Kogi Guber Primaries: No bridges across the divides

The governorship primaries of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and now emerging Third Force in Kogi politics, African Democratic Congress (ADC), all had something in common: Predictable outcome.

Again, while the APC had been plagued by allegations of a compromised process ahead of the primary held on April 14, PDP had the issue of doctored delegates’ list to contend with.

However, at the end of the exercises, APC produced Ahmed UsmanOdodo, a former auditor-general in charge of local government and chieftaincy in the state as its candidate for the November 11, 2023 governorship election.

Similarly, PDP produced Senator Dino Melaye as its flagbearer and Hon LekeAbejide, a member representing Yagba Federal Constituency in the Ninth Assembly, who was re-elected to the Lower Chamber for the 10th National Assembly, emerged as the governorship candidate of the ADC.

Ododo’s emergence in APC
Governor Yahaya Bello, at a stakeholders meeting held in Abuja, admitted there was tension in the state’s chapter of the party ahead of the April 14 primary, and in a move to douse the tension, promised a free, fair and transparent process. He assured all the 18 aspirants of a level playing field.

He also assured party members in the state that there was enough political office to go around as, whoever emerged would carry others along. He warned against negative actions and comments, stressing that the primary election can either be by direct, indirect or consensus mode.

However, a few days into the APC primaries, some aspirants alleged that officials of the state government, who drew delegates’ list themselves,only knew the delegates in the first place.

The aggrieved aspirants vowed to reject any attempt to skew the primaries of the party in favour of “a preferred candidate.”

Smart Adeyemi

A chieftain of the party and spokesman of Senator Smart Adeyemi, one of the leading aspirants, Ahmed Sule, told The Guardian that his camp would resist what he termed use of unknown list of APC delegates for the purpose of nominating the party’s flagbearer for the November 2023 governorship election in the state.

According to him, the list submitted to the APC National Working Committee for the purpose of Kogi State primary election did not emanate from the congresses as none was held anywhere in the state.

“How they came up with the list of delegates and the content of the so-called list, are not known. The people who wrote the list are government officials and the same officials’ names were filled as delegates, in a way to skew the primary election in favour of their preferred candidate. It is in the interest of the party and the governor as the leader of the party in the state to allow the members to choose their own governorship candidate. Failure to do the right thing, APC may end up losing the state to the opposition,” he said.

Then came the Federal High Court, Abuja verdict nullifying the ward and local government APC Congresses conducted in the state on February 7, 2023, on the ground that they were not conducted in compliance with the Electoral Act 2022 and the Constitution of the APC.

The court pronouncement and further pronouncement by the APC NWC approving the direct mode of primaries restored some normalcy to the APC fold as the issue delegates’ list was rested. But this would only last a night as the uproar that greeted the direct was of a larger proportion.

Secretary of the Kogi State APC Primary Election Committee, Patrick Obahiagbon, who announced the results on behalf of the chairman of the panel, Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State, said Ododo scored 78,704 votes and won the direct primary election with a wide margin. He defeated six other contestants, namely SenatorAdeyemi (311 votes), SanusiOhiare (424 votes), Professor IkaniOcheni (552), ShuaibuAbubakarAudu (763) and Salami Ozigi (1506).

About seven other aspirants including the state’s deputy governor, Edward Onoja, and Governor Bello’s Chief of Staff, Mohammed Asuku, had earlier withdrawn from the race on the eve of the primary election.

Four aggrieved aspirants, Adeyemi, MuriAjaka, MuhammedAudu and Ocheni, at a press conference, called the primary a sham and the results mere allocation of votes. They claimed that even as aspirants they were not given the opportunity to cast their votes for themselves as no primary election worth that name took place anywhere in the state.

They accused the governor of skewing the process to favour his preferred candidate, who is equally his Ebira kinsman. They alleged that Governor Bello wants to plant Ododo, who was auditor-general, in local governments, to help clean up questionable issues.

The commissioner for information and communication, Kingsley Fanwo countered the protesting aspirants, describing the foursome as an immature set of politicians and bad losers. He insisted the election took place and was free, fair and transparent. On why the secretary of the election committee had to announce the result and not the chairman, Fanwo said Governor Matawale had excused himself to attend the supplementary elections in his state.

Senator Dino Melaye PHOTO:AFP

How Melaye beat odds to Emerge as PDP flag bearer
According to former Kaduna State Governor, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, Melaye polled 313 votes while IlonaIdoko had 124 votes. Hon KabiruUsman garnered 121 votes and former Deputy Governor YomiAwoniyi scored 77 votes. PDP governorship candidate in 2019, Musa Wada, had 56 votes.

The primary held amid uproar against doctored delegates list ostensibly to give Melaye an upstart ahead of others.

Stakeholders of Kogi State PDP at a press conference in Abuja on April 10 had warned the national leadership of the party not to toy with their resolve to resist all attempts to foist a governorship candidate on them.

They alleged that the names of elected ad-hoc delegates for the state’s governorship primary election have been altered to favour Melaye, a known ally of the PDP presidential candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

The stakeholders threatened to help PDP lose the governorship election if the manipulation was not corrected. While pointing to underground intrigues from Atiku Abubakar in the plot to undermine Kogi primary election.

Similarly, former Kogi State Deputy Governor, Arc YomiAwoniyi, an aspirant on the platform of the PDP told The Guardian that rather than capitalize on the crisis rocking the APC, PDP leaders had succeeded in creating a bigger problem for the PDP.

He alleged that the list of delegates arising from the state congress of March 29, 2023, supervised by the Senator Abdul Ningi-led committee has been “hijacked and doctored by some high-ranking officials of the party at the national level and skewed in favour of Senator Dino Melaye.”

According to Awoniyi, 185 delegates out of a total of 750 delegates have already been “penned down” for Melaye.

“When the issue came to light, nine other aspirants petitioned the appeal panel set up by the party and chaired by Senator Umar Idris, a former minister of transport, that the party should revert to the true result of the proceedings of March 29 state congress and we are awaiting a favourable result.

“We are committed to participating in very legitimate aspirations. Unfortunately, while APC had a crisis, PDP now surpassed APC in crisis creation,” he said.

However, in a response on the eve of the primaries, through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, TundeOlusunle, AlhajiAtikuAbubakar denied involvement in the process leading to the governorship primaries of the PDP in Kogi State. That denial was the second of its kind within one week by the former vice president.

“Once again, he dissociates himself wholly and expressly from political manipulations and illegalities of any colouration. He admonished the leadership of the PDP to ensure religious compliance with and adherence to the original Kogi State PDP list of delegates as produced by the free will of stakeholders on March 29, 2023,” the statement added.
Melaye, on Arise TV on Wednesday denied the process was compromised. Noting that he won by over 50 per cent of the total delegates votes, he said if the over 60 names allegedly added were removed, he would still have won.

He, however, revealed that he had reached out to stakeholders of the party across the three senatorial districts including former Governors Ibrahim Idris and Idris Wada, Senator TundeOgbeha, Prince OlusolaAkanmode, all of whom he claimed have assured of mobilising for the party in the November 2023 governorship election.

ADC
Announcing the results, the national collation officer of the party, Dr Babalola Ajadi, said out of the 9,584 votes cast, Leke Abejide had 9,456 votes, while 128 were recorded as invalid.

What can be best described as seamless and peaceful ADC primary election held across the 239 wards of the 21 council areas of the state, while results were collated and ratified by the congress, same day at Lokoja, the state capital.

INEC officials from the state and the national headquarters of the commission supervised the direct mode of primaries with the presence of security agents. Mrs Magdalene Aku represented the INEC national office, while SadiqZakaye and one other represented the INEC office in the state.

Abejidewas the sole aspirant and his declaration as the governorship candidate, unopposed did not come as a surprise as he has singlehandedly sponsored ADC in Kogi State. It is to his credit that ADC, a hitherto unknown entity, won two House of Representatives seats and a State House of Assembly seat in Kogi State in the February and March elections.

Other Parties
Candidates who also picked their parties tickets include: Dr Sam Omale, Young People’s Party (YPP); Yinka Braimoh, Action Alliance (AA); Bala Idrisu, National Rescue Movement (NRM); Mubarak Musa, New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), among others.
Likely Effects on November governorship polls

Without prejudice to the outcome of deliberations by the National Working Committees (NWCs)of the major parties (APC/PDP) on the various petitions before them, appeal panels set up by the parties to look into the grievances of the aggrieved aspirants and the workability of the internal mechanisms of the parties to resolve the crises arising from the conduct of the Primaries, the predominant factor waiting to determine the trend of the November Governorship election in Kogi State is the ethnicity factor.

As things stand now, the first three past governorsAbubakarAudu, Ibrahim Idris and Idris Wada, representing the Igalaethnic group in Kogi East, had grossed 18 years between 1999 and 2012. For Kogi Central, populated by the Ebira, Bello’s current two terms would make it eight years rule. While the Okuns (Yoruba), the major ethnic group in Kogi West is yet to produce an elected governor in the history of the state.

Some have even added that four years of the late Adamu Atta’s rule in the old Kwara State should count as an added morsel to the Ebira’s advantage over their Okun co-travellers from old Kwara.

They said that a victory for APC in the November polls further elongatesEbiraleadership of the state at the expense of the Okun. This explains why APC faithful in Kogi West, who had expected Bello to play the role of a statesman and ensure that power rotated to Kogi West in 2023, are disappointed that the government-backed a fellow Ebira as his successor candidate.

An APC chieftain who spoke to The Guardian on the condition of anonymity noted that while his first tenure was by divine intervention (death of AbubakarAudu), to a reasonable extent, Bello owed his second term victory to the coalition of support from outside Kogi Central, especially the West.

Naturally, in the spirit of fairness and equity, Okun people had expected that the governor would reciprocate when done with his second and last term. They are now left regretting, according to him.

Kogi. Photo/FACEBOOK/Cr8tivShutts

For Kogi East, eight years outside power, since inception, and having lost out in last weekend’s primaries of the two leading political parties, they will have to decide between alignment with the West or mobilise for one of their own among the flag bearers of the lesser known political parties.

Meanwhile, the agitation for power shift in the West has never been louder. It is noteworthy that no PDP member contested the PDP governorship primaries from Kogi Central, in sympathy with the west.

Nevertheless, a section of APC faithful in the West still believes that their chances of producing a governor in the nearest future is better guaranteed with an alliance with the Central, than the East.

However, the Okun, combined with the Lokoja/Kotonkarfe axis, will have to decide between Melaye of the PDP and Abejide of the ADC to avoid division of votes, while also reaching out to other senatorial districts.

For Kogi Central, whose sole candidate is the APC standard bearer, Ododo they will hope to repeat the magic of 2019, when the votes cast from the zone alone ensured that the incumbent secured more than half of the total winning votes cast for Bello/APC.

However, the disparities between the figures thrown up in the 2019 governorship polls and those of February/March 2023 presidential and national assembly elections, occasioned by the introduction of the BIVAS technology, is bound to put to test the true electoral strength of the three senatorial districts, come November.