By Kogi Rebel
Let us test the truth with a case example from Lagos State.
Former Governor Akinwumi Ambode remained a one-term Governor in Lagos State after being anointed by his godfather, Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Lagos Governing Advisory Council, GAC, and party stalwarts in Lagos. If you’re familiar with Asiwaju, he does not joke with his party loyalists because they form the structure of his firm hold on politics.
The APC party stalwarts single-handedly scuttled Ambode’s chances of re-election. In Lagos State, party loyalists are rewarded with contracts of varying shades to keep their people satisfied. Of course, human beings must execute contracts, and they can also belong to political parties. They control cleaning services and other ancillaries. Ambode was rumoured to have removed and replaced them all with his loyalists, in an attempt to build a structure for himself outside the system created by Baba which worked and delivered him into office.
All entreaties made to pacify Baba and APC stakeholders in Lagos State failed because Ambode sought to dismantle the very system that made him by excluding party faithful from the scheme of things. Ambode is from Epe, Lagos State. Baba is not even originally from Lagos State, as he is said to be from Osun State. Yet Lagos is dynamically accommodating. Even Senator Solomon Olamilekan served as a Reps member in Lagos before going to serve as Senator in Ogun State, paving the way for his governorship ambition. Igbos also hold commissionership and assembly positions in Kogi State. This political system survived under the architecture of Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
FOLLOW ME TO KOGI STATE
Former Governor Yahaya Bello became Governor. He set out to build a system that would become his own political dynasty, an opportunity missed by all Igala Governors that had ruled the state in the past. He brought in Senator Jibril Echocho, one of the most politically wounded Igala sons who had been treated badly by his own people. He was once given the ticket of the PDP to run as Governor. His daughter married the son of the arch-enemy of his political godfather at the time. Overnight, he was stripped of the ticket, emptied financially, and left to rot.
It took Yahaya Bello and Edward Onoja to resurrect a man who had died financially and politically, a job well orchestrated by his own kinsmen.
Senator Echocho was delivered by the system that campaigned vigorously for him. He was bankrolled by the same system down to his campaign posters. All the legwork was done for him.
In his first four years in office came the Ambode spirit. He was inaccessible. He was always in a hurry to attend to his constituents. Party leaders from the district had to cover up for him many times. Those he promised heaven before office started seeing hell.
His office at the National Assembly became a theatre of quarrels between his aides, with rumours of voodoo actively in practice. He never provided leadership to stem that ugly tide that made it to the internet most times.
He completely ostracised himself from the entire party leadership in Kogi East, with everyone complaining about one thing: inaccessibility.
In 2019, he was reconsidered to return to maintain the party structure for the re-election of Alhaji Yahaya Bello, but the lessons were not learned.
He got back to the red chamber and everything remained the same. At worst, he was politically silent on most occasions and his activities were totally absent from the media, with only volunteers fighting hard to make him seen.
THEN COMES A NEW GOVERNOR
The first bitter taste was that our Senator had lost his polling unit to the opposition in the 2023 general elections that produced the incumbent.
Realistically, the incumbent is to fight for his return in an off-cycle election in 2027. Kogi East APC stakeholders started putting their house in order. They saw Senator Echocho as a weak political link because of his lack of communication with them. Those who wanted him back were doing so to balance their own political calculations and personal interests.
For the new Governor Ododo, he wanted someone who could stamp his feet politically on the ground for his return. Sen. Echocho was not working with the stakeholders, neither was he working with his constituents.
How can one explain a Senator of almost eight years in office who never stepped foot in some of the nine LGAs he represents, even for a town hall meeting, and who does not pick calls?
How does he hope to deliver any electoral contest when he is barely known in the LGAs by the grassroots?
The same people who have always worked in his absence are the ones who complained that their fortunes may grow weak politically if a change was not in the offing.
On a clear note of political thinking, Alhaji Yahaya Bello is the supreme leader of the party in the state, having produced his successor. If Senator Echocho offends the system that produced him by ostracising himself from party stakeholders like Ambode did, should the outcome not mirror Asiwaju’s response?
In politics, reality is usually louder than optics. Take Ankpa Federal Constituency Reps Member Abdullahi Ibrahim Halims, who has been returned. There are complaints about his generosity in handing out money, but none about his accessibility. If you look at it very well, accessibility to your lawmaker is better than handouts that come once in a season, that is if you ever get to see your representative in their eight years of stewardship. Still, Halims gives, but the question is: how much?
While the propaganda of power play rages on about Ebira “giving” Igala Senators, what happened when Alhaji Yahaya Bello anointed Senator Echocho for two terms while he was Governor and nothing was wrong with that?
Why is it now a problem when Alhaji Usman Ododo prefers a Joseph Erico who has been accepted and voted for by the party in a primary election?
Sen. Echocho is an Igala man like Joseph Erico.
Former Governor Yahaya Bello is an Ebira man like Alhaji Usman Ododo.
WHAT HAS CHANGED?
How many of you would take a political gamble with a General who is not leading from the front?
In the entire Kogi East, only Dr. Joseph Ameh Erico went to all the federal constituencies to declare his ambition for Senate.
Senator Echocho called everyone to Dekina, his own Local Government, to declare his third-term bid without respect and recourse to the party leadership of the nine LGAs he represents, even after failing to step foot in any of the nine LGAs for almost eight years for a town hall meeting as their lawmaker.
Conscience must go with judgement. A man is also the architect of his own success and misfortune.
If Senator Echocho is favoured to continue, I will throw in my support as usual in respect to the system. My loyalty is firmly with the system because it gives opportunity to nobodies to become somebodies, but it should be noted that this comes at the sacrifice of our personal opinions.
It should also be noted that I shall not be going to pester him for anything because we did so for many years and he left us in wanton abandonment after working to deliver him in an LGA he never stepped foot in to say “Thank you”. And when we are done, we will thank Dr. Erico for energising our party with his remarkable familiarisation visits to many Igala communities after what Muri did to us in 2023 with ethnic-agenda campaigns. We will need a senator that engages, that reminds, that is present, and is willing to keep dotting the presence of the party in all LGAs instead of only Dekina.
As for his threat to contest the Governorship with the incumbent in 2027, how will he do it when he has barely been to the nine LGAs he represents in almost eight years?
I am just a student of power.
We will keep learning.
Kogi Rebel is the SSA on Cybercrime to the Kogi State Governor and was a former Chief Press Secretary to the Deputy Governor of Kogi State.
This is an opinion article. Views expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Newsworth Media Company. Readers are advised to verify claims and approach politically charged narratives with discernment.
