Sir: As we prepare for the November 11, 2023 governorship election in Kogi State, there have been a gale of defections by political players in my beloved state. While some of these defections are desirable because of the way party leaders treated the affected defectors in their former parties, others do not just make sense. One that falls in the category of the latter is the defection of the former deputy governor of the state, Mr. Yomi Awoniyi, who dumped the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.

Awoniyi, the deputy governor under former Governor Idris Wada of the PDP, dumped the party some weeks to the election because of the “brilliant performance of Governor Yahaya Bello,” according to him! To me, this is really amusing. He became the deputy governor of the state on a platter of gold. The former deputy governor is the third son of the late National Chairman of the PDP, Chairman of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and eminent leader of the Okun-Yoruba people in Kogi State. Not only his family members were miffed because of this ill-advised decision of his, we concerned stakeholders of the party in the state were.

Greed is the main reason he dumped the PDP. Although he claimed Governor Yahaya Bello begged him to decamp to the APC for close to three years, he said he refused because PDP made him what he is today. He always claimed he adores the PDP and would choose the party before anything, including his family. If he loved the PDP the way he made us to believe, why did he dump the party, if not because of his greed?

We all know that the White Lion of Lugard House in Lokoja, the state capital, would not beg a man with little or no political clout in his village and constituency like Awoniyi who could not even deliver Kogi State to the presidential candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, during the last presidential election. Awoniyi was almost impeached as a deputy governor but for the quick intervention of his principal, who pacified the lawmakers to shield their swords. It is rather surprising how Bello, whom Awoniyi had consistently accused of incompetence and shallow-mindedness, would suddenly become his friend now that election is a few weeks away.

Awoniyi contested the PDP primaries against Senator Dino Melaye, whom he calls ‘Aburo’ and said he would never contest against, and was roundly defeated by Melaye to become the governorship candidate of the party in the state. He never really recovered from the shame of that defeat. This is also one of the reasons he left the PDP. Most depressing for us in Okunland though is the fact that a great opportunity has presented itself for us to produce the next governor of the state, having been sidelined in producing one since the creation of the state in 1991.

Olamilekan Ogunleye wrote from Lokoja.