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Politically Kogi State appeared to be in a far more desperate state than I had previously imagined.The issue that made my heart bleed the most during my visit to the fatherland few days ago was about Kogi’s politics. I had looked forward with some eagerness to learn first hand how politics was being played in the Kogi state of 2015. Unfortunately I was dumbfounded to observe that politics was a travesty and in fact a tragedy in Kogi state. Politics in Kogi seems absolutely in a state of an unmitigated ruin. What is passing as politics in our beloved state Kogi is nothing short of a complete mess and an unbelievable tragedy!
The governor is neither the long-awaited messiah nor is he John the Baptist, the forerunner of the messiah. He is in fact a monumental disappointment as far as Kogi politics is concerned. He is just another politician cast in the image and likeness of Shehu Shagari, the unrivaled election rigger of 1983 and Sani Abacha. In fact the governor seems well on his way to break the twenty-year old record of Shehu Shagari.
Forget all about the camping, praying and fasting, his politics is not different from the despicable ones of old. Believe it or not, his political ambitions are as voracious, manipulative, despicable, ruthless and vicious as those of any corrupt politician that has ever lived.
Do not pay any mind to the officially sponsored propaganda you often get from the media outlets. The political display especially on non elective convention a month ago was for me an exercise in absurdity, a complete farce and a display of public deception. In some sense Kogi’s democracy is a ruse. The underlying structures of our politics have practically nothing to do with democratic politics. They are substantially Machiavellian. Whoever is the governor practically dictates for every other person to obey. Kogi is largely running a “dictatocracy” masked as democracy.
It was extremely painful to even talk about politics among some local folks in Kogi state. In fact I hardly could find anyone who was willing to hold any sustained discussion on the political situation of the economy. It was that bad! It appeared as if the ordinary folks in the villages could not care less the political charade that was being staged in Lokoja in the name of conventions. Nearly everybody I met was turned off from politics completely. It was surreal. There was the sense among the populace that Kogites had given up completely in the ability of politics to improve their lives. Hence there was a massive indifference to the political process that was purportedly unfolding in Abuja .
All the factors that plunged the state into the dark abyss in the last twelve years are still there. And they have begun to rear their ugly heads all over again. It usually begins by a non-performing incumbent leader insisting on holding onto power indefinitely with the aid of rigging and manipulation of election results.
You need to be in our state to witness how dismally organized our economy is. Nothing seems to work properly. The whole state looks progressively ungovernable. The state apparently cries for someone with ideas on how to organize the state.
I reasoned, the APC had misfired and must be forced to lose the election at all costs come 2019. If I had a vote to cast, I would give it to Hon. James Abiodun Faleke. JAF is a man who could be trusted to keep to his word. He has proved to be a man steadfastly true to his ideals.
I am anxiously waiting for the day Kogi will elect a leader that will be equally fair to all Kogites irrespective of their ethnicity and religion. That leader has not yet been elected in Kogi state. Bello is obviously not that leader .
– Alfa Tijani, a political analyst, writes from Kogi state.
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