Let us test the truth with a case exampler from Lagos State.
Former Governor Akinwumi Ambode remained a one term Governor in Lagos State after being anointed amongst millions by his God father, Sen Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Lagos Governing Advisory Council, GAC and Political Party Stalwarts in Lagos. If you’re familiar with Asiwaju, he does not joke with his party loyalists because they form the structure of his taciturn hold on politics.
The APC party Stalwarts single handedly removed Ambode from his chances of re-election. In Lagos State, party loyalists are rewarded with contracts of varying shades to keep their people satisfied. Of course, human beings must execute contracts and they can also belong to political parties. They control the cleaning services and other ancillaries. Ambode was rumoured to have removed and replaced them all with his loyalists, in an attempt to build a structure for himself, outside the system created by Baba which worked and delivered him into office.
All entreaties made to pacify baba and APC stakeholders in Lagos State failed because Ambode went for the collapse of the very system that made him by excluding party faithful from the scheme of things. Ambode is from Epe, Lagos State. Baba is not even from Lagos State originally as he is said to be from Osun state. Although, Lagos is dynamicallu accommodating as even Senator Solomon Olamilekan served as Reps member in Lagos before going to serve as Senator in Ogun State, paving way for his Governorship ambition. Igbos also hold Commissionership and Assembly Positions in Kogi State. This political system survived under the architecture of Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Follow me to Kogi State,
Former Governor Yahaya Bello became Governor. He was to rendezvous a system that would become his own political dynasty, an opportunity misplaced by all Igala Governors that have ruled the state in the past. He went to bring in Senator Jibril Echocho, one of the most wounded Igala sons who have been treated bad by his own people. He was given the ticket of the PDP to run as Governor. His daughter married the son of the arch enemy of his own political godfather as at then, overnight, he was stricken of the ticket, emptied financially and left to rot.
It took a Yahaya Bello and Edward Onoja to resurrect a man who had died financially and politically, a job well orchestrated by his own kinsmen.
Senator Echocho was delivered by the system who campaigned vigorously for him . He was bankrolled by the same system down to his campaign posters. All the leg work was done for him.
In his first 4 years in Office came the Ambode spirit. He was inaccessible. He always always in hurry to attend to his constituents. Party leaders from the district had to cover up for him many times. Those he promised heaven before office started seeing hell.
His office at the National Assembly became a theatre of many kind of quarrels between his aides with rumours of voodoo actively in practice. He never provided leadership to stem that ugly tide that made it to the Internet most times.
He completely ostracized himself from the entire party leadership in Kogi East with everyone complaining about one thing- inaccessibility.
In 2019, he was reconsidered to return to maintain the party structure for the re-election of Alhaji Yahaya Bello but the lessons were learned.
He got back to the red chamber and everything remained the same. In the worse, he was politically silent on most occasions and his activities were totally absent on the media with only volunteers fighting hard to make him seen.
Then comes a new Governor.
The first bitter taste was that our Senator had lost his polling unit to the opposition in the firefly 2023 general elections that produced the incumbent.
Realistically, the incumbent is to fight for his return in an off cycle election in 2027. Kogi East APC stakeholders started putting their farm in order. They saw Senator Echocho as a weak political link because of his lack of communication with them. Those who wanted him back were doing so to balance their own political calculations of their personal interests.
For the new Governor Ododo, he wanted someone who could stamp his feet politically on ground for his return. Sen Echocho was not working with the stakeholders, neither was he working with his constituents.
How can one explain a Senator of almost 8 years in office that never stepped his foot in some of the 9 LGAs he was representing just for a town hall meeting even as he doesn’t pick calls?
How does he hope to deliver any electoral contest when he is barely known in the LGAs by grassroots?
The same people who have always worked in his absence are the ones who complained that their fortunes may grow weak politically if a change was not in the offing.
On a clear part of political thinking. Alhaji Yahaya Bello is the supreme leader of the party in the state having produced his successor. If Senator Echocho offends the system that produced him by ostracizing himself from the party stakeholders like Ambode did, should he not be like Asiwaju?
In politics, the reality is usually louder than the optics. There’s an Ankpa Federal Constituency Reps Member Abdullahi Ibrahim Halims who has been returned. There’s complaints about his generosity in handing over money, but none has come about his accessibility. If you look at it very well, accessibility to your law maker is better than handouts that comes once in a season that is if you ever get to see your representative in their 8 years of stewardship. Still, Halims gives but the question is in how much.
Whilst the propaganda of power play rages on about Ebira giving Igala Senators, what happened when Alhaji Yahaya Bello anointed Senator Echocho for two terms as he is Governor and nothing was wrong there of?
Why is it now a problem when Alhaji Usman Ododo prefers a Joseph Erico who has been accepted and voted by the party in a primary elections?
Sen Echocho is an Igala man like Joseph Erico.
Former Governor Yahaya Bello is an Ebira man like Alhaji Usman Ododo.
What has changed?
How many of you would take a political gamble with a General who is not leading from the front?
In the entire Kogi East, only Dr Joseph Ameh Erico went to all the Federal Constituencies to declare his ambition for Senate.
Senator Echocho called everyone to Dekina, his own Local Government to declare his third term bid without respect and recourse to the party leadership of the 9 LGAs which he represents even after failing to step his feet in any of the 9 LGAs for almost 8 years for a Town Hall meeting as their law Maker.
Conscience must go with judgement. A man is also the architect of his own success and misfortune.
If Senator Echocho is favoured to continue, I will throw in my support as usual in respect to the system. My loyalty is firmly with the system because it gives opportunity to nobodies to become somebodies but it should be noted that it is in sacrifice of our personal opinions.
It should also be noted that I shall not be going to pester him for anything because we did so for many years and he left us in wanton abandonment after working to deliver him in an LGA he never stepped his feet on to say “Thank you”. And when we are done, we will Thank Dr Erico for energizing our party with his remarkable familiarization visits to many Igala communities after what Muri did to us in 2023 with ethnic agenda campaigns. We will need a senator that engages, that reminds, that is present and is willing to keep dotting the presence of the party in all LGAs instead of only Dekina.
As far as his threat to contest the Governorship with the incumbent in 2027, how will he do it when he has barely been to the 9 LGAs he represents in almost 8 years?
I am just a student of power.
We will keep learning.
– Promise Emmanuel (Aka Kogi Rebel) writes from Lokoja.
