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For the All Progressive Congress, APC in Kogi State to have any hope of retaining the state in 2019 general election that the party won apparently due to APC/Buhari bandwagon tsunami in 2015, then it must be ready to field competent and experienced candidates for all elective offices, especially for the National Assembly elections.
From all indications and the results of the APC’s primaries, it seems to have put this into consideration and looks more serious to win the National Assembly elections in 2019, especially in Kogi West. In the district, the party is fielding former Senator Smart Adeyemi – a ranking lawmaker who served in the 6th and 7th Senate.
Adeyemi emergence has since elicits buss around the zone. Many has described his emergence as a masterstroke for the APC.
Kogi West for the first time since returning to democracy in 1999 swung dramatically towards the APC in 2015 when the APC candidate, Dino Melaye who contested against Adeyemi was declared winner by INEC, a result that has not stopped to amaze the people of the senatorial district and the state at large, with many questioning why a performer like Adeyemi will be voted out for a new comer?
Adeyemi is perhaps the only one in the district who have the record and the war chest to still retain the APC fortune in Kogi West. During his terms at the Senate, Adeyemi was credited with many landmark achievements which left many in awe when he lost to the APC in 2015, “We fell for the Buhari Tsunami, there was no justification for voting out Adeyemi in 2015, we just followed the Buhari bandwagon because of the hatred for then President. Adeyemi performed well while he was in Senate; comparing him with the present senator, you’ll see the huge difference. It was a great mistake and I think many people have since realised this,” Owoyomi Adewale, a resident of Kabba, said.
Mrs Bamitale Faleke, who resides in Isanlu said, “Only a candidate with proven experience and capability can make APC retain West. The last thing Kogi West voters want is another politician whose stock in trade is verbal diarrhea, physical assaults, bullying, abrasive, “nollywood mischaracter”, and legislative rascality. Who does not know his onions and can’t offer effective representation for his people, this senatorial district is too sophisticated to vote an incompetent Senator.”
The 2019 elections won’t just be about promises of what to do, it is about what has been done, a case of candidates showing their report card to the people and let them decide if they are truly worthy of their vote. Adeyemi is not just running on promises. As a senator, it is on record how he used his position to reduce unemployment in Kogi West by giving out over 200 vehicles for transport workers as taxi, scholarship for over 1000 under graduates, infrastructural development across the zone, and opportunity for hundreds to secure jobs at the Federal Civil Service. Aside from his proven antecedents in politics, Adeyemi brings to the table over 20 years of active practice as a Professional journalist, politicians and a successful business owner who has thousands of people employed in his business.
“Adeyemi is “SMART”, who wants the best for Kogi West and we cannot but support him and wish him good luck in his campaign for the Senate,” said Jaja Bala, the Coordinator of Lokoja based Youth Advocates for Good Governance.
Fundamentally, Kogi West race will be an important test case for the APC to know whether it can still contend strongly in areas where its victory in 2015 was viewed as mirage. A political pundit however said: “Adeyemi will be a very tough candidate to beat no matter whom the regrouping PDP fields against him, especially in a year when APC is galvanizing on retaining its victory at the general elections.”
But as it stands, Adeyemi’s choice for APC was the SMARTest decision.
– Boluwaji Obahopo writes from Lokoja.
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