Opinion

The Okun-for-Governor conundrum in Kogi State

Published

2 years ago

June 11, 2023

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By Tunde Olusunle

For leaders, statesmen and constituents of the Okun-Yoruba sociocultural bloc in Kogi State, the last few weeks have been characterised by a flurry of consultations and interactions, meetings and engagements. At the core of these dialogues has been the unfulfilled desire of the Okun people of the state which lies ensconced at the very heart of the North Central state, to lead the multicultural geopolity. Created by the administration of Nigeria’s former military President, Ibrahim Babangida on the sixth anniversary of his government, August 27, 1991, Kogi State is a bouquet of curious complexities. It is arguably the very first in the history of geographical reconfigurations in Nigeria, to be “amalgamated” from two different states. While the predominantly Igala-speaking segment was hewn out of the erstwhile Benue State, the Ebira and Okun-Yorubas were sectioned out of the primordial Kwara State. Interestingly, Nigeria’s two largest rivers, the Benue and the Niger, are joined in landmark matrimony in the historic town of Lokoja, capital of the state. Nigeria’s legendary colonial overlord, Lord Lugard once held court in this hitherto pristine address.

Since the inception of the state, the largely Igala-speaking Eastern flank of the state, serially held court in Government House, Lokoja. The Kogi State seat of government is christened Lugard House after the iconic character who, in 1914, oversaw the contentious sewing together of the former Northern and Southern protectorates, to form the controversial entity called Nigeria. Since the advent of the Fourth Republic in 1999 for instance, the baton of leadership in Kogi State was serially passed from Abubakar Audu, to Ibrahim Idris and Idris Wada, respectively, from 1999 to 2015, all Igala. This was the trend for 17 years within the period, except for a brief interregnum in 2008, when the courts called for fresh poll between Audu and Idris. Speaker of the House of Assembly at the time, Clarence Olafemi from the Okun stock, held sway for a fleeting three months and conducted the election which returned Ibrahim Idris. It is necessary to mention here that the closest a candidate from Okunland came to the topmost political office in Kogi State, was in 1999 when Arc. Stephen Olorunfemi ran on the ticket of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, (PDP). His main challenger was Audu who hoisted the flag of the All Peoples’ Party, (APP) at the time. Olorunfemi put up a robust fight. It was alleged though that some Okun elements surreptitiously aligned with Audu, to shortchange Olorunfemi.

Igalaland was poised for perpetuation in office beyond 2015 when Audu who contested the governorship that year against the incumbent, Idris Wada, of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, (PDP), was in clear lead in the election of November that year. Tragically, he died before the results were fully tallied and announced. Yahaya Bello, an Ebira from Kogi Central who came second behind Audu at the primary of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) months earlier, was curiously called up to inherit Audu’s votes! Such weird and incongruous political prescription had no precedence in Nigerian politics. Bello deployed every untoward and unimaginable tactics to return himself into office during the November 2019. His tenure runs out in January 2024, and the process for his succession has begun.

Much against popular expectation that Bello will support the rotation of power to the third largest ethnocultural entity, Okunland, he handpicked his kinsman Ahmed Usman Ododo, at a kangaroo APC governorship primary last April. Bello has been reportedly slammed for obvious nepotism, with Ododo his mentee alleged to be his first cousin. Ododo until he was singularly handpicked by Bello, was the auditor-general for local governments. In concert with his benefactor, he brought intolerable pain and untold hardship to civil servants by irregular salary remittances and criminal mutilation of their paychecks. Senator representing Kogi West, Smart Adeyemi who was conned out of the governorship primary has since proceeded to court to challenge Ododo’s so-called election at the primary, which at best was a sham “selection” exercise.

Governorship ticket questers from Okunland, have sought platforms elsewhere to actualize their dreams and aspirations. Three such Okun sons, Dino Melaye, Leke Abejide and Olayinka Braimoh, have picked the governorship tickets of the main opposition party, the PDP; the African Democratic Congress, (ADC) and the Action Alliance, (AA), respectively. While Melaye and Braimoh are from the Kabba-Bunu/Ijumu federal constituency, Abejide is from Yagba federal constituency. He is the incumbent representative of the constituency in the House of Representatives. All three gentlemen have been on the field in preceding weeks paying homages to royalties, interacting with stakeholders, visiting opinion moulders and holding townhall meetings across the far-flung 21 local government areas of the state. The three candidates come with peculiar competencies and differing qualities. The curriculum vitae of each one of them, transcends by a million miles, the colourless and provincial profile of Bello’s protege. All three of them are pursuing their quests with uncommon verve and determination.

The Igala of Kogi East cannot bear the possibility of exclusion from the topmost office in the state for another four, nay eight possible years. Despite having had two deputy governors from their ranks, Simon Achuba and Edward Onoja respectively under Yahaya Bello, Igala people believe they have been wilfully relegated to “second class citizenship” in the sociopolitical scheme. There are over half a dozen Igala governorship candidates for the November 11, 2023 poll, notably: Okeme Adejoh, (Labour Party); Omale Samson Agada, (Young Peoples’ Party) and Musa Salihu Mubarak, (New Nigeria Peoples’ Party). Others include Arkigofa Musa Abdulazeez, (All Peoples’ Grand Alliance); Murtala Yakubu Ajaka, a businessman and philanthropist, (Social Democratic Party) and Usman Onyibe Jibrin, a former Chief of Naval Staff, (Accord Party).

Before the February and March 2023 general elections, many of these political parties would not have been given a chance in an election in Nigeria. Upsets by newcomers like the Labour Party and the New Nigeria Peoples’ Party, however, have demonstrated the capacity for electoral upset, by mass movements. And despite this multiplicity and diversity of governorship candidates from the same ethnic stock, the Igala people are famous for setting aside individual interests and vaulting egos, if they must fight a common cause. It has been proposed that they can be rallied under the same umbrella by the topmost traditional leader in Igalaland, the Atta Igala. Herein lies the challenge for Okunland which has not had venerated, leadership rallying points in over a decade. The legendary Sunday Bolorunduro Awoniyi, CON and Silas Bamidele Daniyan, CON, respectively, were the fulcrum of Okun leadership in their time.

Not giving up, Okun leaders have been engaging very robustly in recent weeks. Between Saturday June 3, and Sunday June 4, 2023, Okun Think Tank, (OTT), the intellectual arm of the Okun Development Association, (ODA), was locked in marathon meetings. The issue at hand is how to ensure that Okunland goes to the November poll as a harmonious, unified house. Okunland shouldn’t miss out on this bright chance to lead from Lugard House, for the first time in the 32 years of the creation of the state. The two-day OTT meeting was co-chaired by Major General Julius Oshanupin and Chief Bayo Ojo, SAN, CON. It was attended among others by the President of the ODA, Attorney Femi Mokikan; Professors Joash Amupitan, SAN, and Mike Ikupolati; Drs David Atte and Toyin Akanle. Ambassador Rotimi Akenson; Colonel Tunde Fagbemi; Air Commodore Kunle Obayemi; Dr Tunde Arosanyin and Chief Femi Melefa, were also present. After hours of deliberations on Sunday June 3, the OTT meeting resolved to invite all three Okun candidates and the genuinely embittered Smart Adeyemi to a meeting scheduled for 11am next day, Sunday June 4.

Melaye, Abejide, Braimoh and Adeyemi turned up punctually. The sitting saluted their love for Okunland, and their courage to “chest out,” to use Oshanupin’s military expression, at a time like this to fly the Okun banner in the quest for Lugard House. The OTT leaders reminded them that Okun people cannot go to battle as a split entity, but as a solid bloc. While acknowledging their fiscal and physical exertions thus far, the OTT encouraged them to cultivate rapprochement between themselves even as it will be imperative for Okunland to narrow down to just one candidate in the coming weeks. That is if they, Okun people, are to stand a chance of putting up a good fight.

Elsewhere in the federal capital city, the Kogi Central and West Forum for Equity and Justice jointly chaired by Professor Nuhu Yaqub, OON, and Comrade Jibril Olu Yusuf, equally met Sunday June 4, on the same issue of the imperative of power shift to Okunland. Attendees included: Professors Yusuf Ozigi Aliu; (Mrs) Angela Okatahi and Emily Alemika; Senator Mohammed Ohiare; Alhaji Isa Omolori, and Attorney Justina Abanida. There were also Drs Femi Ajisafe and Matthew Keyi, Hon Sola Adedoyin and Hon Rufus Aiyenigba, among others. The trio of the Okun governorship candidates were also invited to that session. A rational section of Kogi Central where Yahaya Bello and his nominee Usman Ododo come from, believe it is only fair and reasonable that Kogi West produces the next governor. They are historically mindful of the facts that Ebiraland produced a governor in old Kwara State in the Second Republic, Adamu Atta, and a deputy governor, Usman Abatemi, before that era was torpedoed by the military December 31, 1983. Unconfirmed reports allude to a measure of opacity in the conduct of the engagement which allegedly skewed the outcome of the meeting in favour of a predetermined candidate.

As it turned out, the various high level meetings on the Okun governorship issue thus far, have analysed similar issues. These include: competence; capacity; public perception; public service experience; width and acceptability of political party, as well as “liabilities” by way of controversies and misgivings in the public space. Given the place of fiscal capacity in Nigerian politics, the issue of solvency was also considered. For now, Melaye, Abejide and Braimoh are holding their grounds, each fancying his prospects at the coming poll. Conversations, lobbying, realignment, coalitions are, however, expected to continue and develop in the days and weeks ahead. This is to help Okunland put forward and support a broadly acceptable candidate for the governorship. He must be that person who, all things considered, is able to “sleep bare-chested beneath the sky view of the chill and freeze, of numbing harmattan,” as a famous Yoruba proverb says. All things considered, such a candidate must tick the boxes and be capable of bringing home to Okunland, the coveted trophy.

Tunde Olusunle, PhD, poet, journalist, scholar and author is a Member of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, (NGE)

Opinion

BENUE 2027:The Apa/Agatu Quest for Equity

Published

4 days ago

January 14, 2025

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By Tunde Olusunle

It may be well over two years to the next cycle of general elections in Nigeria. For the people of Apa/Agatu federal constituency in *Benue South, however, the measure of their participation and integration into the governance scheme will be defined in the run-up to the general polls that year. Nine local government areas make up the predominantly Idoma country of Benue State also labelled Zone C in the senatorial tripod of the geo-polity. The zone is also home to the Igede ethnic stock and the Etulo. Local government areas in “Benue Zone C” include: Apa, Agatu, Oju, Obi, Ado, Ogbadibo, Okpokwu, Otukpo and Ohimini. The other zones, Benue North East and Benue North West, are wholly dominated by the Tiv nationality, striding across 14 local government areas. They are christened Zone A and Zone B in the local political scheme of the state. Federal constituencies in Benue South are: Apa/Agatu, Oju/Obi; Ado/Ogbadibo/Opokwu and Otukpo/Ohimini.

The subjugation of groups and ethnicities considered demographically smaller, by the larger groups which has dominated Nigeria’s politics over time, has not been any different for the Idoma of Benue State. Until the circumstantial emergence of a Yahaya Bello from the Ebira ethnicity in Kogi State in 2015, the Igala had the relay baton of governorship of Kogi State, in rounds and succession. The Ebiras and the Okun-Yoruba zones in the state could only aspire to be serial deputies or Secretaries to the State Government. This political template was virtually cast in stone. The Ilorin people of Kwara State have similarly wholly warehoused the gubernatorial office, sparingly conceding the position to other sociocultural groups in the state. The only exception was the concession of the seat to a candidate from Kwara South, in the person of Abdulfatah Ahmed, by his predecessor, Bukola Saraki in 2011. Even at that, there were murmurs and dissent from those who believed Ahmed came from a community too close to the Ilorin emirate to be of genuine Igbomina stock, which prides itself as the pure Yoruba species in Kwara State.
Twenty-six years into the Fourth Republic, the maximum proximity of the Idoma to Government House, Makurdi, has been by the customary allocation of the Deputy Governor’s slot to its people. Ogirri Ajene from Oju/Obi, the charismatic blue-blood of blessed memory, was deputy to George Akume, incumbent Secretary to the Government of the Federation, (SGF), from 1999 to 2007. Akume it was reported, genuinely desired to be succeeded by Ajene who exhibited competence and loyalty and could build on their legacies. The Tiv nation we understand, shot down the proposal. Gabriel Suswam succeeded Akume and had the urbane multipreneur, Stephen Lawani from Ogbadibo as deputy. Samuel Ortom, a Minister in the Goodluck Jonathan presidency who took over from Suswam opted for Benson Abounu, an engineer from Otukpo as running mate, while Hyacinth Alia, the Catholic priest who succeeded Ortom, also chose as deputy, Samuel Ode, who was also a Minister in the Jonathan government, from Otukpo. Arising from this precedence, Apa/Agatu has not for once, been considered for a place in Government House, Makurdi.
In similar fashion, the position of Senator representing Benue South, has repeatedly precluded Apa/Agatu federal constituency. David Alechenu Bonaventure Mark a former army General from Otukpo, took the first shot at the office in 1999. He was to remain in the position for five consecutive times, a distinctive record by Nigerian standards. Mark would subsequently become President of the Senate and the third most senior political office holder in the nation’s governance scheme for a string of two terms between 2007 and 2015. He was replaced by Patrick Abba Moro, who hails from Okpokwu and was a former teacher, in 2019. Abba Moro who previously served as Minister of Interior in the Jonathan government from 2011 to 2015, won a second term at the 2023 general elections and remains substantive Senator for “Benue Zone C.” He is indeed incumbent Minority Leader of the Senate, and thus a principal officer in the leadership scheme of the “red chambers.”
While Moro is barely two years into his second term, there are suggestions that he is interested in a third term which should run from 2027 to 2031! This is the core issue which has dominated contemporary political discourse in Benue South, especially from the Apa/Agatu bloc. For Apa/Agatu, it is bad enough that they are repeatedly bypassed in the nomination of deputy governors in the scheme of state politics. It is worse that they are equally subjugated by their own kinsmen within the context of politics in *Idoma and Igede land.* This is particularly worrying when both local government areas constituting the Apa/Agatu federal constituency, Apa and Agatu, are not in anyway deficient in human resources to represent Benue South. Names like John Elaigwu Odogbo, the incumbent *Och’Idoma* and respected clergy; Isa Innocent Ekoja, renowned Professor and Librarian; Sonny Togo Echono, FNIA, OON, Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund, (TETFUND), and John Mgbede, Emeritus State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), Benue State, readily come to mind.
Major General R.I. Adoba, (rtd), a former Chief Training and Operations in the Nigerian Army; Professor Emmanuel Adanu, former Director of the Kaduna-based National Water Resources Institute, (NWRI) and the US-based specialist in internal medicine, Dr Raymond Audu, are eminent Apa/Agatu constituents. There are also Ada Egahi, long-serving technocrat who retired from the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, (NPHDA), and Super Eagles forward, Moses Simon, (why not, hasn’t the retired soccer star, George Opong Weah just completed his term as President of Liberia)? The Member Representing Apa/Agatu in the House of Representatives, Godday Samuel Odagboyi, an office previously held by Solomon Agidani, as well as Adamu Ochepo Entonu, is, like his predecessors, a prominent figure from the resourceful Apa/Agatu federal constituency.
The Olofu brothers, Tony Adejoh, a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police, (AIG), and David, PhD, a renowned management and financial strategist, who is also an Emeritus Member of the Benue State Executive Council during the Ortom dispensation, are from the same federal constituency. So is Abu Umoru, a serial entrepreneur who represents Apa State Constituency in the Benue State House of Assembly. The continuing intra-zonal alienation of Apa-Agatu from the politics of Benue Zone C, remains a sore thumb which must be clinically diagnosed and intentionally treated in the run-up to 2027.
If previous top level political office holders from Idomaland in general and Apa/Agatu in particular, had diligently applied themselves to tangible, multisectoral development of the zone and constituency, the present clamour for inclusiveness would probably been less vociferous. *River Agatu* which flows from Kogi State, and runs through Agatu before emptying into *River Benue,* is a potential game changer in the socioeconomy of Apa/Agatu, Benue South and Benue State in general. Properly harnessed, it can revolutionise agriculture and aquaculture in the state, beyond subsistence levels which are the primary vocations of the indigenous people. Rice, yam, guinea corn, millet and similar grains, thrive in the fertile soils of the area. These can support “first level” processing of produce and guarantee value addition beneficial to the primary producers, before being shipped to other markets. River Agatu can indeed be dammed to provide hydro-electricity to power the entire gamut of Idomaland.
The infrastructure deficit in Benue South with specific reference to Apa/Agatu is equally very concerning. A notable pattern in Nigerian politics is its self-centeredness, the penchant for political players to prioritise their personal wellbeing and the development of their immediate space. This has accentuated the ever recurring desire of people to ascend the political pedestals of their predecessors if that is the principal window by which they can also privilege their own primary constituents. Motorable roads are non-existent, seamless travel between communities therefore encumbered. Expectedly this has been a major impediment to subsistent trade and social engagements between constituents and their kinsmen. Primary health facilities are almost non-existent, compelling people to flock to Otukpo, headquarters of Benue South, for the minutest of medical advice and treatment.
Apa/Agatu pitiably bleeds from the relentless and condemnable activities of vagrants and bandits who have reduced the constituency into a killing field. Reports suggest that in the past 15 years, no less than 2500 lives were lost to the vicious attacks of marauders and trespassers in the area under reference. This unnerving situation has compelled engagements between concerned Apa/Agatu leaders, and the leadership of the Nigeria Police Force, (NPF). The prayer is for the swift establishment of a mobile police outpost in the troubled sub-zone to contain bloodletting. The proposal, anchored by AIG Tony Olofu, NPOM, (rtd), and Echono, has received the blessings of the police high command. At the last update, a commander for the outfit had been named, while the deployment of personnel had begun in earnest.
It is very clear that in the march towards 2027, Apa/Agatu will refuse, very vehemently, to be sidelined and trampled upon in the political scheme of their senatorial zone. Abba Moro may desire a third term in the Senate, but the people of Apa/Agatu are quick to remind him that his curriculum vitae as a politician is sufficiently sumptuous for him to yield the seat in the “red chambers” and sit back like an elder statesman. They remind you that for a man who began his working life modestly as a lecturer in the Federal Polytechnic, Ugbokolo in 1991, Abba Moro has done extremely well for himself in Nigerian politics. For reminders, Abba Moro was elected Chairman of Okpokwu local government in the state as far back as 1998. Ever since, he has remained a permanent fixture in Nigeria’s national politics.
The people of Apa/Agatu will put up a determined fight for the Benue South senatorial seat in 2027, and no one should begrudge them. They are the proverbial ram which was pushed to the wall, which must of necessity push back with angered horns to liberate itself. They are already engaging with their kith across “Benue Zone C” to ensure that intra-zonal equity, fairness and justice, prevails in communal politics.

Tunde Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), teaches Creative Writing at the University of Abuja

Opinion

The Prince Adebayo prescriptions for ease of doing Business: 15 Take-Aways

Published

4 days ago

January 14, 2025

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By Dr. Ag Zaki

On Thursday, 9 January 2025, Prince Adewole Adebayo presented a keynote address at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos. The occasion was the annual conference of a group of professionals, business executives and experts codenamed J9C for January 9 Collective. The theme of the Conference was “Business and Policy Strategy: Examining the Role of Reform in enhancing the ease of doing business in Nigeria.” Prince Adebayo is a versatile cerebral man of many parts, a lawyer, a multimedia practitioner, a real estate investor, a large-scale miner, a philanthropist, a community developer, and the 2023 Presidential Candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The organisers of the J9C conference introduced him as an intercontinental lawyer because he currently practices law in over sixteen countries.

The full speech of Prince Adebayo at the occasion is available online and can be accessed by clicking at this url: https://youtu.be/SsHkcJbVNRg?si=ebvoOVqGh0zVOsnt or by scanning the QR code above. However, we are presenting the salient take-aways from this most incisive keynote address below for the convenience of interested persons and for the public good.

THE TAKE-AWAYS
Preamble
1. Not every change of policy or programme is a reform. A reform is a fundamental change in the activities, programmes, and policies structured to cause improvement. Genuine government reforms are people oriented and so citizens can interject, comment or contribute.
2. Reform may be internally motivated, externally forced or imposed, or technological driven.
3. The government of Nigeria must first reform itself to be able to implement development-oriented reforms to improve the country’s economic performance.

In general terms
4. Fiscal and monetary reforms are critical and are urgently required in Nigeria. While government can freely control its fiscal reforms, it must be bound by market forces for realistic and realisable monetary reforms.
5. Economic reforms must positively affect developmental policies, programmes and projects to engender economic growth, increase in efficiency, and lead to stability. Economic and political reforms must be implemented pari-passu for untainted policies and programmes.
6. Urgent structural reforms are required in areas of legal reforms, laws on banking controls and regulations, lending and borrowing as well as land matters.

In specific terms
7. Reforms which are aimed at targeting ease of doing business must be aligned with the Malam Aminu Kano maxim that “all civil servants should abstain from contracts or business”.
8. Nigeria must break the current odious and unwholesome conspiracies between policy makers, civil servants, and contractors, which can lead to irreversible endemic corruption, long foreseen by the revered Malam Aminu Kano, and which can permanently damage the economy.
9. Structural reforms must ensure that land laws open up maximum benefits and potentials of the land, encourage labour productivity and efficient and transparent entrepreneurship rules including registration, capital and lending matters.
10. Tax reforms should be broad-based, not about sharing of revenue but promoting productivity and competitiveness in all aspects of endeavours and infrastructure reforms should make transportation of people and goods safe and cost effective.
11. Monitoring economic crimes must be thorough and should go beyond arresting of “Yahoo boys” and those spraying Naira notes, but those devaluing the Naira and abusing economic rules and regulations.

Warnings
12. Adebayo left some stern terse warnings for the business sector and for the government of Nigeria.
13. Business executives and professionals should not ask or encourage government for specific reforms but for general broad-based reforms as firm-specific reforms can enhance operations of specific firms or business in the short term but will ultimately kill the industry.
14. Government should not meddle into business or be guided by partisan businessmen; government should meet business only at the junction of regulatory framework.
15. Government should be selfless and honest in carrying out reforms, incorporate measurable performance indices and ensure that reforms are implemented in a way not to inflict pains or punishment on the people.

# DrZaki25, 903 Tafawa Balewa Way, Abuja

Opinion

Governor Monday Okpebholo: A Blessing to Edo State

Published

5 days ago

January 13, 2025

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Monday Okpebholo

By Eigbefo Felix

His Excellency, Senator Monday Okpebholo, the Executive Governor of Edo State, has demonstrated that he is a blessing to the state through his policies, appointments, initiation of road construction across the three senatorial districts, and his deep love for the people of Edo State.

Governor Monday Okpebholo has begun fulfilling the five-point agenda he promised the good people of the state since his inauguration.

In the area of security, he has shown total commitment. He assured the people of Edo State that he would ensure their safety, and true to his word, the state remains peaceful, which has brought joy to its residents. He has provided the necessary support to security personnel.

The governor increased the subvention for Ambrose Alli University (AAU) from ₦40 million to ₦500 million. He also promised to address the issues facing AAU medical students. Additionally, he has started renovating primary and secondary schools across the state, underscoring his understanding of the importance of education.

The agricultural sector has taken a positive turn as Governor Okpebholo has allocated ₦70 billion to the sector. Recognizing agriculture’s importance to both the state and the nation, he is positioning Edo State to become the food basket of the nation with his investments in the sector.

During the electioneering period, Senator Okpebholo promised to create 5,000 jobs within his first 100 days in office. He has already begun the process, and soon, the people of Edo State will benefit from these employment opportunities. Unlike in the past, he will not rely on MOUs before making appointments. Furthermore, he has started appointing Edo State indigenes, rather than outsiders, to various positions.

Governor Okpebholo has commenced road projects across the state, from Edo South to Edo Central and Edo North. He believes that when roads are motorable, the prices of goods in the market will automatically reduce.

He has also begun investing in the health sector, understanding its critical importance to the people of Edo State.

Governor Monday Okpebholo’s initiatives and actions affirm his dedication to transforming Edo State for the better.