The people of Kogi West, and the Okun in particular, believe that their ambition to have one of their own occupy the Lugard House as governor can only crystalise if they support the incumbent governor to secure another term in office. Ayodele Adesanmi writes.
Though the 2019 election is still months away, the awareness about that election is spreading fast across the country. Most of the political parties already are in the process of searching for candidates that would fly their flags and essentially ensure victory.
The search for candidates covers all elective positions — the presidency, gubernatorial, National Assembly and the state Assemblies. Even though the governorship election in Kogi State is to the people of Ijumu, in Kogi West Senatorial District, appear to be leaving no stone unturned in galvanising support for the incumbent governor’s re-election.
Kogi State is one of the six states whose elections do not conform with the general election schedule, as a result of judicial pronouncements. Though the election is over two years away, mobilisation, consultation and sensitisation of stakeholders are already in progress.
To give credence to this, political stakeholders in Ijumu-Oke of Ijumu council area of the state met recently to give direction and take a stand ahead of the coming gubernatorial election. Ijumu council area is made up of Gbede, ljumu-Oke, ljumu-Arin districts. The council has 15 councillors who make up the legislative arm, Ijumu-Oke has six; Gbede has five, while Ijumu-Arin takes the remaining four. Ijumu council area is one of the five council areas that constitute the Okun, the Yoruba-speaking area of Kogi State. Others are Kabba/Bunu, Mopa/Moro, Yagba East and Yagba West.
Though they said they were being marginalised, they agreed that they would all support Bello for second term. The reason for the support is that if Okun, in general, would be beneficiary of the power shift, the incumbent governor must be allowed and supported to go for another term. They added that allowing another area to produce the next governor would be detrimental to their own governorship ambition.
The meeting held in Ogidi town was attended by politicians, traditional rulers and other stake-holders, including Otunba Arogundade Adedayo, a chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC); Fehinti Dada, former council chairman and a member of APC, Shuaib lpinmisho, APC; Mr Zacchaeus Dare, provost, College of Education Technical, Kabba; Mrs Victoria Jagboro, state Commissioner for Education Science and Technology; Sunday Olorunleke, Special Adviser to the Governor on Culture and Tourism; Louis Asubiojo, Chief Whip, state House of Assembly; Honourable Victor Omofaye, leaders and members of the APC from the area, and the traditional rulers of the area, led by Oba Rabiu Sule, the Ologidi of Ogidi and other-stake holders.
Welcoming the guests, Dada, who directed the meeting, informed attendees that Ijumu-Oke had lost out in the affairs of the state and that to be properly integrated, everybody must work for Okun indigene to produce a governor, but with a caveat that “we must support Governor Bello to complete another term, after which we will ask for his support for the Okun to realise its ambition. If Bello does not complete eight years, Okun might not have a chance.”
He added that “all of us are very happy when Kogi State was created, but the joy was shortlived as the state was hijacked by one section of the state, which eventually led to denial of other areas. What we have today was God’s intervention and the most important thing for our people here is to key in properly and make good use of the opportunity.”
The best way to win, to utilise the God-given opportunity properly, is to give all the support to Yaya Bello for another term in order for us to confidently call on him when we will need him most, in 2020. There is no vacancy in Lugard House at the moment.”
The convener of the meeting, Otunba Adedayo, in his address, stated that he called the meeting in order to give direction to his people ahead of the gubernatorial election in the state and make them realise that it would be beneficial for them to support Yaya Bello for another term.
He emphasised that “if you look at Ijumu very well, ljumu-Arin, ljumu-Oke and Gbede, you will agree that apart from being the least developed in infrastructural and social amenities, among others, ljumu Oke is mostly and grossly marginalised, even in terms of appointments. If this ugly trend must be reversed, we must begin to redefine and re- strategise ourselves politically.”
He added “l have no aspiration for now, but we should focus on what will be beneficial to our people. We have the government of the day, and my people have no need to fight the government. We need to cooperate with the government. What we are doing today the entire Ijumu-Oke, is to declare publicly our support for the government. Instead of doing it individually, we are doing it collectively. You have many things to gain when you are part of government.”
According to him, the governor had tried his best within two years in office believing that if given another opportunity, he would do more.
On the gale of criticisms against the government, Arogundade said, “To me, those criticisms are making him stronger because if people do not criticise you, then you are not doing anything right.
Critics are always there but most of them are not constructive.”
However, speakers at the meeting took turns to speak about the lack of meaningful development in the area, and that except the zone produced the governor, the area might remain stagnant in terms of development saying that “everything stops at the governor’s table.”
Otunba Ipinmisho, a member of the ruling party and a leader in the area, toed the line of other speakers, saying his people, for long, had been known to always be committed and dedicated to government of the day, insisting that the present one would not be an exception.
He opined that Governor Bello was ready to carry everybody along and collectively, hence they must support him for another term in 2020, which be to their advantage.
“Allowing another area to take over will delay and eventually jeopardise our ambition and aspiration,” Ipinmisho pleaded.
The Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mr Sunday Olorunleke, said, in the scheme of things in the state, the area would not be left behind, pleading that what the government met on the ground was not too good, hence government was exploring other areas to meet up in order to swim out of the crises.
He stressed that there were many appointments to go round but “it is based on zoning; every zone will be compensated when it is time; government is working on it.”
The paramount ruler of the area, Oba Rabiu Sule, Ologidi of Ogidi, said traditional rulers would support the government’s course.
The Kabiyesi enjoined indigenes of the area not to fight among themselves, but pursue their ambition with unity of purpose.
According to him, “it would be better to come together and present one candidate. The other time, 16 candidates showed interest, but we called them to step down for one another but they all refused. l hope it will not be like when the time comes.”
Above all, it can be deduced from the meeting that the people of Ijumu-Oke are ready to support the government for another term in order for Okun in general to get the governor to reciprocate the gesture at the expiration of a probable second term.
Credit: Tribune
