When a man stumble and falls wisdom demands that when he rises to move on he should first check what caused his fall to avert future re-occurrence. A man who fails to do this is deemed unwise.
On 9th January, 2011, a relatively unknown politician rose to stardom in Kogi State. From Egbe to Ibaji, from Abaji to Ajaokuta, the name Jibrin Isah Echocho resonated with applause. In a matter of weeks, the man Echocho became the rallying point for political gladiators in Kogi state who saw him as successor to the then Governor Ibrahim Idris.
Echocho won the PDP governorship primaries in Kogi state on 9th January, 2011 in very controversial circumstances with allegations of manipulation of votes through artificial power outage at the venue of the primaries. As other aspirants protested the outcome of the primaries, the ‘powers that be’ upheld his election, but the jolly ride did not last for long as Ibrahim Idris’ tenure as governor was prolonged by the Appeal Court and the governorship election was subsequently postponed. When Supreme Court sent Ibrahim Idris packing from government house without prior notice, PDP decided to dump Echocho and organise a fresh primary for all governorship aspirants.
The fresh primaries exposed Echocho’s main weakness which is CONFUSED-DECISION.
After failing to stop the fresh primary, Echocho was torn between challenging the fresh primary in court or participating in the fresh primary. The option of going to court was more favourable at that time given the fact that his former god-father, Ibrahim Idris, had endorsed someone else, Idris Wada. Echocho’s core supporters were surprised when he made a CONFUSED-DECISION to buy fresh nomination forms and expression of interest and started mobilizing for the primary. On the day of the primary, Echocho was physically present and then took a CONFUSED-DECISION to leave the township stadium venue of the primary as a sign of boycott. He later challenged the fresh primary in courts but failed at all levels. Not a few of his supporters kept asking why he made a CONFUSED-DECISION to buy nomination forms for a primary he wanted to challenge in courts.
Wada won the governorship election and is still the incumbent governor of Kogi State. Echocho challenged Wada’s victory in courts vehemently. The national leadership of PDP tried to persuade Echocho to abandon the cases in court and be ‘settled’ but he refused. He did not win any of his court cases.
When the APC was formed, Echocho was contacted by leaders of APC in Kogi and at the national level to persuade him to join APC but was non-committal. His followers who had been sidelined in Wada’s PDP kept nudging him to decamp to APC but Echocho too a CONFUSED-DECISION to hang in the middle (one leg in APC, one leg in PDP). Most of his supporters left for APC and were integrated into APC immediately. His supporters like Ikani Okolo and Abdullahi Bello are today in Federal House of Representatives courtesy of APC.
As the governorship election is fast approaching, Echocho has taken 3 CONFUSED-DECISIONS already:
1. He ran to Labour Party
2. He approached defeated Sam Aro to use his Accord Party platform
3. He decided recently to stay in PDP and hope that Suleman Idris (son of ex-gov Idris) will help him defeat Wada in the forthcoming PDP governorship primary.
At the moment, Echocho is a full fledged member of PDP, same party that has caused him much pains and humiliation.
Like a trapped mouse, Echocho is stranded in PDP. All viable political platforms are no longer available for the man that is used to making CONFUSED-DECISIONS.
How far can the stranded Echocho go in PDP? Time will tell.
– Tijani Abubakar writes from Lokoja
