The 2019 general elections in Nigeria might have come and gone but the performance of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) in Kogi West Senatorial District in the elections may linger for sometime in terms of lessons learnt.
Prior to the elections, the party might have concluded within itself that the elections will be a walk over without considering factors that might work against the fortunes of the APC, especially at the Presidential and National Assembly Elections in the area.
Our findings revealed that the choice of the party’s candidates for the Senatorial and House of Representatives in Kabba/Bunu/Ijumu and Yagba Federal Constituencies were the first main challenge as the personalities were alleged not to be well accepted by the majority of the electorate in the area.
The senatorial candidate of the party, Senator Smart Adeyemi, a two-term senator that represented the district from 2007-2015, lost to the incumbent Senator Dino Melaye of PDP due to what many political pundits refer to as his arrogant attitude and lack of mutual relationship with the people.
However, in the build up to the APC Kogi West primary, his main contender, Dr Toyin Akanle had informed the leadership of the party not to give the party ticket to Adeyemi as he may not be able to win due to what he called the many sins of Adeyemi against the people of Kogi West.
Despite the complain, the party leadership went ahead to field Adeyemi even when Dr Toyin Akanle petitioned the appeals committee, citing irregularities and calling for outright cancellation of the primary result, but all efforts by Akanle proved abortive, as Adeyemi was given the nod by the committee to contest the general elections.
Our findings further revealed that instead of him to reconcile with Akanle and his teeming supporters , he decided to seat back in Abuja hoping on the party and the state government to perform magic for him to win the election.
Though the party set up a reconciliatory committee to reconcile all factions and the aggrieved persons, but it was too late as both parties could not seat together to discuss the way forward for the party ahead of the election.
His non acceptability was further entrenched as displayed by the number of votes he garnered in his own local government as records show that he could only defeat PDP in his unit in Iyara ward with six votes difference, as APC polled 82 votes while PDP 76 votes, in the overall he lost Ijumu local government area with 3,232 votes difference while APC polled 8,517 votes, PDP polled 11,749 votes.
In Yagba land, despite the state government appointees, elected members and some key stakeholders within the party in the federal constituency, there was an agreement to work for the candidate of the ADC, Elder Leke Abejide in exchange of the APC State House of Assembly.
According to our source, it was also alleged that the commissioner for finance did not release the money meant for logistics for the elections in the seven local government areas of Kogi West.
It was established that all parties in Yagba land agreed to work together as they shared the positions among the three major parties, PDP for Senate, ADC for the House of Representative while APC takes the state House of Assembly, this was the simple logic the stakeholders in Yagba used.
It is an open secret however that Senator Smart Adeyemi is currently having issues with Chief Jide Omokore, Chief Sam Oluowa, Chief Funsho Owoyemi and Barrister Tunde Ayeni from Iyah Gbede, Gen Oshanupin, Chief Ben Olowodola, Hon James Abiodun Faleke, among others. These personalities were alleged to have worked vehemently against his ambition.
In Yagba federal constituency, our findings revealed that some party officials and appointee of the state government traded off the House of Representatives for the state House as Hon Henry Tuesday Abimbola was alleged not be seen around on time to canvass for votes in the area.
Many of the electorate in Yagba East also felt since the local government was not lucky to have produced the senator, it is better they have the House of Representatives in person of Hon Leke Abejide, a business mogul based in the northern city of Kano/Jigawa and have the capacity to deliver.
Hon Tajudeen Yusuf of the PDP was able to garner the much votes in Kabba through the instrumentality of Club 12 agenda in addition to the effort of Hon. Kola Ologbondiyan the National Publicity Secretary of PDP who is from Ilajo family that are still angry over the emergence of the new Obaro of Kabba.
The APC was able to garner the votes they got in Kabba courtesy of the Obaro of Kabba, His Royal Majesty, Oba Solomon Dele Owoniyi and the Speaker, Kogi state House of Assembly, Mr Matthew Kolawole, as only his family, Omodo, fraction of club 12 and thenon indigenes voted for the party.
In Ijumu, the party leaders and government officials at both state and local government compromised the process to favour the opposition especially the ADC candidates, as our findings revealed that the Deputy Governorship candidate to late Audu Abubakar in the 2015 governorship election in Kogi state, Hon James Abiodun Faleke, who still command large number of followers in the area directed all his loyalists within the APC to work for the emergence of the ADC candidates.
Some political analysts opined that Mr Wemi Jones did not lose to Hon TJ Yusuf nor PDP but he lost to his kinsmen and APC in Bunu as it is expected that he will secure 90% of the votes as he hailed from the area.
With the wonderful performance of the APC in the just concluded state House of Assembly elections wherein the party have 25/25 Assembly Members in the state, it is apparent that Governor Yahaya Bello would have a smooth sail at the November governorship poll in the state.
The successful outcome of the state assembly elections in Kogi West has changed the narrative to confirm some of these facts about the wrong candidature of some of the personalities paraded by the APC in the federal elections in the area.
This we hope the leadership of the APC or other political parties would take cognisance of, as fielding a wrong candidate can spell doom for any political party in a given election.
Sunday, a political analyst, writes from Lokoja, Kogi state
