In contemporary Nigeria, political power is no longer secured by isolation or ancestral pride alone. It is assembled; patiently, strategically, and across lines once considered immutable. For Igalaland, the lesson is urgent and unavoidable: no community survives modern politics as an island. The arithmetic of influence has changed, and without deliberate joint political action with neighbours such as the Bassa people, the Igbo communities, and other linguistic groups within Kogi East, Igala political relevance risks further erosion.
Kogi East is not a monolith; it is a mosaic. Its strength lies precisely in that diversity. Yet diversity, when unmanaged, can become fragmentation. For years, politics in the zone has been trapped in competitive ethnicity; each group guarding its numerical strength, nursing historical grievances, and negotiating separately with power brokers outside the region. The result has been predictable: divide, diminish, and dominate. While neighbours bargain individually, external forces consolidate collectively.
Joint political action is not cultural surrender. It is strategic realism. The Bassa farmer, the Igbo trader, the Igala civil servant, and the minority language communities scattered across Kogi East all face the same structural challenges; poor infrastructure, political marginalization, insecurity, youth unemployment, and policy neglect. These shared conditions demand shared bargaining power. Fragmented voices are easy to ignore; a coordinated bloc is not.
History offers instruction. Where communities have pooled demographic strength, harmonized political messaging, and presented united electoral fronts, they have shaped outcomes far beyond their individual numbers. Where they have not, they have been reduced to voting reservoirs, activated during elections, abandoned during governance. Kogi East has too often belonged to the latter category.
The Bassa people, long rooted in agrarian productivity and riverine economies, bring strategic depth to any coalition. Igbo communities contribute commercial networks, organizational discipline, and political alertness honed across Nigeria’s urban centers. Other linguistic groups bring geographic spread and local legitimacy. The Igala, as the largest group, bring historical centrality and numerical gravity. Combined, these elements form not a threat to one another, but a force capable of commanding attention in state and national negotiations.
What has prevented this convergence is not incompatibility, but mistrust; carefully sustained by politicians who profit from division. Fear has been weaponized: fear of domination, fear of erasure, fear of unequal reward. Yet political isolation has not protected any group; it has only weakened all of them. In reality, domination thrives more easily in fragmentation than in cooperation.
Joint political action requires a new grammar of engagement. It begins with dialogue, not symbolic meetings, but structured, interest-based negotiations. It requires agreement on minimum shared demands: equitable representation, rotational opportunities where feasible, policy commitments tied to development, and collective defense of electoral integrity. It demands leaders who can think beyond tribe without pretending tribe does not exist.
Critically, this cooperation must be horizontal before it becomes vertical. Ward-level alliances, youth coalitions, women’s networks, traders’ associations, farmers’ unions—these are the arteries through which unity gains legitimacy. Elite agreements without grassroots buy-in collapse under pressure. Real coalitions are built from the ground up, not announced from podiums.
As 2027 approaches, the cost of delay grows steeper. Electoral maps will not wait for emotional reconciliation. Power blocs elsewhere are already consolidating, calculating, and coordinating. If Kogi East enters the next political cycle divided, it will negotiate from weakness. If it enters united, it will negotiate from relevance.
This is not a call to erase identity. It is a call to transcend political loneliness. Identity is preserved by dignity, not by isolation. Neighbors who vote together do not lose themselves; they secure themselves.
Nigeria’s political future will belong to those who understand a simple truth: power listens to numbers, coherence, and discipline. No island votes alone. For Igalas, Bassa people, Igbo communities, and every other group within Kogi East, joint political action is no longer optional. It is the price of survival, and the pathway to shared progress.
– Inah Boniface Ocholi writes from Ayah – Igalamela/Odolu LGA, Kogi state.
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