Igala Agenda, Pitfalls, and Prospects

By Amb Valentine Opaluwa Ejeh Anu

Let me start this treatise with this quote from an outstanding scholar, poet, writer and journalist, Tunde Olusunle, in order for the purveyors of Igala agenda to be well abreast of the common foe of our collective
destiny. “Lious XIV it was who boastfully declared in 1655: L’Etat, c’est moi, meaning “I am the state; the state, that is me.” that phrase denotes absolute monarchy and absolutism, the type that Yahaya Bello has typified in his tour of duty as default governor of Kogi State.” This is Bello’s psychology of power and it is befitting to be strategic about anything that concerns him and his quest to remain in power through political proxy to continue to torment the citizens of the confluence state.

The idea of “Igala agenda” has dominated political discourse on the social media sites in Kogi State particularly among Igala people who are the dominant ethnic group. More recently, this state of affairs can be attributed to the fall out of the recent primary elections of which none of the aspirants of Igala extraction who aspired for the plum job of governorship under the platforms of the ruling the All Progressive Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) failed to clinch the tickets. Hence the idea has gained huge momentum among the people.
Apparently majority of Igala people are now calling for an Igala agenda because they are now treated as second class citizens in the state.

However, the big question needs an urgent answer is, how do we intend to achieve the goal of Igala agenda? Can Kogi East senatorial district use her numerical strength to produce the governor in the forthcoming election? How are we sure that votes will count? Given what happen in 2019 of which many Igala sons preferred their political interest above the collective good of their people, how can Igala agenda subdue this factor? What do we make of the different endorsements of consensus candidates particularly of Alhaji Murtala Yakubu Ajaka and Vice Admiral Jibrin Usman Oyibe by different groups clamouring for Igala.

agenda? Is that how we think we can achieve this? Can Igala people go into election with this kind of mindset and triumph? What are the credentials and pedigrees of these eleven candidates who are eligible to contest that we can leverage upon? In reality it is in public domain already, but it seems, some of us are not ready for the best
standard to be used and do not care about factors that could clearly affect the realization of this goal. And lastly what is the paramount body working on consensus doing and what standard are they adopting in throwing up a candidate that can truly bring development to Kogi State and East in particular?

Even though, I share in the believe by some kogites, that it should simply have been Kogi State Agenda for good governance or something similar but I cannot discountenance the fact that in actuality, it was the desire for good governance that took ethnic dimension because of how Igala people fared in more than 7 years of abysmal failure to deliver the essentials of democracy to the good people of the state. Many people thought that the God factor that was involved in birthing the administration will become the impetus for good governance, Alas! I was dead wrong, rather it is well known among the Nigerian people that the political fortune of Kogi State and Igala ethnic has been at the ebb in more recent years. Prince Abubakar Audu who departed to the life beyond on the eve of the day he was to be elected the governor left a huge vacuum. The inheritor of his political misfortune could not attempt
to wear his large shoes, in order to carve a niche for himself and truly become a political leader who feels the impulse of his people. Rather he decided to toe the line of a villain with sadistic political subjugation and
oppression of his kinsmen.

On the day Bello was sworn in January 29 th 2016 at Lokoja Township Stadium, there were unwarranted rains of abuses and curses on the Igala people, it was against the living and even the dead (Prince of Niger). I never in my life imagined and thought an African child can be so depraved minded to talk ill of the dead in such manner and to take the Igala people to the cleaner when they were still mourning the death of their illustrious son. Senator Dino Melaye, the present candidate of PDP’s excitement about the governorship stool unfortunately inherited by Bello made him to express himself in a way that many least expected of someone who shares in this civilization. But can Dino truly deny the influence of Audu in his political life and fortune? Even if, he had scores to settle with Igala people and the dead for any reason, he should have restrain himself from such unguarded and fallacious statements on such public odium, especially that it was the death of Audu that pave way for what by all account has turned out to be a very sad event. Tunde Olusunle, poet, journalist, scholar and author in his essay titled: Yahaya
Bello, LOUIS XIV AND THE LIMITS OF ABSOLUTISM, he described what Bello government look like thus: “Since he became
governor in circumstances which remain fuzzy over seven years ago, Yahaya Bello, the governor of Kogi State, has left no one in doubt about his totalitarian grip on the north central state.”

As it turned out to be, it was obvious that Dino acted a script that was virtualised and agreed upon. This conclusion can be derived from what transpired later in Bello’s administration wherein, the Igala people in the
state civil service were treated with disdain and wrongfully relieved of their jobs, it was a gory testament about the ignominious plot hatched to undermine the Igala people in a state where they are clearly the majority.
When Bello took over the saddle he deceived many people with the appointment of Edward Onoja, as the chief of staff, he claimed no governor of the state ever appointed someone from another ethnic group and he used it as an argument for his knack for political inclusion which at best was a hoax. However, subsequent juicy appointments in the state went exclusively to his Ebira kinsmen especially those from Okene Local Council and the same thing can be said of federal appointments.
Many Igala people in the state civil service at the cadre of director and permanent secretary lost their jobs for their Ebira counterparts below them in service ranking.

I remember a conversation I had with an Igala man who was a director before Bello became a governor, he was one of those affected by his inhumanity to humanity in the guise of doing the right thing in curbing the incidence of ghost workers. It is difficult for an Igala man to treat an Ebira man the way he dealt with Igala people in his inglorious rule. In fact the previous governors of Kogi State, Prince Audu of blessed memory, Ibro, Wada never marginalize Ebira people the way he did to Igala people, I stand to be corrected if someone can provide superior
claim. Bello government engaged in a nefarious and shady worker’s screening in the process many Igala sons and daughters of the middle and lower cadres were victimized and they lost their jobs and means of livelihood. Some of them were killed through road accidents travelling week in, week out to clear themselves of the screening.

Some of them who were originally employed by Benue State government lost their jobs in the process. Bello’s administration used the instrumentality of the screening to stop the payment of monthly salary of workers. They were on percentage salary of 20%, 30% or 40% as the case may be. In fact a director with the state civil service from Kogi West, Mr Edward Soje became suicidal and hung himself just 10 days after his wife gave birth to a set of triplets because the state government owed him 11 months’ salary (Channels Television 2017, October 22). Civil servants in the state and local governments were left in penury and poverty. Consequentially, Igala people with large labour force bore the brunt of the devious scheme Bello orchestrated against the hard working people of Kogi State.

Ahead of the 2019 primary election many Igala sons indicated interest to rescue the state from his ignoble paroxysm and assault on democracy and governance, but he connived with some Igala sons and the APC party apparatchik to blackmailed them and stop them in furtherance of exercising their democratic rights. He prevented people like the Late Professor Seidu Onalo, former Director General, Nigeria Airspace Research and Development Agency (NSRDA); Admiral Jibrin Usman Oyibe, former Chief of Naval Staff, Mustapha Audu, son of the late Prince Audu among others from participating in the process. He unleashed the highest form of political brigandage ever perfected, using
some willing tools among Igala youths to perpetuate himself in power and he went as far as deploying helicopter to attack the electorate in Ganaja, Lokoja during the 2019 governorship election.

The last stray that is considered a red line is that despite the fact that he enjoyed the supports of some Igala sons notably Edward Onoja, a man he described in the early days of his administration as his Siamese twins and a loyal political associate. And of course, those elected on the platform of APC at the National Assembly and appointees stood by him.

Similarly, Alhaji Murtala Ajaka, a member of National Working Committee of APC at the time and a confidant of Bello gave him unflinching support and ensured Bello secured second term by hook and trick. Most of them did this against their own people to pave way for the attainment of their own political interests. They are most likely to have
supported him not out of hate for their own kiths and kins but to build bridges with Bello and other political players in other senatorial districts. We cannot reprimand them because of understanding of the micro-purpose of politics which emphasizes “personal interest,” we have thegeneral of Igala land in many ways. Many of them have added value intheir own way we cannot discountenance that fact.

In the aftermath of the whole charade called primary election, I feel for them because despite the support they gave to him embedded with loyalty and open mindness, perhaps towards power balancing along the lines of major ethnic groups (senatorial districts). Yet he did notconsider them worthy enough to contest the APC governorship primary. in 2023 in line with democratic norms. Instead he imposed his cousin, Ahmed Usman Ododo, who until then was the Auditor General of the Local Governments and a serious partner in the mismanagement and maladministration that has defined his autocratic dynasty of the poor regime. “ Ododo is reputed as the “executioner in chief” in the
impoverishment of local government workers many of whom lost their jobs and livelihoods in a means spirited and scurrilous “staff verification exercise” conducted in the early years of the Bello government” (Tunde Olusunle 2023). Despite the age long call for power shift in the spirit of equity which is desirous but it must be built on good governance and inept leadership and victimization of Igala people just best they are majority, Igala people is not happy to only be a majority in Kogi State but Nigeria because of her people found in many other states. It is
glaring that Igala people have been subjected to the highest forms of humiliation, deprivation and underdevelopment under the administration of Yahaya Bello. Engr Musa Wada once captured it appropriately, when he described Kogi State the “poverty capital of Nigeria.”

Those who brought the idea of Igala Agenda cannot be said to be myopic in their reasoning this is because they were pushed to their ethnic cocoon to look for solution to the prevailing systematic political isolation of Igala people in the state and Nigeria at large. However, many of those championing Igala agenda on the social media platforms
seems not to fully grasp the enormity of the challenge ahead, if the goal is to be truly achieved. They are taking it for granted, neglecting the cohesion that is required. The division it has caused on the social media
is unnecessary if we are sincerely and truly determine to achieve the goal.

Obviously, The Igala people have the advantage of numbers and can express themselves as the major ethnic group in the state like the Tiv ethnic group in Benue State. The voting pattern of Kogi State suggest that, if an Igala man field a consensus candidate in a free and fair election such a candidate can win by simple majority. However we all
know that an Igala candidate will definitely pick a candidate from another ethnic group as it has always been. Igala agenda certainly need strong running mate from the West or the central to harness enough vote for it to succeed, permit me to call it Kogi State Agenda for Good Governance because both are synonymous. We need a new vigour for the agenda and that should be, we are ready to support a consensus candidate even if that person is not our preferred candidate. To withstand Bello’s desperate and wicked ambition to ensure he installs a successor. Let us not give him the opportunity to exploit the option of compelling INEC to declare his candidate in order for the electoral tribunal to decide the outcome of the election in his favour on technicalities. It is possible to put him in the situation that he will not be able to influence the election in the favour of his political surrogate,
Ododo. If the people of Kogi East can be united in their voting pattern under one umbrella and protect their votes victory will be guarantee. The present INEC register suggest that Igala people have the numerical strength to win in a free and fair contest. Let me state without any equivocation that we need the international community and institutions like the offices of US Secretary of State, UN Secretary General, US, UK, Germany, and France Embassies to beam search light on Kogi State because the world is truly a global community and electoral governance
as an important ingredient of democracy is respected, to avoid what Yahaya Bello did in rigging the 2019 governorship election in which helicopters fire bullets at polling booths and electorate, was this not an
act of terrorism?

In November 2023 we expect INEC to do the right thing but Bello must first be given sanctions by the Igala people themselves by rejecting Ododo at the poll. The only sure bet way to do it is to collapse groups working for all the eleven candidates for the interest of Igala agenda.
Below is political configuration of eligible voters in Kogi, as a reminder of the numerical strength to be exploited in order to escape new slavery and imperialism which characterizes Bello’s administration.

POLITICAL CONFIGURATION OF VOTERS IN KOGI STATE
S/NO LGA NO. OF
WARDS

POLLING
UNITS

REGD
VOTERS
1 Ajaokuta 14 146 96,504
2 Adavi 10 217 114,663
3 Ogori-Magogo 10 67 17,688
4 Okene 11 284 151,243
5 Okehi 11 188 94,456
Total 56 902 474,554

KOGI EAST
S/NO LGA NO. OF
WARDS

POLLING
UNITS

REGD
VOTERS
1 Ankpa 13 292 180,095
2 Bassa 10 130 69,376
3 Dekina 12 351 187,881
4 Ibaji 10 174 90,556
5 Idah 10 120 64,579
6 Igalamela/Odolu 10 140 77,577
7 Ofu 11 184 101,946
8 Olamoboro 10 174 105,864
9 Omala 11 148 74,537
Total 97 1,713 952,369

KOGI WEST
S/NO LGA NO. OF
WARDS

POLLING
UNITS

REGD
VOTERS
1 Ijumu 15 121 66,482
2 Kabba/Bunu 15 156 87,162
3 Kogi 11 105 63,342
4 Lokoja 10 273 157,284
5 Mopa Muro 10 53 26,827
6 Yagba East 11 82 53,436
7 Yagba West 14 102 51,234
Total 86 892 505,731
KOGI TOTAL 239 3,507 1,932,654

Reliable sources within Government House Lokoja suggest that Governor Bello is becoming more ruthless over lack of support from some of his former allies who benefited from his failed inordinate ambition of becoming Nigeria’s president. Bello’s presidential bid was largely driven by Muri, even though Edward was also deeply involved
but the financial aspect of paving way for Bello’s emergence was actually perfected by Muri as the defacto chairman extraordinary of APC at the time. One can only imagine the amount of tax payers’ money used for this wasteful venture which could have been invested in providing facilities for better living and development. However, resorting to political violence cannot bring back the money wasted on an adventure that can be said be a needless political antagonism and an act of crass political opportunism.

According J.S Kutepa SAN, “Governor Yahaya Bello has been waging a relentless campaign of violence against his political opponents using the state power and instrumentality against the biggest ethnic group in Kogi state (Igala) and any opposition of Igala extraction, who does not support Mr Yahaya Bello’s anointed candidate. On 3 June 2023, Mr Yahaya Bello unleashed the full force of the state power against opposition candidate Mr Murtala Yakubu Ajaka and his supporters on the main road that connects Abuja, Nigeria and Lokoja Kogi State, leading to heavy gun shots aimed at Mr Murtala Yakubu Ajaka” Okutepa, Samuel Jibrin (2023 June 4). AIT news bar on 9/10/2023
observed that though the governor claimed that he was attacked, thereare evidences to suggest that his security operatives were the people who unleash mayhem on Muri and his supporters. Since Muri became the candidate of Social Democratic Party (SDP), Yahaya Bello has been vengeful over his failed presidential ambition and apparently he is
displaying it through violence which he has promoted in high wire dimensions, even though political violence is not new in Kogi State, but it was at the verge of extinction before he came to power. Bello should not make any attempt to kill Muri or any other governorship candidate for that matter from Kogi East, it will be consider as a red line and declaration of war against the Igala people. Federal Government and the International Community should take note of this assault and reprehension against Igala ethnic group, which signed the famous 1841 treaty with the representatives of Queen Victoria. The major instrument Britain used at the Berlin Conference as an evidence of
their presence in the confluences of Rivers Benue and Niger. There is a consensus among the stakeholders and Igala people that Chief Gabriel Yakubu Aduku led Elders committee will deploy the best standard in arriving at a consensus candidate. Though there are many pitfalls in Igala agenda like the hasty endorsement of candidates by somegroups without looking at the larger picture of what it may portend.

However, if we are able to make sound judgments without bias and sentiment using the credentials and pedigrees of the candidates as benchmark and juxtaposed it with all existing factors and indicators, that will interest many Igala politicians in APC and PDP to support the Igala agenda albeit covertly. This is what is required to defeat the dynasty of poverty, political violence and underdevelopment staring the Igala people on the face and it must be curtailed headlong.

My compatriots if credentials, pedigree and other factors are carefully and objectively used as the standard in getting a valid consensus, then Admiral Oyibe is our best bet to recapture the Lord Lugard Government House in November 2023 governorship election. If Muri becomes the consensus candidate many battles are involved and we are not likely to triumph. Though Muri, Ilona, Okeme, Mubarak, Abayawo, are worthy ambassadors of Igala struggle, they should be impressed upon to consider him as their consensus candidate. Amongst them if it is done with sincerity he it is obvious that he is the one who can lead the struggle for emancipation of Igala people. Withous sentiment and bias, in Muri’s candidacy we have insurmountable challenges that may consume us as a people. I know Muri is a good guy and a generous fellow with deep pocket. I know some of his benefactors, I personally appreciate his kind gestures as a kindhearted person but the issue at stake is beyond that. Let me be frank, if Igala do not have strong candidate Kogi East will become battle ground. I will weep for Igala failed project 2023 because Ododo will be declare the winner or a candidate from the West senatorial district will emerge, the reason is simple because all the senatorial districts will vote in block for the candidate of their choices.

Are we not seeing the handwriting on the wall? I do not envision Igala succumbing to the bait, the most beneficial option for Bello to negotiate and take power is Muri’s candidacy. We need Tinubu to be desirous of conducting a free and fair election so that an Igala candidate can win but Tinubu men alone put a hole in Muri’s candidacy, giving how he was used to whittle down his influence in APC as the defacto APC chairman extraordinary. Let us play more safe and leave emotion and sentiment out of this and make sound judgment of the situation, initially I thought
of tossing a coin as the solution to consensus but our lot may not be posteriors, even though, it could still remain the last option, if we are adamant to do the most ethical and beneficial thing giving the options at
our disposal.

In conclusion Chief Gabriel Aduku and other members of the Elder Committee set up at the instance of Chief James Okai are bequeathed with the generational landmark by writing their names in the sand of time. They must live up to expectation by making sound judgment so that Igala agenda can succeed, let them carefully and meticulously look
at the merits and demerits of the strength and weaknesses of Muri and Akpabana and of course all others who are very qualified and eligible. Even though Igala agenda is laden with pitfalls due to contending political interests of individuals, it has huge prospect in Akpabana’s candidacy. Muri is still young and can still govern Kogi State in the nearest future because he has carved a niche for himself in many respects, he endeared himself in the minds of some Igala people including me but to triumph over someone described as Lious XIV of France, known for terrorism, we need Akpabana. Also we know Ilona built one of the best brands not only in Nigeria but Africa. He has shown immense capacity in many business interests that can be useful for the governance of the state in the future but just like Muri and many others, however, they still have time ahead of them, let them all unite in one
accord to liberate Igala land.

Igala cannot afford to disappoint those that are sympathetic to our cause at the top echelon of power to truly position ourselves to take power back and entrench good governance. The record of less than two years in the saddle as Nigeria’s Chief of Naval Staff is a testament to what we should expect, when he is elected. We need Mubarak, Muri, Okeme, Elukpo, Abayawo, Ilona, Agada and all the other candidates to queue behind in solidarity for Igala land not for Akpabana and Muri sakes, if we are all patriotic to Igala land as we professes in our Igala Agenda
vision, based on good governance and upward mobility of Igala race that is struggling to find her feet in recent times. We should remember the great Ayegba of the Third Ata Igala Dynasty, who sacrifice Inikpi for the sake of Igala land. We should be ready to offer less sacrifice which is of grand compromise and cooperation in order to salvage Igala land from modern slavery and imperialism. We cannot remain under absolutism riddles with autocracy and dictatorship which has defined the features and landscape of Kogi State democratic appellation since 2016.
References.

Channels Television (2017, October 22) Kogi Civil Service Director Wrote Suicide Note Before Hanging Self, available@www.channelstv.com Okutepa, Samuel Jibrin (2023 June 4) Ongoing Violence Aganst Igala Ethnic Group,, posted on Muri November 11 WhatsApp group Tunde, Olusunle (2023) Yahaya Bello, Lious XIV and the Limits of
Absolutism (visit to past analysis of Bello), accessedonline@https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.
php/2023/05/17/yahaya-bello-lious -xiv-and-the-limits-of-absolutism