These are not the best of times for Igala people of Kogi state. Igala, the predominant tribe in Kogi East Senatorial District failed to pick the governorship ticket of any of the major political parties. All Progressives Congress (APC) propped up Usman Ododo, an Ebira from the central senatorial district, as its governorship candidate while Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Africa Democratic Congress (ADC) elected Dino Melaye and Leke Abejide as their respective candidates. Both Dino and Leke are Okun from the western senatorial district.
Truth be told, all these Igala candidates brandishing governorship tickets of mushroom parties won’t make any impact at the polls. Take a look at all of them and you will agree that they lack what it takes to galvanize voters in Kogi East alone, talkless of the entire state.
This is the first time we will fail to produce a governorship candidate in any of the major political parties since the creation of the state in 1991.
Today, we are faced with a very bleak political future. We may have to wait for between 8 and 16 years or more before we taste the governorship seat of Kogi state.
As it is now, we have been condemned to play second fiddle in a state where we control the majority of votes. The three major political parties, APC, PDP and ADC, are already plotting how to pick their deputy governorship candidates from Igala land. The prospective deputy governorship candidates are expected to harvest substantial votes for their parties from Igala land. APC, PDP and ADC are plotting to pick someone that can guarantee electoral victory in at least 3 LGAs in the Eastern senatorial district.
Assuming APC, PDP and ADC successfully harvest 3 LGAs each from our 9 LGAs, Igala land would have been successfully plundered politically.
What went wrong? Where did we go wrong?
APC Scenario
In APC, we gambled with dangerous political partners. A good number of us followed Edward Onoja blindly to support APC with confident assurance that Yahaya Bello will give him the governorship ticket. We rejected our elders in other parties and even demonized the founding fathers of APC in our land to make way for the eventual emergence of Edward. We muzzled everybody that stood on our way and created stupid slangs like Enemuneme and EBIGO. Our hero was eventually flushed out of the race unceremoniously before the primary election.
As it stands today, Bello-controlled APC has told us they are on vengeance mission to deal with Igalas for denying them a taste of governorship seat since state creation. All of a sudden, EBIGO has transformed into 16-16-16 agenda. We can no longer call APC our home because the lords there are ready to deal us a big blow if we don’t kneel in obeisance to them.
PDP Scenario
As explained above, we succeeded in reducing our leaders in PDP. We ridiculed them so much that party leaders in other senatorial district feel they had passed their time. We had absolute control over PDP since 2003 and can boast of picking the party ticket anyday. However, with results of 2019 and 2023 general elections, we ridiculed leaders in this party. We had so much faith in APC. We mobilized the electorates to ignore former Governor Ibro and Wada. Now, we expect them to perform miracles in same party? We placed all our eggs in one basket and have lost it all.
ADC Scenario
ADC was Kogi West senatorial district’s masterstroke. They sent their leaders to APC and PDP in their search for an elusive governorship ticket but had a fall back option in ADC. During last elections, Kogi West leaders schemed and ensured ADC grabbed 2 house of reps seats out of 3 in the area. ADC is comfortably at home in Kogi West. They eventually succeeded in picking PDP ticket while the main aspirant challenging APC primaries is from Kogi West, Smart Adeyemi. They calculated ahead. This should be a case to study for ane Igala. Well, APC and ADC are the same in Kogi state. In Kogi state, the bad Buhari/Tinubu boys are in APC and the good ones in ADC.
As it is now, we have boxed ourselves into a corner. I can bet that voter turnout in Kogi East on November 11 will be lowest in the history of the state and we have ourselves to blame for this predicament.
Historians told us Igala land was never conquered in battle but as it is, we have been conquered effortlessly.
– Adamu Ojonugwa writes from Lokoja.
