Hon Philip Olusesan Orebiyi, former member of Kogi State House of Assembly served as Secretary, Election Management Committee in the Kogi State All Progressives Congress (APC) Governorship Campaign Council. Orebiyi also supervised the grassroots contact team which interfaced with members of the opposition on behalf of the APC candidate. Orebiyi, who used to belong to the PDP until after the April governorship primaries, explained why the people of Kogi West, Okun in particular supported governor-elect, Alhaji Usman Ododo, an Ebira, against their sons, Senator Dino Melaye, Hon Leke Abejide and Olayinka Braimoh. He spoke during an interaction with The Guardian in Lokoja.
When I said Okun was not ready for governor, many people disagreed with me. In a situation where my friend, my brother, Leke Abejide who has already won election to return to the House of Representatives from the same Yagba Federal Constituency where we have the senator of Kogi West for the first time and after many years of struggle, Yagba should have left the governorship for Kabba/Bunu/Ijumu Federal Constituency, for stability and resourcefulness. On the other hand, for the leadership of Kogi West to have been unable to resolve on one candidate showed that Okun was not ready. Okun was not ready. So we will be wasting our time supporting either of the candidates, dividing our votes when the candidates cannot even sit and resolve between themselves. I take a cue from Kogi Central which was able to present and queue behind one candidate. It means the Ebira are more prepared than us despite sharing the same minority status with the Okun for many years. I told Dino Melaye before the Senate primaries of the PDP which he contested that I saw it in spiritual realm that his governorship ambition is hinged on him allowing the senator rotate to Yagba after 16 years in Kabba/Bunu/Ijumu. Where Dino got it all wrong was for him to have contested that senate election against Yagba people. Olayinka Braimoh was a greenhorn. So Okun was not ready. Okun lost from the elites angle and I will explain. Okun elites including those living abroad who have never come home once, who don’t understand the sequences, who are not registered voters at home began to dish out directives, sowing seeds of discord, insulting people who know the game. People believed them and as a result the people got disorganized.
Was there over voting in Kogi Central entral as alleged?
Those are spurious allegations by the opposition. Okene, just like Adavi is thickly populated. Then when you have a governor like Yahaya Bello who is politically conscious of the aspirations of his people and committed to alleviating their social and economic backwardness. So he went all out to create the awareness and mobilized his people to come out in their numbers. He was able to sensitize and convince them on the importance of the election and also got them to recognize and exercise the strength of their numbers.
Like I said, Governor Yahaya Bello was able to lure key defectors from other parties to the APC. The electorate in Kogi Central voted overwhelmingly for Ododo. As far as the Ebira people were concerned, the fact that Igala had spent 16 years in power was seen as a challenge. The Ebira were therefore committed to ensuring that they did not lose the governorship seat so easily. They went as far as hiring commercial buses to bring home their people living outside the state. That was what did the magic, combined with the support of our people in Kogi West. The allegations of over voting in Kogi Central are baseless. Well the opposition has the option of going to court. But I can tell you this for free that Ododo”s victory is a big reflection of hardwork and proper harmonisation of interests between likeminds in Kogi West who saw the truth ahead of the election.
What was the “truth” seen by Kogi West people?
The need to preserve old Kwara relationship for future Okun governor. We saw the truth and the truth being that when our brothers in the East (majority) held power, they never believed that power should rotate to the west or Central (minorities). Much of the things they said to our faces was that when they were in former Benue State, they did not aspire to be governor being minorities. What they kept giving to them was Commissioner. So, we believed that that will not be acceptable to us even if we accepted it for long. The victories of late Prince Abubakar Audu (second term), Alhaji Ibrahim Idris and Capt Idris Wada, all past governors from Igala were not by tribal agitation. So, for us in the west we saw the importance of retaining power within us and our neighbours in the central and also because of our relationship from old Kwara State. So, we put our heads together, we canvassed round irrespective of political leanings, some in the PDP crossed over to the APC and we thanked God it worked. This is how Okun can be governor in nearest future.
In your opinion, what is the takeaway to be learned from the just concluded governorship election in Kogi State?
Election in Kogi State will never again be about tribal arrangement. And it goes to all of us in Kogi West and Central including our beloved brothers in East. That is one achievement this election has recorded.
You said Dino Melaye set PDP on fire. What does that imply?
I left the PDP after 25 years because of irregularities and the kind of the leadership at the national level led by PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. With the way the crisis was managed at the national level after presidential primary election, our consolation was that we would be able to manage the Kogi State governorship primary election.
Unfortunately, our friend and brother, Dino Melaye rigged the congress that was used for the primary election. For instance, with all my efforts put into building the party I wouldn’t expect that the manipulation would be done in such a way that in my ward in particular, the state PDP delegate for the governorship primaries was unknown to me and to the party in the ward. This was the case everywhere in Kogi West which I am privy to. So, Dino Melaye had set the PDP ticket on fire, and this was what drove many PDP stalwarts out of that party to the APC, including my humble self and leading political figures like former Deputy Governor Arc Yomi Awoniyi. Only few PDP members genuinely worked for the party during the election, some were simply indifferent, they silently worked against the party from the inside.