Kogi West Senatorial district is no doubt the true home of democracy in Kogi state when compared to the remaining two senatorial districts.
In recent time, especially in this current dispensation, several attempts were made to subvert the will of the people in the region by certain gang of rapists of democracy starting with the ill conceived recall of Distinguished Sen. Dino Melaye in 2017 that was fiercely resisted by the people of the region.
It was and an exercise where patriotism, courage defeating power, money and impunity.
The orchestrators probably did not know the history of the region and mis-calculated before arriving at such self deceit decisions. That mis-judgement has cost the state administration huge sum of money that the state is yet to recover from.
That humiliating defeats was an embarrassment to the state government and its officials from the zone. I too shared in the shame as at then.
The people didn’t stood by Sen. Dino Melaye because they like or love him but for democracy and justice. People of the region from all works of life traveled home to participate in that process and to stopped the recalled.
The results was astonishing and a clear referendum on the State government. It was 96% against recall and four 4% for.
However, the state government and its officials shifted the anger of that defeats and humiliation to the last general elections and vowed that Sen. Dino won’t return to the national assembly but again Sen. Dino didn’t only win but maintain the winning streak. He won 6 LGAs leaving the state government and Sen. Smart to one LGA. The outcome left the state government officials in shambles and total disbelief.
The only LGA that was left as consolation was Kogi (Koton Karfe) LGA courtesy of SAS political network. Hon Salihu Akawu Seidu (SAS), another fine and respected man of integrity.
Those two events were still regarded as one of Kogi West’s finest hours.
And twice, courage and patriotism defeating power, money and impunity. Sen. Dino survived and remains with his people. But the authority in the state refused to let go or give up in seeing Sen. Dino down but the spirit of the region tells that even if the judiciary annulled Sen. Dino’s election ten times he will win. Sen. Smart should stop the wild goose chase.
The fear of Sen. Dino has really cost the state a huge fortune.
Who will advice the authority? Let them focus on governance rather than wasting so much resources on trying to stop the people’s choice.
This battle of wit is similar to former President Obasanjo and Asiwaju Tinubu whereby Lagos was denied its lawful and constitutional allocation just because he didn’t like Tinubu. But power being transient, late Pres. Yar’adua came on board and remitted all the funds to Lagos State government. It didn’t cost Yar’adua anything but diminished Obasanjo as is being currently seeing between Sen. Dino and Kogi state authority.
Efforts are now being shifted to Judiciary in stopping Sen. Dino. They should know that the people are not in supports of it. So the state authority should learn from history and stop all this nonsense.
As the governorship election fast approaching, another son of the region has been nominated as deputy governor, Hon. Sam Bamidele Aro, a quintessential philanthropist, a successful business mogul and grassroots politician of repute will be representing the region in what many described as a great opportunity for the region to recover from under development in the last four years.
To some, since the region could not make it at the primaries, this opportunity of deputising should be utilised by the region in retaining the number two position in the state against the current arrangement of SSG that can be freely fired at will.
Only yesterday, Sen. Smart Adeyemi who hails from Ijumu LGA was inaugurated as DG to Gov. Bello Campaign Organisation. No one in the region was surprised about his choice.
It appeared to be Sen. Smart’s revenge against Kogi West people that spoke with one loud clear voice to stop him twice – 2015 and 2019. But this is simply an hallmark of a poor breeding.
Sen. Smart thinks he is the most important person in Okun land today but in reality, he is nothing and should be ignored.
Many believes that with this appointment, he has joined the group of most dangerous men that constitutes the greatest security threat to Kogi state against the people that have resolved not to returned this regime to power.
And going by history, APC should forget Kogi West in November election as it’s an herculean task for the people to ditched their own son for other especially for a government with the worst record of performance in the history of the state.
The current officials of the state who are like Kogi United versus Barcelona FC should avoid being forced to work against the history of the region by imitating or importing violence into the region, we are not known for that. It won’t just work. They should allow the people to elect freely as was done in the past, even Sen. Dino has lost election in the past without grudges.
– Mallam Abdulmalik Suleiman
Former Senor Special Assistant to Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi State.
