The 2015/16 Kogi state’s governorship election has high propensity for defining the future historical and political trajectory of the state and has stimulated and excited extra-ordinary interest among the people.
The battle of who becomes the next governor of the state would be a major battle between the agitators for power rotation, especially the minority ethnic flanks and the hang-on-to-power cliques.
The concept of rotationalism is the fad of contemporary political permutations and has also shaped the character of social dialogue in Nigeria. In Kogi state, more than any other state in Nigeria, swinging governorship pendulum to other ethnic groups, Ebira and Okun that have not benefitted from the executive leadership in the state since inception is now a matter of discourse towards the 2015/16 governorship election.
There has been a rejuvenated call for a change which involves the agitation of rotation or shift of the governorship position in Kogi between the three senatorial districts in the state. There is hardly any notable politician of majority extraction that believe that other ethnic minority components deserve the executive position of the state.
This can be attested to, smarting from a suffocating political domination of Igalas in Kogi state today; they believe in the political of majority having its way. But the biggest undoing of the majority would be, not knowing when to stop, after all, slavery was never abolished because slaves had risen in number higher than the perpetrators of the evil act. It is time for change and shifting of power!
It is against this background that a respondent climate of opinion leaders from Kogi Central and West, have been consulting on how to actualise the desired power shift in the state.
Political watchers too seem to have come to conclusion that achieving this feat would, no doubt, be a gigantic leap forward in harmonious inter-ethnic relation in Kogi state. Having brought the issue of the conceptual importance of the Ebira/Okun governorship into bold relief, it needs be stated that, it is an elementary political knowledge that power is not given on a platter of gold
, but wrestled on the basis of a sustained struggle and contestation with the holder of power.
The Ebiras and Okuns need to gird their loins in order to embark on this struggle, by way of harnessing their immense intellectual resources, understanding in mapping out the strategies, ideological policies for the realisation of this viable project and importantly, one of the two must be ready to yield ground for the other. Anything outside this is a faltering step.
Pundits agree with the new thinking, if it is well re-engineered, perfected and the spirit of forgiveness and ideal for way forward is portrayed among the stakeholders, that an Ebira/Okun alliance being contemplated would be a hard nut to crack for the large Igala electorate.
These are some of the issues expected to dictate the pace of the 2015/16 governorship race.
First and foremost, vigilance should be mounted on the activities of latter-day Judas of Ebira/Okun governorship project. These Judas who abound, politically and philosophically would stop at nothing to stab this project in the back just for their selfish and excessiveness.
This view is tempered by an understanding of past political experiences in the agitation of power shift pressure group over time. It is in the spirit of this aforementioned understanding that what should concern all well-meaning indigenes of Kogi state now in the on-going agitation for power shift, is to carry Kogi state from the dungeon of poverty and colossal backwardness.
Looking at the agitation of the minority from a focused context, one may posit that while the minority sees a shift in power as its only route to emancipation from political domination, the majority sees it as striking at the very foundation of its political cum economic relevance.
Interestingly, some of the notable aspirants who have so far begun underground and open campaign towards the 2015/16 governorship election, include; Alhaji Yahaya Bello (FiarPlus Transport); Senator Mohammed S. Ohiare; Dr. Onukaba Ojo Adinoyi (veteran journalist); Prince Emmanuel Otu-Adeku Omadivi; Prince Suffianu Atta, from Central, Ebiraland. Okunland also include; Clarence Olafemi; Mr. Yaqeen A. Habeeb; Rotimi Abadogin; George Olumoroti; Suleiman Baba Ali; and Idris Kashim, etc.
Isah Itopa Idris,
Abuja
