There is nothing abnormal though in paperweight politicians or political neophytes throwing their hats into the governorship ring. It is the norm in most of the developed world and Nigeria is not an exception.
The next generation is solely about getting our state back from the godfathers who have elected to make the state their personal estate by scheming their way into enthroning their stooges as governor of the state against the people’s wish.
Realistically, the next governor would come from one of the two behemothic political parties or from a consensus groupings of politician who would deny themselves of their self interests and come together to pick a consensus candidate in unison in order to rescue the state from these political vampires come the next Guber election.
With the discontentment in the ruling APC and the main opposition party, PDP, owing on the way and manner they conducted their primary elections recently, the only way to rescue the state is for the politicians in the state to come together and patriotically recruit among themselves the best man for the job as governor of the state.
In Kogi state, however, the aspirants delude themselves that they can actually win and so embarks on campaigns which they can afford and at the end clutching at straws. Wasted is the opportunity to singularly canvass any meaningful idea or push an agenda that could be beneficial to the state.
But in Kogi state today the field is crowded with many politician seeking to be the consensus candidate to confront both the APC and the PDP in the next election under a yet to be mentioned political party or platform. With many of these politician scheming and auditioning themselves for the role of becoming the governor. These overflow of governorship aspirants seeking to be the consensus candidate of these expedient arrangement to salvage the state, there is not a small wiggle room because of time for them to make their pitch heard and it is making some pretenders to the throne to get much airtime as serious contenders because some aspirants, their only interest in the race is to update their CV and are today talking louder than the man with a genuine chance of winning the seat for the people.
Murtala Yakubu Ajaka (Muri) today has a reasonable chance of winning for the people of the state the governorship seat if selected as the consensus candidate, being a chum of the majority of the citizens from all the zones in the state and this is undeniably true.
Murtala Ajaka is as well a quite operator who apparently has been working the political system of the state for so long that underestimating him is at your own peril and that is why the name sends jitters to the power that be in both the APC and the PDP.
Of the lot though, one of the aspirants has made a difference with his superb approach to the politics of the state, his many speeches highlighting plans and solutions to Kogi’s ills and the general style of his campaign which is more about the people. That person is MURTALA AJAKA, the former governorship aspirant of the APC.
Murtala Ajaka is perhaps the people pick because he is the only aspirants that one can clearly locate his ideological preferences and philosophical base. His long years of experience in politics as well as his compassionate dispositions provides insights into his mind and thinking.
From people’s reading of him, they surmise that he is a leftist, but a pragmatic one who understands the social contexts in which he functions. He is something of a Lula da Sylva, the present President of Brazil who pulled the country up to a high middle-income status through deliberate regulatory interventions and actions.
As governor he has the capacity to push a lot of progressive ideas such as the monthly stipends and food bank for the old and disadvantaged people in the state, as well as the Child Rights law that would protect children against child labour. Basic education would become free, even as the state would pay the WAEC fees for students in public schools to write their senior school exits exams.
With this many would think that Murtala Ajaka is a wide eyed socialist or a populist who believes in big government handouts. Surprisingly, that is not the case. His economic ideology is market oriented and nothing gives indication of this more than his views on the campaign trails.
As a politician, he has always pushed for the liberalization of the Nigerian economic. Murtala Ajaka is a political leader that believes that for economic growth to be sustainable, it has to be private sector driven and that is the type of leadership mindset in him that Kogi state needs now. The situation of the economy of Kogi state makes most economists to agree with him, and add that while this propositions may be painful in the short term for the people of the state in the short term, they are necessary to achieve accelerated economic growth and developments for the state.
So, in terms of economic philosophy and understanding, one can deduce that Murtala Ajaka is conservative and an apostle of small government, because the problem of Kogi state presently is big government which militates against the freeing of funds to take care of the welfare and security of the people which in the first place is the top priority of government, while he leans more to the left on social causes.
In many of our people’s views, this is the best fit for Kogi state where people wants the economy of the state to work for them and somewhat contradictory also, he wants free hands out in the form of government subsidies to give a human face to the quest for the state economic growth as this would make the people swallow the bitter pills of his reforms for the growth of the state.
Murtala Ajaka believes for a start is an agrarian state which lacks a large private sector base compared with places like Lagos,Kano, and Rivers state, and he is ready when voted in as governor to test this economic policy for the growth of the state.
Murtala Ajaka will be ready to deploy a number of regulatory interventions intended to incentivize economic growth and development in the state such as the reduction of poverty initiatives and their would be an airport project conceptualized to boost business penetration in the state as well as several interventions in agriculture. The most notable will be the partnership between the state and the private sector in the area of tourism development in order to bring about more flagship projects and infrastructure for the state.
– Musa Wada writes from Abuja.
