That the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kogi State suffered a setback in the hands of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 28 presidential and national assembly elections is no longer news, but what is presently at stake between the two leading parties is the gubernatorial election set for October.
The setback by PDP was the first of its kind since the party took the baton of leadership of the state in 2003. The APC presidential candidate, Major Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) polled 264,851 votes to defeat PDP’s President Goodluck Jonathan who got 149,987 votes. The APC also won all the three Senate seats and six out of the nine House of Reps seats, while PDP managed to get three.
The outcome of the March 28 polls was a reversal of the trend of elections in the state since 2003 when PDP, at various elections, dominated winning the three senatorial slots and virtually all nine House of Representatives seats with the exception of one in 2003 and two federal seats in 2011. The PDP also had 20 of the 25 State House of Assembly seats in the 2011 elections against the 14 they were able to forcefully garnered in the present 6th Assembly.
The reversed trend jolted the PDP family. The APC celebrated its victories in anticipation of more victories to come. Many APC supporters, relying on the present statistics have already concluded that the governorship election will go the same way, but some political analysts are predicting that subsequent elections will not go the same way for APC. To them, the pattern the March 28 polls followed will not be continuing as the APC will have to contend with PDP’s strength at the grassroots. Their only fear is how and who will fly the flag of PDP in the guber election.
“The two parties have a 50-50 chance of dominating the politics of the state as of now. The APC now has the national strength but the PDP still controls the state till 2016 and controls the grassroots (local governments)”, said Mr. Kabir Jamiu, a Lokoja-based political analyst. “As it were, PDP and APC stand in pole positions to tango ahead of the next governorship election in the state.”
He continued: “The first tenure of the incumbent Governor Idris Wada expires on January 27, 2016. Based on the current strengths of the two parties, the governorship poll provides a level playing field for one to prove its superiority over the other. It is left to be seen if the opposition will bring PDP’s 13-year dominance over Kogi State to a halt.”
However, recent happenings within the PDP circle have shown that the party has looked at the variables and knows that rancour-free primary and the choice of candidate will determine how the party will fare at the guber poll. To this end, the party has zoomed into a way that will provide a lee way for the incumbent to fly the party flag at the poll.
Though there are other three suspected aspirants, Mohammed Ali, Jibrin Isah, both from Dekina LGA of Kogi Eastern flank, and Banjo Ametuo Moses from Kogi Central, efforts are being made by the party to present a consensus candidate in the person of the incumbent governor, Captain Idris Wada, during the July primary.
Wada himself has not openly accepted to run for second term, but the numerous adoptions by different stakeholders within the party and the state, along with the recent appointments of 63 senior special advisers as heads of caretaker committees for the 21 local governments, coupled with the local government tour by the governor which political observers say is to gauge the mindset of the rural people where the highest votes always emanate from, show that the governor is just buying time and waiting for the appropriate avenue to declare his intention for the Lugard House.
Adoption
Aside from the market women, youths, students and artisans who have already given the go-ahead signal to the governor to contest, the recent endorsement by the party elders’ caucus put the icing on the cake and shows that the governor is the joker the party intends to rely on for the poll.
Students, through the National Association of Kogi State Students (NAKOSS) have called on the state governor, Capt. Idris Wada to run for second term in office in the governorship election.
The students who stated this in Lokoja during a visit to the governor, said the quest for Wada’s continuity is to ensure completion of various educational projects embarked upon by his administration.
President of the association, Ibrahim Amodu during the visit, said the governor has done well in the area of educational infrastructural development across the various tertiary institutions in the state.
NAKOSS, which also took a swipe at its sister association, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), berating the statement of NANS PRO discrediting the state government, said the PRO seems to have been hired by some faceless and cowardly politicians to tarnish the image of the governor.
NAKOSS declared: “Despite the lean resources accrued to the state, the governor was able to spend as much as 3.7 billion naira to improve infrastructure at the Medical School of Kogi State University, Ayingba, while 500-bed hostels were constructed for male and female students of the same institution to ease the perennial accommodation.”
Kogi PDP Council of Elders’ endorsement
In what is considered by political analysts as a deft move to soften the grounds for the ruling PDP in the state ahead of the upcoming governorship election expected to hold in the last quarter of 2015, members of the highly revered PDP Elders’ Council, made up of distinguished personalities from the state, have endorsed the incumbent governor, Capt. Wada as the party’s consensus gubernatorial candidate.
The development came on the heels of reports that APC, the main opposition party, currently has about 30 aspirants eyeing the APC ticket for the gubernatorial election.
PDP elders who endorsed Capt. Wada as the party’s flagbearer for 2015 governorship election in the state include former PDP National Chairman, Senator Ahmadu Ali; former Governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris; former Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Salihu Ibrahim (rtd); former Minister of Police Affairs, Gen. David Jemibewon (rtd); Sen. Tunde Ogbeha; former Deputy Chief of Staff in the Presidency, Prince Olushola Akanmode; former Kogi State Deputy Governors, Chief Sam Akande and Chief Patrick Adaba; and one-time Deputy Governor of old Benue State, Alhaji Sule Iyaji. Also present at the meeting were Ambassador Usman Bello, Arc Gabriel Aduku, Prof Olu Akerejola, Dr. (Mrs.) Grace Gunwa, Hajia Ladi Ibrahim, Alhaji Abdullahi Ohioma, Chief Joe Agada, former SSG, Chief Shola Ojo, among others.
The leaders, while announcing their endorsement of Capt. Wada, described him as a viable flagbearer within the rank of PDP who can guarantee victory for the party in the next election.
Aside the misrepresentation made about salary payment, other reasons adduced by the elders to have informed their choice of Wada as the party’s preferred candidate include the fact that the state under the incumbent has done well in ensuring that civil servants get their dues amidst dwindling allocation to the state.
The elders noted that the remuneration of the workforce gulps about 87% of the state’s revenue, a challenge which the elders said had initially affected physical development and applauded the governor’s decision to approach the capital market to seek financial support to augment the state’s revenue.
The elders commended the iconic projects embarked upon by Capt. Wada’s use of the bond proceeds, and assured that the projects would on completion, have far-reaching impacts on the lives of the people and which would ensure better living standard for citizens of the state.
According to the elders, Wada’s completion of a second term would ensure completion of all on-going projects across the three senatorial districts in the state.
The governor’s endorsement for another term in office which seems to have gotten the support of the PDP members from the West and Central Senatorial Districts was further informed by his qualities as a fine gentleman and fair-minded administrator, and as the only person trusted to facilitate genuine power shift in the state.
With the endorsement by the highly revered elders in the state, analysts posit that it is now clear that the PDP ticket may not be available as the above listed elders are said to be working in concert with the leaders of the party at the grassroots to ensure that PDP presents a consensus candidate ahead of the party’s primary and consequently ensure that Wada emerges victorious at the governorship election.
The elders’ decision to endorse Wada as the party’s flagbearer, the elders further added, was made possible with the incumbent seen as a gentleman, and a man of an even temperament, and not tainted by hint of corruption and scandal.
The elders who also described the incumbent governor as a prudent manager of resources and a skillful handler of equitable distribution of the state’s commonwealth, noted that another term for Capt. Wada is a vote for the protection of the collective heritage of the people of Kogi State.
According to Tijani Kabiru, a former National President of NANS, who added his voice to the endorsement, “Captain Wada is loved by the common man as his prudent management of resources enables him to offer to the ordinary people the real dividends of democracy.”
Captain Wada has, with the elders’ endorsement, scaled the first hurdle and now appears to have an edge over other contenders for the party’s ticket ahead of the party guber primary.
With this development, the opposition of Mohammed Ali who hails from the same local government with the governor, has been thrown aside by political pundits who averred that Ali who was impeached last year over financial mismanagement as Chairman of Dekina Local Government Area is not fit to contest for any political position, thereby eliminating his threat to the incumbent.
Pundits hold that the EFCC is already gathering information to charge him with and some people within his local government are already looking at the prospect of charging him to court in order to criminalise his impeachment.
Ametuo is seen as a greenhorn in the political circle of the state. He has no political structure. The only opponent left is Jibril Isah Echocho. However, Isah’s foot soldiers have all decamped to the APC in the last election; some have already secured political positions on APC platform. Also, Isah’s billboards announcing his intention for the governorship position, though strategically erected across the state capital, bear no party logo in which he wants to contest. This development, political analysts say, bears the fact that he (Isah) knows that he cannot get the PDP ticket and will only announce for Accord Party at the eleventh hour.
With this development, pundits have said the choice of Wada by the party and the endorsement by the elders’ caucus is a positive developement as he remains the best party joker for the guber poll.
By Boluwaji Obahopo, Lokoja
