By August 2019, APC will conduct its primary to choose the most suitable candidate to fly its flag in the forthcoming election in Kogi State. All indications, indexes, political calculus and inferences from political shopping Centre of the State point to the fact that the incumbent, Gov Yahaya Bello popularly known as GYB will clinch the ticket. That’s certainly a top rank assumption. But risky as it appears, in this short piece, a Developmental Positivism Methodology is adopted rather than Dysfunctional Negativism Method to dissect viewpoints, signposts and expound few variables to rationalize and justifiably explain that assumption and position. The author of this short epistle is also aware of the usage of variables like road construction, water reticulation, health care facilities, building of schools and etc, to measure performance. Deliberately I have gone for a bigger indices and indications of developmental heights like provision of security, unity of diversity, philosophical epigrams and physical electoral feats to advance my position. The author considers the earlier ones as pedestrians that are knitted, warpedly subsumed and encapsulated in the latter ones. GYB can be said to be the political and election standard bearer of the APC in Kogi State since 2015. His challenger then and in currency, will come from the PDP, the party that suffered so much defeat and depletion in the last elections. GYB has shown his productive partisan maestro and mastermind in the last February and March elections. We have discussed this bellow.
I stand by the call to all electorates that GYB should be re-elected into the government house of the confluence state come November 2019. I’m basing my call, support and conclusion on just 4 factors. They are; Security exploration; Unity in the state; Philosophical dictum, and Performance in the last elections. However, other ancillaries include but not limited to courage, youthful energy, detribalization, cultural consciousness, familiarity with administrative terrain and support for the Federal government under President Muhammadu Buhari. My position and conclusion is that each one of the 4 factors is sufficient to earn GYB its party ticket and mandate, and it is further more, adequate to earn him the votes of the Kogi State citizens and electorates
There is no stronger reason politically speaking for the APC ticket to be given to GYB than his outstanding performance in the last presidential and representatives’ elections. GYB delivered Kogi State to Mr President and APC to defeat PDP its not too much close rival. APC won 2 out of 3 senatorial districts of the state. Kogi West which Dino Melaya took is still been contested by APC candidate Smart Adeyemi. He also scored 7 out of 9 federal legislative seats of the state. The best and no1 nationally rated state legislative election took place in Kogi State. GYB delivered the entire 25 seats of state house of assembly to APC. This is uniquely unprecedented; as such one is least surprised that his colleague governors called him GAME CHANGER to mark the feat. Politics is rationally crazy and irrationally non- scientific. Politicians all over the world and of all epochs enjoy this phenomenon; the phenomenon of defying pundits and odds to deliver your zone to your party. Performance is seen and arguably correct too, from the premise of success at elections. Popularity is shown through electoral feat, success and performance. GYB has shown to all that those who underrated him politically are simply naive, uncouth and politically unlettered. Beyond the dubbing of juvenilism, GYB can be said to have mastered the art and science of delivery and electioneering success. His shining successes alluded to above indicate clearly that GYB is appropriately informed, schooled and lettered on politicking, campaign tactics and election strategies. Never in the history of the state has this feat been achieved by any incumbent within the same socio- political parameter. It is this same factor of overwhelming success in the last elections that support my assumption that the NWC of APC has no option but to support and field GYB as its candidate in the forthcoming gubernatorial election. Doing the opposite is grossly inconceivable as it can lead to electoral disaster for APC.
We could only appreciate this feat if we peep into the recent political history of the state. Since 1999, only Kogi Central voted consistently for the candidacy of Muhammad Buhari. Wherever he went, the District particularly the Ebiras followed him. Only during GYB era that the entire state voted for him overwhelmingly. Though there’re several factors, the mobilizational strategies of the state Gov who organized his electioneering chess board well largely accounted for the success. Ditto other elections.
Secondly, GYB brought into the governance of the state with state principle, epigraphs, dictum and philosophical axioms. It’s Justice, Equity & Fairness. Simply couch, this dictum and mantra has been able to help his administration to marshal the structures and superstructures in the same way that it galvanized social engineering and social technology. The platitudes aided him in focusing on those lines of actions that he designed for his administration away from derailment. Justice, Equity and Fairness of GYB construed and consigned the confluence state into a developmental and productive gamut where each activity, administrative and distributive decision are measured, decided and concluded. State resources, major appointment and basic infrastructures are allocated, apportioned and divided along this mantra. As such for the first time in the history of the state, every and all segments and indeed, social forces of the state’s geo- Unit and geo-District including desperate and disparate ones develop sense of belonging. Though very silently engulfing, for the very first time since 1991 under GYB, all Kogites accept Kogi State as their state. Yes, they may disagree on contents, no one, not even GYB adversaries query the context of Kogi State. The mantra help the state to look at matters of rulership and administration from the perspective of oneness. By way of emphasis, it is interesting to note that within a span of 4 years no one, no section and no senatorial district speaks of marginalization and ostracization. The GYB’s epigrams did the magic. Infact, only in his own District, the Central that complaints have been raised. If GYB was to follow the path of the decadence past of the state, he should have cornered all the resources to his Central District. We need to commend him and urge him to continue to the end of his second term. The charges and stigmatization of one section by one or others have been tolerably minimized. GYB has consistently stressed this mantra both philosophically in speeches and in action.
– Abere is Professor of Security History & International Studies