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With the recent passage of the #NotTooYoungToRun bill into law by the Nigerian National Assembly, millions of Nigerian youths erupted into wild jubilations, savouring the euphoric moment of victory as the almighty hammer fell on the table of the Senate President Bukola Saraki to seal their fate and that of the #NotTooYoungToRun Pressure Group seeking an amendment to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria with a thunderous shout of “Ayes” by the Senators who unanimously concurred to the passage of the bill into law. But if the level of preparedness of Nigerian Youths in exploiting the new opportunities of seizing political power from the old timers is to go by, then the euphoria presently in their subconscious minds may end up being a charade if they fail to learn the ropes and begin to show unfettered interest in the capturing of the administration of Local Governments all over the country.
In Kogi state, the conduct of the Local Government Elections has become more of an uncertainty than reality due to unresolved crisis that engulfed the ruling party APC in the wake of the internal wranglings that ensued after the demise of its flag bearer in the November 21 2015 election, Prince Abubakar Audu who was believed in many quarters to have won the election before his unfortunate demise. Declaration of the election inconclusive and his subsequent replacement by his party with Alhaji Yahaya Bello as against his running mate, James Abiodun Faleke whom most political analysts believed could have been the best replacement option for his late boss. The hullabaloo that followed subsequently led to a protracted legal battle between Faleke and INEC, joining Alhaji Yahaya Bello in his petition at the tribunal. The legal battle has since been laid to rest by the Supreme Court judgement of 20th September 2016 as Bello was substantively declared duly elected and returned by INEC as Governor of Kogi state.
Meanwhile, while the legal battle lasted at the tribunal between the ‘dramatis personae’, the unfortunate foundation for the bitter acrimony between members of the party for and against either of Alhaji Yahaya Bello and James Abiodun Faleke was laid with sharp division rocking the soul of APC. The rank of its Exco members polarized and different camps emerging from which it became nearly impossible for the Kogi state APC Exco to speak with one voice any longer. The situation still persists more than almost one year after the Supreme Court judgement. The result of which the party disintegrated into 3 distinct factions of Audu/Faleke group, Bello’s group and Dino Melaiye group with the Audu/Faleke group having the highest ranking Exco members including the party chairman, secretary and treasurer in its fold.
All efforts by the National Secretariat of the Party to reconcile the faction has not yielded any fruit as most party members believes Bello and his group were not disposed to reconciliation with the other groups but rather prefer bringing on board youths from the other political parties to fill the vacuum.
With the Governor lacking the constitutional powers to disband the APC Excos after more than two failed attempts and the seemingly constitutional backing they enjoy with a secured tenure of office and the failure to reconcile with them, it becomes even more worrisome the fate of our local government election since it is the State Exco that reserves the power to conduct the primary election. All attempts by Bello to establish his own Exco has failed and the question on the lips of many is what is the way forward out of this logjam?
Conduct of the Local Government elections needs the active participation of the State APC Excos in the sales of forms, screening of candidates, conduct of primary elections, emergence of candidate, submission of list of candidates to SIEC and conducting the political campaigns. But sadly, Kogi state government is yet to come to terms with this reality as the path it’s towing now seems to lead to a cross road ahead.
With the 2109 general elections fast approaching and rising momentum of political activities with aspirants emerging for different positions from different political parties, it seems that Bello and his team have lost interest in the conduct of the Local Council polls because of their obsession to contest for a second term and therefore failing to realize how important the outcome of the Local Government elections if conducted could affect their second term bid either positively or negatively. They seems to have also forgotten so quickly that general elections are won and lost in the grass roots. How Bello and his team wants to win a general election without first testing their popularity at the grassroots remains a very difficult puzzle to solve.
If Kogi Youths that constitute about 70% of the states population can build a viable and formidable structure to drive the #NotTooYoungToRun agenda, it won’t take too much efforts to democratically dismantle the old order from the grassroots since the Youth has taken over the Executive positions in the state as it could strategically be assumed that 50% of the job has been achieved and the rest is at the tip of our fingers. But in order to achieve that, the right things must be done at the right time.
Thousands of Kogi youths are politically displaced within the same party they worked and laboured for tirelessly in 2015 due to lack of reconciliation and are watching from the sidelines and hoping the Local Government elections, if conducted, could launch them back into the main stream of Kogi politics but unfortunately the situation looks gloomy at the moment. While the build up to 2019 general election has commenced earnestly, Kogi Youths may be left with no other options than to go back to their vomit. The euphoria that greeted the advent of the Youthful administration of Alhaji Yahaya Bello may eventually be cut short and the ample opportunity to imprint the agenda of the #NotTooYoungToRun on the Kogi political landscape may suffer a mortal blow.
– Hon. Barnabas Ejuku Abiodun writes in From Lokoja.
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