Kogi: A state and its peculiar mess

Saturday’s declaration of  Yahya Bello of the APC as governor-elect may have been the beginning of yet another legal tussle in the    quest for  the state leadership.  OYIBO SALIHU writes on the need by Kogi stakeholders to chat the path of development rather than confusion.

For some months to come, Kogi  state will certainly continue to remain in the news, at least for what has become  its penchant for political abracadabra. Of course, it is common knowledge that the state had once upon a time controversially  paraded about three governors in a row. The development was occasioned by the sacking of the sitting governor, Idris Ibrahim by the Supreme Court. The drama that followed has become a subject of history.

While the elected governor, Idris Wada and his deputy, Yomi Awoniyi were sworn in on the order of the sacked governor, at about 3.30 pm local time, then Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Abdullahi Bello was sworn in at about 6.20 pm on the orders of  the then  Attorney General, Bello Adoke who incidentally also hails  from the  state.

And as things today, tragicomedy is  fast playing out  with the many contestations to the plum number one seat in the state. It’s tragic and also unfortunate the demise of Audu Abubakar, the original standard bearer of the All Progressives Congress in the governorship election, who passed on at the time the collation of results was still on 24 hours after the exercise. Somehow, the Independent National Electoral Commission  declared the polls inconclusive and therefore ordered a rerun in some 91 wards.

A lot of hues and cries greeted the decision with all manners  of people and their parties  laying claims to what ordinarily would have been Audu’s. Efforts to stall last Saturday’s polls were thwarted by the Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja which pronounced that all issues raised were post-election matters and therefore should be sorted out at the election petition tribunals.

Of course for James Biodun Faleke, a federal lawmaker representing Lagos state in the House of Representatives and running mate to late Audu, and also the incumbent governor and governorship candidate  of the Peoples Democratic Party, the judgement was a sour taste in the mouth.

The comic side of the whole political drama with Nigerians and indeed lovers of democracy across the world as target audience, however is that  the lucky beneficiary of all this, Yahaya Bello, now governor-elect, is assumed by some to have run that race without a running mate.
The Returning Officer, Professor Immanuel Kucha, declared  Bello winner at 5.26 a.m on Sunday, ending a collation exercise that started 11.06pm on Saturday.  INEC announced that APC polled 247,752 votes to defeat PDP who came second with 204,877 votes.

But shortly before the announcement, some dust was raised  by  party agents, particularly that of PDP, Joe Agada, who were quick to point out that the APC flag bearer’s candidacy  was not valid because he had no running mate.  Faleke, who was supposed to pair him up for the polls vehemently kicked against it, insisting that he is even the governor-elect.

And in a very logical way, team leader of the Independent national Electoral Commission, Hajia Amina Zakari, swiftly doused tension when  she replied that it’s only the party that has right to withdraw a candidate. This , she contended  is more forceful than the candidate coming up to withdraw himself.

From the position of things and in the eyes of the law, Bello, no doubt is governor-elect, but certainly his victory will  be the beginning of  another legal battle that will dominate the political space of the confluence state and also plunder it into further peculiar mess. The implication of this is that, he may have consciously began to tread the path of others before him, including Wada, who  were more engrossed in litigation that development.
For now, the only loud opposition that rents the air is that coming from PDP, which believes Bello is more of an ‘impostor’ than a real victor, having latched on the bed of roses prepared by the late Audu.To them, it’s a wrong way  by INEC to do things.

Oliseh Metuh, the party’s national publicity secretary captures it all in a statement in which he boasts that the APC’s victory cannot stand the test of time.
“The action of INEC in trying to transfer the votes earlier garnered by the dead APC candidate, Prince Audu Abubakar, to another individual is completely impractical and alien to the nation’s Constitution and the Electoral Act.

“The declaration by INEC that Bello polled the highest number of votes is an embarrassing travesty of the nation’s democracy and electoral process.
“Not only that this individual is not in anyway a valid candidate in the election, he also did not score the overall votes declared against his name by INEC and cannot be declared winner under any circumstance within the provisions of our laws.”

Metuh said that the provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act are clear to the effect that with the unfortunate death of Audu before the conclusion of the election, and the fact that the laws do not permit the replacement of candidates once the balloting has commenced, the APC crashed out of the race, leaving Wada, the PDP candidate, as the clear winner.

“It is therefore unfortunate that INEC disregarded the provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act, which left it with no other legitimate option than to declare Governor Idris Wada the governor-elect,” he added.
“Instead, it went ahead to preside over a charade, for which it is now attempting to illicitly handover the vote cast for a dead man to another person, who did not participate in the overall election.”
Metuh called on APC and Bello to know that Wada remains “validly elected within the dictates of our laws under the circumstance.”

He appealed to members of the PDP and its supporters to remain calm, saying the law will soon take the center stage to “right the wrong created by INEC and declare Wada as the governor.”
The days ahead will certainly play out more drama in Kogi. But one thing that is sacrosanct is the people interest. A confused leadership cannot bequeath any legacy to its people, hence the need as observed by watchers of events in the state, for stakeholders to come together and chat real path of progress and not  not chaos. It’s high time the state avoided this peculiar mess