Senator Abdullahi Adamu
Sarkin Yarkin Keffi.
Need for Power Rotation to Kogi West
Sir,
We are writing this open letter to you and the major stakeholders in the party because of our concern for the survival of the party and its victory in the next gubernatorial election in Kogi state.
Your keeping mum at this time when there are a lot of pertinent and emergent issues that needed to be addressed is giving us a lot of concern.
We are writing you this letter reminding you of your responsibilities to come up with answers to the raging issue as it concerns the zoning of the gubernatorial ticket of the ,party for the 2023 election in our state.
The way and manner which this issues are addressed by the leadership of the party will decide the future survival of the party in the state and avoid the doomsayer’s prediction that the issue of zoning will finally lead to the implosions in the party in the state.
Many may not have told you the truth, but we are using this letter to tell you that the issue of the zone to produce the next gubernatorial candidate of the party is now the front burner .While the people of the Kogi West senatorial district have not hidden their expectations and since given indications that it is their turn based on the zoning principle to produce the next gubernatorial flag bearer of all the major political parties in the state, our party, the APC, which is the ruling party in the state to the consternation of all well meaning citizens of the state that expects our party to come up with its position on the matter or gave any indication that it will indeed zone the ticket to the Kogi west zone.
Even though some major and respectable political analysts and political columnist like Comrade Musa Wada, who is from the Kogi East zone, and Dr. Tom Ohikere, the publisher of APC news online and a former two time commissioner of information in the state from the Kogi Central zone, have written open letters to you and major stakeholders raising the need for the party to resolve the zoning issues, you have kept mum and not seem it fit to assuage the fears of members of the party who fear of the implications of ignoring the cry for justice and equity for the Kogi west people on the fortune of the state.
When freedom is offered you on a golden platter, the value of the platter far often overshadowed the offerings and that is what the people of the Kogi west are saying to the party, Mr. Chairman.
It is imperative to put the record straight on this matter as your silence and that of the major stakeholders of the party is no longer acceptable to us the concerned members of the party.
Since the creation of the state, the Kogi west zone has never produced either the administrators or the governor of the state and this fact is undeniably true and it is also true that the Kogi East zone have severally produced the state governor and on the other hand, the Kogi central zone are presently occupying the office of the governor with the state governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, who is presently rounding up his eight years as the governor of the state.
With this statistics on the ground, it is therefore expected that we should allow the Kogi west zone the opportunity to produce the next governor of the state.
Since the advent of the fourth republic in 1999, Mr chairman, there has been an unwritten convention in the country and even the states for power to rotate between the north and the south in the country for the Presidency and between the zones in the states and that is what has happened in Kogi state because both the Kogi East and the Kogi central have gotten their fair share of this unwritten convention.
Today, as we are approaching the 2023 general election in the state, aspirants in the party seeking to be the gubernatorial candidate prepare for the primaries of the party and running an extensive pre-primaries campaigns meeting delegates from all the nook and cranny of the state, the APC which you lead with its stakeholders are keeping mum without it’s leaders intervening on the clamour for power to shift to the Kogi West zone for the sake of equity, justice and fairness after the Kogi central have served out their terms.
It is important and advisable that the APC leadership headed by you and the major stakeholders of the party should take note that as the debate on the issue of zoning of the ticket of the party for the 2023 guber election continues in the party, it is expected that as a ruling party to lead by example and this has cast a moral burden on the politicians from the Kogi East and Kogi central zone, who have at various times insisted that power must rotate to their zone in the past and it was heeded.
He who comes to equity must come with a clean hands.
As pivotal as this zoning issue is, the positions of some respectable leaders of the Kogi East and Kogi central zones and some of their foot soldiers do not show that they genuinely understands that the party will be fractured politically if this issue is not properly address to serve as the healing balm needed to approach the election with one accord.
The gubernatorial position in the state is extremely sensitive. It is the most powerful and influential position that confers the greatest sense of belonging of the state to any ethnic or geographical area that produced him or her. Therefore, since the creation of the state, every segment of the state craves to have a piece of the cake, that is why morality is the sandwich of the Kogi state guber election and indeed, the 2023 election for the guber seat is not an exception, Mr. Chairman.
The questions therefore before us as a party to answer and quickly too are: which zone has not produced the governor of the state? Considering the issue of of rotational power in order to correct the vexed issue of imbalances among the three geopolitical zones in the state, especially the Kogi East, central and west blocks? under the present circumstances, whose turn is it between this blocs come 2023?.
Already, this has started generating heat among the gladiators as we gradually and steadily as a party move closer to 2023 and the momentum continues to build up. It is important that our party to underscore the fact that one major factor that will largely determine the outcome of the state guber election is power rotation or zoning between the Kogi East, central and west political blocs. This is what would also determine and the internal democratic practices of major political parties that will participate in the forthcoming election in the state.
The issue of zoning is now a trap which the other opposition parties are expecting us to fall for so that they take advantage as it is touted that the PDP is finalising to zone their ticket to Senator Dino Melaye if we fail in this regard.
While it is good to clarify for those in the party who may be hiding under legality to wish away the zoning debate, we agreed that zoning or rotational power shift is not enshrined in the party constitution or any of our electoral laws in the country, there exist an unwritten understanding which have been practiced in the party at all levels since its creation which United the party and gave every segment a sense of belonging and inclusion.
It is my candid opinion that the party in Kogi state under your leadership should make its position known on whether or not it is disposed to retaining this needed democratic invention that have remained a strong pillar of our democracy and a United force or jettison it all together.
Mr. Chairman, the last option may lead to implosions in the party that would lead to its defeat.
The party as of urgency should convene a stakeholders meeting on this issue and at the end issue a communique that the party leaders reiterates it’s resolve and commitments to the politics of equity, justice and fairness and unanimously agree that the guber candidature of the state is resolved to emerge from the Kogi west zone and this decision was predicated on the promotion of the party’s unity, loyalty and spread of party offices in the state.
This, Mr. Chairman, would constitute our winning formulae for the election.
As the members of the party and the political class awaits the unveiling of the party’s position on zoning of the guber seat, whatever formulae our party comes up with, fairness, equity, justice and the unity of the party must be the overriding consideration.There will be no APC in the state if there is no Kogi state and therefore, the interest of the state must override the personal interest of some of our leaders who are pushing for the party to jettison the zoning arrangement in favour of their whims and caprises.
Finally, Mr Chairman, our state is presently overwhelmed with the realities and myriad of problems the party is trying to tackle and resolve and the party is not expected to compound the woes of the party by through its actions or inaction instigating one section against another in the state over the issue of zoning of the APC candidature for the 2023 guber poll in the state later next month. This would bring to shame those that thinks the party would “scatter” in 2023 because we trust their doomsday prophecy would not see the light of day.
Signed:
Dr Shehu Ahmad
For: Kogi Amalgamated APC Integrity Group
