Opinion: Dino, Smart and Okun ‘Politics of Competition’

Senators Dino Melaye and Smart Adeyemi are unarguably the two most visible political gladiators in Okun today and they have continued to be in the news, irrespective of whether it’s for perceived right or wrong reasons.

Expectedly, Dino was recently in the news but this time over the ‘politics’ of upgrading the ABU Kabba to ‘Federal University of Agriculture’. As usual, some people hailed the effort as commendable, others ridiculed it as mere politics to divert attention from his recall.

I posited recently that “irrespective of the motives, being on the side of the People is Always a Popular Cause”. Therefore, irrespective of the politics of a Federal University of Agriculture Kabba, to curry temporal favour or approval for Dino from The People, it is The People that would be the ultimate beneficiaries in the long run. So, if siting a Federal University of Agriculture in Kabba is playing politics, then We Need Our Politicians to Play More of Such Politics.

Smart understood this ‘politics’ of Federal University of Agriculture Kabba very well and he smartly exploited it to seek reelection for a second term in 2011. At that time, Smart had fallen out of favour with then Gov. Ibrahim Idris and had also lost the confidence of The People. But Smart knew that it was better to return to The People, and selling the dummy of the Federal University Kabba to them, worked like magic. He reportedly told his constituents how he was on the same aircraft with former President Goodluck Jonathan from Abuja to Otuoke where they sealed the siting of one of Jonathan’s 12 Federal Universities, in Kabba.

Unfortunately, Kabba also lost that University to Smart’s style of politicking then. He was at loggerheads with Gov. Ibro and he failed to remember that there’s no permanent friend in politics but permanent interest. I reasoned then that the Jonathan-led Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Education could not give the Federal University to Smart but to Kogi State Government led by Gov. Ibro while the State Executive Council would decide where to site the university. This was because, Jonathan did not give the Federal University of ACN-led Ekiti State to any PDP chieftain from Ekiti. Rather he gave it to the Fayemi-led State Government to decide the siting of the university.

I had urged Smart then to smartly put politics aside, lead a delegation of Okun leaders on solidarity visit to Ibro to request for the University. Ibro would have been humbled and gladly sited the University in Kabba. Otherwise, it would be politically suicidal for Ibro as it would spur Smart’s popularity against Ibro’s choice, Faniyi. So Ibro sited the University in Lokoja to spite Smart. Even after that, Smart could still lobby for a dual campus for Kabba like Ekiti’s but he forgot about the University the moment he won a reelection. Unfortunately, when he needed the Third Term, he came up with the dual-campus idea – four years after – but it was too late and The People refused to fall for it.

However, Smart’s latest intervention in brokering peace between Kogi State House of Assembly and Gov. Yahaya Bello reportedly led to the ‘peaceful’ resignation of former Speaker Umar Ahmed, to avert plunging the state into another round of crisis; this is a commendable move. His legislative negotiation skill also paved the way for an Okun man, Kolawole Matthew, to emerge Speaker. This latest effort should be leveraged upon to the benefits of The People and not just the politicians. There are lots of lobbying the new Speaker could do to get the support of Gov. Bello for Okun, including the proposed Federal University of Agriculture, Kabba, irrespective of the political disagreements with Dino. So my advice to Speaker Kolawole Matthew is: “let your charity begin at home, not from outside”.

This should be the new phase of politics among Okun politicians – the politics of development, not of destruction; the politics that benefit The People rather than just the politicians. This ‘politics of competition’ for the benefits of Okun is what our politicians should be playing.