The Governorship Campaign Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, notes with both consternation and amusement the widely reported communique issued by the so-called Kogi West Elders Forum following their meeting with Governor Yahaya Bello on Sunday, 7th October.
It is really amusing to read about the adventure of a group of worn-out and attention-seeking politicians who put themselves together under the name of Kogi West Elders Forum to sell cheaply to Governor Yahaya Bello, the collective interests of the people of their Senatorial District.
Everything about the group and their meeting with the Governor is pretentious and preposterous. In the first instance, they tagged themselves as “a body of non-partisan community leaders”. How can they lay claim to non-partisanship when most, if not all of them are card-carrying members of one political party or another?
Just as we were preparing this reaction, their clandestine motive was exposed by General David Jemibewon, a highly respected leader of our party, the PDP, who dissociated himself from their self-serving and hypocritical endorsement of Yahaya Bello for a second term. According to General Jemibewon, he was told that Governor Yahaya Bello wanted to interact with the leaders, and that nothing like endorsement was discussed at the meeting. It was indeed a very shameful outing.
It is also curious that some other personalities in the group include other notable members of our party, such as Chief Bayo Ojo, a former Governorship aspirant of the party, and Major Gen J.O.S. Oshanupin, rtd, another acclaimed leader of the Party. Some others in the group of the so-called non-partisan leaders are also card-carrying members of other political parties.
We find a lot of insincerity in the mission of this group, who waited for four years and watched Governor Yahaya Bello ruining the State almost to the foundation without a word of caution from them, only to come at the eve of election to start negotiating with him. It is an irony that the “leaders” agreed in their communique that the four years of Yahaya Bello are marked by decay of infrastructure, lack of payment of workers’ salaries and other anomalies, but ended up resolving to support the re-election of the Governor “in the larger interest of the people of Kogi West”. Something is really not adding up. Some people are trying to hide behind one finger, when all eyes can see them.
There are a lot of questions for this group of elders who seem prepared to drag their names in the mud. Which people are they speaking for? Do they have any records of the number of their people that the Governor is owing arrears of salaries, or the number that have died as a result of non-payment of salaries and those who are on the verge of dying? Which projects are they committing the Governor into completing? Has the Governor assured them that he has changed his profligate manner of frittering away public fund as if he is spending stones? What are the antecedents of Governor Yahaya Bello that one would begin to hold him to his words?
We know these leaders are not so naïve not to know that at this zero hour to the election, Yahaya Bello will readily make any frivolous promise, even on oath. We also know as a matter of facts that most of these leaders are in this tango with Bello simply on self-interest, and not for any communal benefit.
For instance, Vice Admiral Joseph Ajayi, rtd, is a kinsman to the State Assembly Speaker, Hon Matthew Kolawole, and together they nurse the illusion of Kolawole succeeding Yahaya Bello as the latter was said to have promised some leaders of Kogi West that he will shift power to them. It is a pity that some so-called leaders will hold this view, when even the blind knows that Yahaya Bello has positioned the larger-than-life Edward Onoja to succeed him.
Major General Oshanupin, rtd, is an ally of Smart Adeyemi and Hon Abiodun Faleke, (two new strange bed fellows), who have promised their senior brother to accord him relevance in the coming dispensation. We learnt that he might have got some juicy plots in Abuja courtesy of the very smart former Chairman of the Senate Committee on FCT. This same Gen Oshanupin, few days to their meeting with Governor, had publicly condemned Governor Yahaya Bello’s non-performance, saying the man cannot return to the office, while speaking at Ijumu Day celebration in Iyara. What manner of inconsistency is that?
Col. Segun Oloruntoba, rtd, on his own, is routing for the Olugbede chieftaincy stool, and has bowed to Ijumu Local Government Administrator, Taofik, who is Yahaya Bello’s Man-Friday in the West District, to help him in realising his ambition. Chief Bayo Ojo, SAN, is said to also hope he could fulfil his quest to become Governor through Yahaya Bello’s structure, while Dan Kunle is angered against the PDP for not making him the Deputy Governorship candidate.
This “non-partisan” group betrayed their veiled interests when they said “having gauged the political direction…”. It shows that they have aligned themselves with the much-touted, very shameful and wicked assertion that the APC headquarters and the Presidency have already concluded the election results before we go to the polls. But we have the faith that the Almighty God, who hates oppression, will fight for the traumatised people of Kogi State in this governorship election.
May be also, members of the elders group have got their own share of the 30 billion Naira that the Presidency recently released to the Governor, so that he can comfortably prosecute the elections. May be by now their own share of vehicles, which are being doled out like pure water to leaders and thugs alike by the powers that be in Lokoja, have reached them.
Whatever the hidden agenda of the members of the group, one thing is certain; they have the masses of Kogi West to contend with. The people who have borne and are still bearing the brunt of the utter misgovernance of Yahaya Bello administration, really know where the shoe is pinching them. They are prepared to rise and emancipate themselves from this never-seen-before type of misrule.
These leaders will certainly meet their waterloo in this coming election, as Yahaya Bello will be roundly defeated in all parts of the State because the people are really determined to fight for their lives and the survival of Kogi State before the State is grounded to a total halt by the demonic and accidental adventurers in power currently occupying the Lugard House.
Chief Shola Adedoyin
Chairman Public Communications Committee
PDP Governorship Campaign Organization