Kogi: A state transiting in crisis

It is a new dawn as Yahaya Bello of the All Progressives Congress (APC) takes the baton from Idris Wada as Kogi State Governor, ending the 13-year reign of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP’s). However, controversy appears to be trailing Bello’s ascension into office. His emergence as the candidate for the supplementary election, following the sudden death of the flag bearer, Abubakar Audu, has polarised the ruling party. As Bello takes the driver’s seat in the Confluence State, Audu’s running mate, James Faleke, is in court protesting what he describes as wrongful substitutions. For the new governor, it is not yet over until it is over, write BUNMI OGUNMODEDE and EMMANUEL OLADESU.

IT’S no longer news that Alhaji Yahaya Bello will today take the keys to the Lugard Government House in Lokoja from Kogi State Governor Idris Wada.  What is news is that James Abiodun Faleke, whose party – the All Progressives Congress (APC) – fielded as his deputy will not be on the podium to take the oath with him.

Faleke, who paired with Prince Abubakar Audu in the November 21, last year election, turned down the offer after the demise of Audu, who was set to win the election before it was declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on November 22, 2015.

Faleke said the residual election was unnecessary since the votes being expected from the 91 polling units would be inconsequential. At close of collation on November 22, 2015, the late Audu, who polled 240,867 votes, was leading incumbent Governor Wada of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 199,415, with 41, 452 votes.

To him, the election had been won and lost and that since it was a joint ticket, the proper thing to do was for the co-pilot to take over the flight following Audu’s death on the day he should have been declared the winner.

As Bello takes the Oath of Office, Faleke and Mohammed, the eldest son of the late Prince Audu, will be leading members of the Audu political family in Audu’s Abuja home to celebrate the first phase of transition in the Confluence State.

A source told The Nation that the Abuja party was specifically organised to enable the family celebrate the life and times of the late Audu and his contributions to the state’s political development.

“We’ll be at the house of our leader in Abuja to show the world that we are not bitter. We’ll be praying for the health of our state and Faleke will be joining us after today’s session at the National Assembly,” the source confided in The Nation yesterday.

A governor and

his legitimacy crisis

Not a few Nigerians believe the leadership of the APC under its National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, erred in its preference to draft Bello into the race after Audu’s demise. They argue that Faleke, who was on the ticket with Audu and who participated actively in all the 35 rallies that earned the APC a resounding victory, ought to have been elevated to conclude the process.

The PDP candidate had gone to the tribunal to kick against the declaration of Bello as winner of the election, based on the outcome of the December 5, 2015 supplementary poll. Bello polled 6,885 from the 13,000 voters who turned out to vote in 91 polling units across 18 local government areas for the residual election. Wada, whose initial score rose to 204, 877 from 199,415 after the supplementary poll, believes it will be illogical for Bello to be declared the winner. He has asked the Kogi State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal to declare him  the winner because as a far as he is concerned, Bello, who, was not on the ballot as at the time he (Wada) polled 199,415 on November 21, 2015, could not dislodge him with 6,885 votes from the supplementary election of December 5, last year.

The rejection of the running mate slot by Faleke compounds Bello’s legitimacy. On December 1, last year, Odigie-Oyegun convened a stakeholders’ meeting to announce Bello as the party’s replacement for Audu and the retention of Faleke on the ticket as his running mate. He told his audience that the APC decision had been communicated to INEC. Faleke turned down the offer. He documented his rejection to Odigie-Oyegun and INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmud Yakubu.

In his letter, Faleke urged the party and INEC to treat his memo as a decision “to dissociate myself from this and strange supplementary nomination as the running mate to Bello. This is also to serve as a notice of rejection of the purported and illegal nomination of myself as running mate to Bello.”

According to Faleke, he was not informed by anybody before his name was forwarded to INEC Bello’s running mate.

Reaping another

man’s labour

The thinking in some political quarters is that Bello has come to reap where he did not plant. It was learnt that Bello did not show up at any of the campaign rallies that were staged in 35 centres across the state in the run-up to the November 21, 2015 election. Faleke alleged in his letter that “Bello has since the conduct of the primary, abandoned the party, took the party to court and worked for the PDP, thereby causing the party (APC) to lose at his (Bello’s) polling unit and repeated same feat at the ward level where APC scored 1,146 to PDP’s 2,058.” The Audu/Faleke Campaign Organisation described the choice of Bello as Audu’s replacement as the zenith of reward for disloyalty.

The organisation claimed that a reconciliation meeting convened by the APC leadership after the primaries was spurned by Bello. He claimed that the late Audu had a case with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and that he would not sit on the same table with him. It described as an irony of fate for Bello, who made reconciliation impossible to turn around and inherit the victory of a man he scorned.

A string of litigations

The Kogi Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal is awash with petitions from the various parties, including Labour Party (LP), whose prayer to stop today’s swearing in of Bello as governor was struck out by the tribunal. Wada’s petition is also pending before the panel. He is praying the Tribunal to return him to office based on the simple reason that Bello was not on the governorship ballot ab initio and that votes scored by the late Prince Audu were not transferable. Wada and his party had argued that since the APC candidate died before the conclusion of the election the proper thing for INEC to do was to declare him, as the candidate with the second highest number of votes, the winner. They said the conduct of the supplementary poll was uncalled for.

The late Audu’s running mate is laying claim to the victory of the Audu/Faleke ticket. He urged INEC to declare him the governor-elect. Faleke said he will not surrender the mandate freely given to the joint Audu/Faleke ticket. He will not be  today’s inauguration.

Failed reconciliation

The Nation learnt that no serious reconciliation took place to resolve the crisis thrown up by the death of Prince Audu and his replacement with Bello.

A source said the national leadership of the party deliberately shut the doors against the key players in the game.

“Instead of talking to the real gladiators, the party was busy meeting with Abuja-based politicians who know next to nothing in Kogi politics,” a source told The Nation.

The source went on: “At a point, the party leadership was discussing with an estranged member of the Audu family. Is that how to dialogue? You cannot shave a man’s head in his absence. That is not possible. Any reconciliation that excludes Faleke and Mohammed cannot pass the credibility test”

Faleke confirmed the insincerity in the reconciliation. He said the only time the APC National Chairman called him to a meeting was on December 1, when he (Odigie-Oyegun) said his name and that of Bello had been forwarded to INEC as governorship candidate and running mate for the December 5, 2015 supplementary poll.

What’s Bello’s vision?

Bello has come to reap where he did not sow, many have said. Fate has catapulted him to the front burner, although he did not dream of bouncing back after returning to his shell, following his poor showing at the shadow poll. Ambitious politicians should have some lessons to learn from his post-primary disengagement. Instead of embracing hope as the elixir of life, his temporary setback at the primary beclouded his sense of judgment. Having lost the ticket, he resolved to rock the boat. Aggrieved APC chieftains have maintained that Bello has an unrivalled record of anti-party activities during the electioneering. When Audu and Faleke were busy canvassing for votes across the three senatorial districts, Bello played a great role in subverting their efforts. When he was brought back in controversial circumstance to fly the party’s flag during the residual election, his choice as a substitute elicited wild condemnation by loyal chieftains who laboured with Audu on the field. On poll day, Bello’s priority was not to deliver his polling booth, ward and local government to the APC. But, venting his anger on the party over his inability to clinch the ticket, he worked for one of the smaller parties. It is ironical that a distraught politician who undermined the party during the poll that was pronounced inconclusive emerged as the flag bearer during the supplementary exercise.

Journeying to State

House without

engaging the electorate

Audu and Faleke had approached the people with their agenda. They came with an impeccable pedigree. Having conducted a survey on the needs of the people, they reeled out their manifestos for the development of the state. For the late Audu, it was an unfinished business. In the Third Republic, he had played a path-finding role as the first elected governor. That was why he was described by observers as the “architect of modern Kogi”.  His running mate, Faleke, is a tested and trusted politician. Having served as a local government chairman, federal legislator and member of the Buhari/Osinbajo Presidential Campaign Committee, he has justified himself as an experienced and loyal chieftain. Both subscribed to the APC manifesto, which they have replicated for Kogi. The Audu/Faleke agenda consists of programmes for the revitalisation of education, industrialisation, job creation, security and infrastructural development. The candidate and his running mate convinced voters to buy into the laudable and ambitious  plans for turning around the state. Stakeholders asked questions from them during the extensive consultations with constituents. Monarchs, community leaders, market women and youths elicited assurances from them that they will take the state to loftier heights. Indeed, there was a pact between Kogi and Audu/Faleke ticket. On the basis of that agreement, people trooped out on November 21, last year to endorse their candidature.

Curiously, the poll was declared inconclusive by the electoral agency. Up came an impostor foisted on the Kogi APC as the new candidate for the complimentary election. Bello, the emergency candidate, lacked the pedigree of the Audu/Faleke candidacy. Neither was he associated with any clear-cut programme of action. Of course, he was rejected as the shadow poll, underscoring his lack of popularity and acceptability within the party. As Bello assumes the reins, his plans for the state are largely unknown. How he will address the pressing challenges of insecurity, mass unemployment, dispirited civil service, ethnic tension triggered by the fear of marginalisation, low revenue base and decayed infrastructure is in the realm of conjecture. He did not campaign to get votes. There was no meaningful engagement with the diverse people of Kogi. As from today, he is a governor who will start learning the ropes. For anxious Kogites who will now have to adjust to his style of administration, these times are, indeed, challenging.

The lingering cry of

marginalisation

Since Kogi is transiting in a crisis, it is certain that the governor is not likely to be a symbol of unity in the ruling party and the state. The last one month may have also proved that Bello’s reconciliatory skill is suspect. Although he has the support of the power that be in the APC, he should have honed his social skills to a razor’s edge by making spirited attempts to resolve the crisis foisted on the party by his emergency candidature. No doubt, his emergence as the candidate may have somehow aggravated the ethnic and religious tensions, Bello ought to have moved swiftly to douse the tension, not by flexing muscles with pro-Audu/Faleke forces, but by making passionate appeals to aggrieved colleagues to show understanding for situations that have been described as beyond control.

Can Bello make

a difference?

Based on his antecedent, can Bello still make a difference? At 40, he is a very agile politician. Youthfulness is an asset. But, it cannot displace experience, exposure and capacity for problem-solving that have been acquired over time.

Bello will inherit the problems which Audu had hoped to resolve. On the strength of solutions he proposed, the people voted for the APC. It is, therefore, important for the governor to make use of the Audu/Faleke agenda as a starting point.

The onus is on Bello to unite the polarised ruling party and the state. Today, there is a major crisis in the party and the state. The party is divided over the choice and eventual emergence of Bello as governor. Also, a dangerous signal has been sent to the people of Kogi West, where Faleke hails from, that they are unfit for the number one position on account of being minority and pre-dominantly Christian. This may have implications for peaceful co-existence. Therefore, the activities of some camouflage opinion leaders from the West milling around the governor notwithstanding, Bello has to reconcile with stakeholders from the district.

Bello is inheriting a budget that mirrors the image of the rejected Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government led by Captain Idris Wada. The budget is not in consonance with the vision of the APC for Kogi. He must learn to work with the House of Assembly, where PDP lawmakers are in the majority. At the initial stage, it may be a hostile legislature being teleguided from outside the state.

For at least three months, Bello has the burden of litigation hanging on his neck. His administration may be hit by legitimacy crisis as Faleke continues with the legal fireworks at the tribunal and court. Opinion is divided on the legitimacy of Bello’s candidature, following Audu’s death. Many chieftains believe that the APC national leadership has robbed Faleke to pay Bello. Until the case is concluded or there is an out-of-court settlement, the governor’s attention will necessarily be diverted by the litigation.

Infrastructure decay

Kogi is a poor state financially. The onus is on the governor to reduce the cost of governance by blocking loopholes. He is also to invent a creative method of generating revenue because the revenue base cannot sustain the state. However, in a bid to expand the revenue base, more burden should not be imposed on the people who are already being suffocated by the bad policies of previous administrations.

Infrastructure is a priority. The roads and other public utilities are ebbing away. A total overhauling of the infrastructure is germane to the investment drive because the state cannot be attractive to investors, if the atmosphere is unfavourable.

THE NATION