Karimi’s elicits backlash as Wada’s defection hangs in the balance

What was meant to be a grand show of unity and renewed loyalty for President Bola Tinubu and Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo has turned into a political storm in Kogi State — revealing widening cracks within the All Progressives Congress (APC), and setting the stage for a potential realignment ahead of the 2027 general elections.
  
The much-publicised “Mother of All Rallies” in Lokoja over the weekend drew thousands of party supporters, but conspicuously lacked the presence of any top-ranking federal or national party official.
  
Despite weeks of mobilisation, no National Working Committee (NWC) member, sitting governor, and representative of the Presidency attended. 
  
Vice President Kashim Shettima — earlier listed as the special guest — failed to appear or send a delegate.
  
Insiders said the absence was deliberate. 
  
“Unlike endorsement rallies in Lagos or Akwa Ibom that had governors and national figures, this one was a strictly local affair,” a senior APC source said.
  
“The silence from Abuja sends a message — confidence in the Ododo–Yahaya Bello structure is waning,” he added.
  
Sources close to the Presidency hint that the APC leadership in Abuja may now be leaning toward the James Faleke camp — a trusted ally of the President, and a man whose political story in Kogi remains unfinished.
  
For many observers, the apparent soft spot for Faleke is not without context.
   
Faleke was the running mate to the late Prince Abubakar Audu, who died in November 2015 on the verge of being declared winner of the Kogi governorship election.
  
In a controversial twist, the APC hierarchy bypassed him and handed the party’s ticket — and Audu’s votes — to Yahaya Bello, who had come second in the primaries.
   
That decision birthed an enduring political rift that still defines the state’s power play.
  
Nearly a decade later, the quiet return of Abuja’s sympathy to Faleke appears to be reshaping loyalties within the party.
  
“The same forces that imposed Bello in 2015 may now be correcting that history,” a veteran party strategist observed.
  
“The Lokoja rally exposed that shift — the federal backing is clearly elsewhere,” he added.
  
Eyewitnesses reported that a brief altercation between Governor Ododo and his predecessor, Bello, at the rally forced some dignitaries to leave abruptly — another sign of growing friction within the state’s political hierarchy.
  
The fallout has also unsettled plans by former Governor Idris Wada, who was expected to formally defect from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC later this month.
  
Sources close to the ex-governor said the lack of national presence at the rally had made Wada “reevaluate the move.”
 
Political watchers believe the delay in Wada’s defection underscores the deepening uncertainty in the party’s internal power structure.
  
Amid the unease, Senator Sunday Karimi (Kogi West) set off another round of fireworks.
  
In a statement signed by his media aide, Busayo Tosin, the lawmaker criticised the Lokoja rally as “unnecessary, premature, and patronising,” arguing that Kogi voters “need no coercion or theatrics to support Tinubu.”
  
Karimi maintained that the best way to support the President was to translate his policies into “food on the table and hope in the streets,” not “stage-managed rallies under the scorching sun.”
 
His remarks quickly drew fury from all seven APC local government chairmen in Kogi West, who issued a joint statement condemning Karimi as “ungrateful and divisive.”
 
Reading the statement on behalf of his colleagues, Chairman of Kabba/Bunu council, Zacchaeus Dare Michael, said the senator had “bitten the hand that fed him.”
  
The chairmen insisted that the Lokoja rally reflected “organic grassroots support” for Tinubu and Ododo.