In a matter of hours, Yahya Bello will be sworn in as Governor of the Confluence State. Thanks to the triumvirate of the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN, and the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, the good people of Kogi, will be having someone they did not elect to preside over their affairs at least until such a time the judiciary finally decides one way or the other.
I have said it before, what is playing out in Kogi is worse than travesty; what makes it hard to swallow that this is happening in a supposedly constitutional environment. For no matter what anyone may say, and no matter the attempt by our ever opportunistic politicians to muddle things up, there are too many issues too sticky to live down.
One of them is the strenuous attempt to override the will of the voters who trooped out to vote on November 21, 2015 to elect a new governor. No matter what holy book the supplanter chooses to swear with, it does not change the fact that the people did not have Bello on the ballot at the point they exercised their franchise last November. Yes, the people voted for APC, but they also trusted the duo of Audu and Faleke to give them their mandates! And that mandate precludes their Bello! This is what APC conveniently forgets. Yes, the party sponsors the candidates, without the candidate, there is no contest!
And while it is tragic that the APC would seek to elevate its internal party primary over and above an election that was adjudged transparent and fair; surely, INEC, not least the APC supplanter, Bello must know that the so-called December 5, 2015 supplementary poll, which delivered a mere 13,000 votes for a candidate that was not on the original ballot, is at best a case of holding on to thin straw! Tomorrow’s party of inauguration therefore changes nothing!
And if I may add – APC ought to have realised by now, the futility of its attempt to deny Abiodun Faleke, Prince Abubakar’s running mate, the fruits of their joint victory. For sure, it’s surely going to be a long, dark night for the APC and their anointed one.
I have heard some so-called stakeholders suggest that the people of Kogi should let things be if only in the spirit of the new-found rapprochement between the West and Central Senatorial Districts both of which have jointly clamoured for power to rotate to them. On the surface, they have a point.
For those who don’t know, a little background would suffice. The state like many of its counterparts in the federation, sits on a tripod: Kogi West, Kogi Central and Kogi East. Since its creation, the state has been ruled exclusively by the dominant Igala from the East. From 1999- 2003, it was Abubakar Audu followed by Ibrahim Idris 2003-2011, and then Idris Wada 2011-to date. Before the primaries, I understand a lot of work was done by the West and Central to get power to shift in the spirit of equity. Unfortunately, like in previous attempts, those efforts, as valiant as it was, could not break the Igala hegemony. In the end, Audu and Wada both Igalas emerged on the tickets of the APC and PDP.
And so we had an election in November. And then, Audu the APC candidate who was set to win the election died. At the time of his death, the election was practically concluded save for 91 polling units scattered across the state. Soon after, INEC pronounced the election inconclusive. Not done, a supposedly independent electoral body, with battery of lawyers at their beck, opted to turn to the government’s chief law officer for direction! Nigerians know how the story went: a stranger to the APC ticket was drafted from nowhere to complete an exercise that was as good as delivered! As a result, history was made: a governor elected with 13,000 electors!
To many, it probably matters not that an election took place on November 21, 2015. It is supposed to matter less still that the election produced a clear outcome – 240,867 votes for the APC ticket of Abubakar Audu and James Abiodun Faleke, and 199,415 for the outgoing team of Idris Wada and Yomi Awoniyi of the Peoples Democratic Party. Aside not being on the ticket, we are supposed to forget that the claim by Yahya to the gubernatorial office was that he took part in a primary which he lost! For now, law, justice and public policy are meant to count for nothing since the end – power shift – has more than justified the patent INEC-aided impunity!
That is the tragedy in the Confluence State.
What the future portends for the state is hard to tell at this stage. It seems to me that the story has only just begun. The state is certainly in for a long night. For a state that has been in perpetual stasis, development will, for sure, be on hold. Trust the resurgence of old animosities and cleavages in a state that has had its own fair share of security troubles.
A state where primary school teachers were on forced holidays for more than a year because they could not be paid; a state where workers salaries are a privilege rather than a right. I have written on this page of the experience of hell on the highways; henceforth, citizens can brace up for the worst. All of this because INEC not only chose to surrender its independence, but sacrificed principles for expediency.
For the good people of Kogi, it seems a case of the father eating the sour grapes, with the children’s teeth set on the edge. It is an unenviable position to be in.
