My attention has been drawn to an article by Umar Yakubu Ali with the caption: “What is the offence of ward C”? in which the author drawn the attention of other wards to the need to consider Ward C for the Lokoja I seat at Kogi State House of Assembly.
According to the author, “the ward have tried several times and have been denied the opportunity despite their commitment to moving Lokoja 1 state Constituency forward.”
Well, what the author failed to realise or intentionally ignored is that the position of Lokoja 1 constituency Assembly seat is contestable and Ward C had contested severally but failed due to lack of cohesion.
You will recall that in all the contests where aspirants from Ward D picked the ticket, irrespective of political parties, Ward C had always presented two candidates at the party primary elections while Ward D always presented a common front.
A clear example was in 2015. While the APC presented Hon. Alfa Imam from ward D to contest for the party primary election, Ward C under PDP saw Hon. Gwodobe and Hon Baba Sule from Ward C facing Hon Babadoko as sole aspirant from Ward D. The same scenario was repeated when the PDP zoned the assembly seat to same ward with the aim of affording them the unholy opportunity to produce the Assembly member. Every right thinking politician expected the two principal actors to reach a consensus, but they failed in that regard. The rest is history!
Same scenario played out in 2019 where same political actors from Ward C failed to step down or reach consensus which again gave Ward D, that always presented a common front, to picked the PDP House of Assembly ticket for 2019 Lokoja 1 Constituency.
The writer’s analysis on various wards that represented the constituency was not in doubt, but the question is, were those wards that clinched the tickets previously secured them on the platter of gold? The answer is NO!
Allah Dey from Ward A contested with his counterpart, Peter Akogu a.k.a El- Shatima from ward A. Late Hon. Buba Jibril fought gallantly with Hon. Hashimu Alhassan from ward D while Hon Baba Sule always face the battle of his life internally with Hon. Gwodobe. This lack of cohesion from the two politicians always deprived them the opportunities accorded them by their party, not that they were denied.
The writer have every constitutional right to support a candidate of his/ her choice from whichever wards, but the issue of “giving to Caesar what belongs to Caesar” as he advocated doesn’t arise, especially in a democratic setting where every individual have the right to vote and be voted for as enshrined in the 1999 constitution as amended.
The ward in question produced an Executive Chairman of Lokoja LGA, a Vice Chairman of same Council, commissioners in 1999 and 2011 to 2015, Special advisers under the previous administration to mention a few. The intro should have been; What’s the offence of ward B when they were denied elective position, particularly with regard to Lokoja Local Government chairmanship slot since the creation of the then Kogi Local Government in 1976?
What is their offence that they remain the only ward that was denied elective office since the inception of democracy in 1999?
That would have been the questions which my brother skipped.
I am not holding brief for any candidates, it is my believe that like ward C citizens, every ward in Lokoja 1 constituency have the constitutional right to aspire for any political office. Power still remain with the people who have the constitutional right to elect their representatives.
The people of Lokoja 1 constituency in general and ward C in particular have every right to decide on the 9th of March 2019 to chose between; Hon. Muhammed Bature of Accord Party (AP), Hon. Isah Tanimu Umar of All Progressive Congress (APC), Hon. Sulaiman Babadoko of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and others.
– Musa Tanimu Nasidi
