What did Abubakar Audu forget in Kogi Government House? This is a question any average Nigerian would ask of any candidate aspiring to be sworn in for a third term in any elective office, especially when the office in question is a gubernatorial one. Audu has placed himself in that enquiry microscope ever since he was denied a second term in his bid to extend his second coming as the executive governor of Kogi State.
Audu had been the chief executive of the state for two separate terms. First, he was voted in overwhelmingly in 1992 under the umbrella of the defunct Nigerian Republican Convention (NRC). His head-on arrests of critical challenges in the housing, health, general infrastructure, commerce and industry within so short a time still remain landmarks in today’s Kogi.
So, it was not rocket science that when the Fourth Republic kicked off in 1999 Kogites had seen enough of Audu to overwhelming vote him in to continue in his good work.
However, Kogites were denied the much-needed continuity to land them in Audu’s Eldorado when PDP struck with the rigging bulldozer that has ever continued to deny such contentious and selfless leader. But after 12 years of PDP’s reign, Kogi State has deteriorated beyond apprehension. Yet revenue allocation has more than quadrupled in present day.
To answer the question which kicked off this letter, Audu is coming back on a rescue mission. He sees his great plans to alleviate his people from poverty and pathetic living diminish in the hands of a ruthless opposition, whose only creed for power are for self-aggrandizement and closed family frolics.
Yes, he left something behind indeed: his people’s well-being. Contesting under the platform of All People Congress (APC), Audu couldn’t have chosen a better vehicle to drive home his three-point agenda – power shift, state of emergency in critical sectors of the state and concentration in ‘stomach infrastructure’.
The incumbent, PDP’s Wada is in for the fight of his life to keep out Audu from getting back to power. The PDP had succeeded in keeping the people’s choice for three consecutive times. This time around, it will definitely be a different ball game when Kogites decide on November 21, 2015. We’re waiting.
Ahmed Attah,
Lokoja, Kogi state
