Ahead of November 16, 2019 governorship election in Kogi state, a group under the aegis of Citizens for Equity, Fairness and Justice has challenged other Senatorial zones of the state to allow Western Senatorial District to produce the next governor of the state.
In a press conference held on Friday in Lokoja, the Spokesman for the group Mohammed Abubakar appealed to Kogi East and Central zones as a matter of equity and fairness to support the candidates from the west for the plum governorship seat in the forthcoming election.
He noted that, Kogi East has produced governors for almost 16 years while the central senatorial district is having its turn of four years leaving the West as an orphan in the state it called her own.
He explained that Kogi is a miniature Nigeria where political consideration is divided among three zones – North, West and South-South while Kogi has East, Central and west saying there should be an adoptable modality for all the zones to have a shot at the governorship of the state.
Abubakar lamented that Kogi Western Senatorial zone is the only zone across the country that has not produced a governor of her own since 1999 that our nascent democracy experimented.
He added that if not because the larger Nigeria introduced Zoning in its body polity, smaller ethnic tribes and Zones wouldn’t have been able to produce the presidents urging the political leadership of the state to without delay enshrine rotational arrangement in her polity.
The spokesman averred that the major criteria for the people aspiring to the office of the governor should be competence and not on the basis of population stressed that the Western Zone has in abundance men and women of high capacity and the credibility that can drive the state from its present underdevelopment.
He urged politicians to always consider all parts of the state as their place of birth nothing that Kogi west has contributed immensely to the development and sustenance of the state that should be considered to occupy the office of the governor
According to him, ” Under our Constitution, Marginalisation of any kind is illegal and immoral under God. The kind of people we are, our principles and our values should be determined by our adherence to fairness, equity and Justice.
“We cannot promote Unity, tolerance, peace, brotherhood and nationhood without enforcing these principles of equity, Fairness, and Justice. We should be conscious that we are equal before the law, hence, we urged our brothers from the other zones to allow Western Senatorial zone to produce the next governor,” he pleaded.
