The media has been awash with over-hyped reports that some stakeholders in Kogi West PDP kicked against the home-coming of Senator Dino Melaye.
Distinguished Senator Dino Melaye is the missing link between Kogi West PDP and electoral success in 2019.
In the 2015 senate and governorship elections, PDP lost badly in Kogi West for the first time since 1999. PDP lost in March 2015 to Dino Melaye and lost in November 2015 to late Prince Audu. The repeated loss showed without doubt that all is longer well with PDP in Kogi West.
It is safe to say the anti-party activities of some top ranking members of PDP led to the losses in 2015. However, the movement of Smart Adeyemi to ruling APC has practically weakened PDP in Kogi West. The very proud leaders will not agree to this but it is the truth. Smart Adeyemi’s move to APC further exposed the vulnerability of PDP in Kogi West. It is interesting to note that Smart left some of his loyalists behind in the PDP for ‘future political exigencies’. When the chips are down, these loyalists will operate from within PDP to help Smart achieve his undying dream of returning to Senate for third term.
The much anticipated glorious return of Senator Melaye to PDP is an unsettling news to Smart and his loyalists. They have mapped out strategies to cut down likely PDP senate candidates but the entrance of Dino Melaye is bad news to Smart and his yeomen. He is using some of his moles in PDP to create media hype that PDP does not need Dino Melaye. The truth is Smart and his boys are jittery. Another defeat in the hands of Melaye is loading!
They went to town with loads of lies that PDP has conceded its sole Kogi West Senate ticket to Dino Melaye. This is ridiculous. This is not the way PDP operates. PDP is one party that believes in internal democracy. Even as a sitting governor, ex-governor Ibrahim Idris had to contend with numerous aspirants in a competitive primaries to secure a second term ticket in 2007. They is absolutely no way PDP will promise Dino ticket without primaries, it is not done in PDP.
Checking through the names of the so-called stakeholders who addressed press claiming rejection of Dino one will see none of the major stakeholders’ name in the list. I will take them serious when I see names like Gen. Tunde Ogbeha, Alh. Musa Ahmadu, Chief Sam Abenemi, Prince Sola Akanmode, Chief Sola Ojo, Hon. Kola Ologbondiyan, Chief Tunde Olusunle etc in the list of those rejecting Dino Melaye. In the meantime, the remnants of Smart Adeyemi loyalists in PDP cannot be taken serious. They cannot deceive us.
Smart is fully aware that Dino Melaye’s unusual energy will awaken the sleeping PDP in Kogi West. The combination of Melaye’s contagious political energy and the growing acceptance of PDP by electorates will make Smart look like an irrelevant politician in 2019.
We welcome Dino Melaye to PDP and will surely make him win the next senate election against the poverty-advancing APC.
– Abidemi Olalekan writes from Lokoja
