Governor Yahaya Bello’s strange love Fulani herdsmen is a calculated plan to compromise 2019 elections in Kogi state. Pundits believe his sudden love for herdsmen is a sycophantic gesture to please the man most Nigerians have been ‘hammering’ erroneously for the Benue killings traced to the herdsmen – President Mohammed Buhari. As much as I wish to agree with these respective analysts, I believe there is more to Yahya’s sudden love for the nomads.
Yes, Yahya will do anything from sensible to insensible to get President Buhari’s attention but this special romance with Fulani herdsmen is for his personal political survival. Have you asked why he has not shown this special love for Fulanis since his assumption of office? He has spent almost two years in office and all along he never craved to integrate Fulani’s into Kogi traditional issues but all of a sudden he has fallen head over heels in love with the herdsmen. First was his meeting with traditional rulers in the state on how to integrate Fulanis and before we say ‘Jack’ he ran to Abuja to grab the Cattle Colony idea of Audu Ogbe!
The truth is, Yahya has come to know without doubt that Kogites will not vote for him in 2019. He has shared rice to all polling units in the state, scattered naira notes on the road, shared okada and other goodies but the stubborn Kogites still refuse to love him. To make matters worse, Kogites keep shouting PVC, PVC on social media with intent to vote Yahya out in 2019. The last survival option left for Yahya is to import aliens to register and vote in Kogi.
Curiously, he does not seem to trust the Fulanis that had lived for long in Kogi state. Guess he suspect they feel same way as their Kogi friends. Now that INEC continuous voter registeration is still on, non-resident Fulanis will be imported to different villages in Kogi state to register and get plenty PVCs that will help Yahya defeat Kogi people in 2019. These imported guys will be ferried to remote villages where your camera phone and social media cannot capture them. You will be shocked in 2019 when former small villages will turn over more votes than big towns and cities. We are more alert now and will monitor this package.
Kogites should relax their muscles, Fulanis are not your enemies they are just political assets for 2019 elections. All the same, I hope the imported Fulanis will live here till 2019 to experience what Kogites are experiencing in the hands of Yahya and his team. If they stay here for few months I know some of them will end up voting against Yahya.
The fate of Kogites are still in their hands, let’s mobilise our people enmass to come out and register now. Imported voters cannot subvert our wishes if we do the right thing now.
– Adamu Ojonugwa writes from Lokoja.
