of good conscience waited in the rain and sun to vote you into power believing you were the right man to move the state forward.
Mr. Governor, I believe you still remember the uproar, political fracas and resentment across the state prior to the 2023 general election immediately when you announced your intention to contest as one of the aspirants in that election. Your party, the great All Progressive Congress was vividly heading for balkanization due to the fact that majority of the members believed that an Ebira man should not be allowed to succeed an Ebira man in the spirit of fairness, justice and equity because of the political tension in the state then. Most of us used that opportunity then to rise up to support you using the media, public fora and town criers to educate our people that indeed it was time to allow the best which we thought you are then to govern the state. Our people listened and heard the merits in our message clearly by changing their stance then by overwhelmingly voting you to be their governor.
Your landslide victory then which signaled a pragmatic departure from the past ways of politics in the state that recognizes religion, tribe and ethnicity of a candidate as a basis for voting a candidate into office to a systematic approach to politics that recognizes the best man to do the job as the basis for electing a man or woman into office.
Many of us who supported you then are now very disappointed by your open declaration and confession that there indeed exist a cabal that superintends over the state allegedly headed by a female accountant general in the state which you also went ahead to name all its members. What is even more dangerous about your open declaration is that your cabal is divisive in nature and an insult to other ethnic groups in the state because of the sinister manner and ways by which it is constituted and I challenge you to deny that t is made up of only politicians from your own ethnic group (Ebira) against other ethnic groupings in the state.
I want to state here clearly and vividly that this open declaration by you is deliberate has left in its wake a bad taste in the mouth of all those who supported you because by all conscience and intent a devilish and satanic act which should never be tolerated. You are very lucky, Mr governor that the state house of assembly is today made up of your lackeys otherwise this open declaration is an affront on the state, probity and accountability which you took an oath to always adhere to. By excluding other ethnic groups from your so called cabal administering over the affairs of the state you have also deviated from the best practices expected of all public officers. Mr governor, where is the Igala’s and the name of the Okun’s in the list of your so called cabal?
The present silence in the state after your declaration of the existence of the so called cabal in the state is not agreement but anger being measured by the peace loving citizens of the state. This is unacceptable because governance today in the state is becoming gradually the property of the few from one town and this is making our democracy a laughing stock in the country and a deliberate invitation to anarchy when resentment grows. Mr governor it is very intriguing that what you may laugh off as political humor but is not because what you presented as strength is actually your weakness and it is shameful.
The IMPLICATION and dire consequences of your public declaration for the state is very grave. Your party APC today is tensed with its members not believing what is happening before their very eyes. Today there is a lot of political bitterness, ethnic resentment, party fracture crossed the party structure and this will ultimately be the IMPLICATION leading to future instability because your government is now seen by the majority of our people as a government built on cabal loyalty and the fear of the absence of accountability in your government is the beginning of wisdom for all the people.
Mr Governor, today the only remedy to your self inflicted deviation from your commitment to the people of the state to cabal system of governance in the state is your speedily returning to the right path of governing our dear state. Your disbanding of this cabal with immediate effect and returning the party and the stake to the people of the state with immediate effect will do your reputation as a person and your government a lot of good.
Mr Governor, your reputation today has dwindled and I am advising you to repent by openly apologizing to our people and publicly declaring that your administration will no longer condone any cabal in the state. This will help you as a person, the party as an institution and the pride of the people in general.
Return the party now to its leaders, stakeholders and members before Armageddon sets in. No one person is greater than the interest of the state. Power is transient and how will history judge you after your reign?. Think, Mr governor think as posterity is waiting to judge you.
– Musa Wada, a public affairs analyst, sent this piece from Abuja
