Kogi State Gubernatorial Election: Yahaya Bello’s planned insurgency

History, they say, is a point of reference. Those who ignore history do so at their perils.

The governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, the self-acclaimed white lion, has quickly forgotten his history and God’s benevolence. To him, the ill- gotten power and wealth are achieved through personal efforts. That single disposition is his unmitigating future, failure.

In the scriptures ( Islam & Christianity), man has perpetually failed to attain his ascribed potentials because of his arrogance with dire ingratitude to his creator.

The white lion, is not only arrogant , but he is ungrateful to God. If he had any iota of wisdom, he would have simply presented his deputy, Edward Onoja, to be his successor. The Igalas, the most populous of the three major tribes in the state, would have had to accept Onoja, their own, or projected another Igala contender to displace Edward in the contest. I do not know Edward, and this is not an endorsement of him, but it would have been more practical for Bello to trod on with his ill-gotten wealth.

The misguided conviction that he, Yahaya Bello, could impose a formidable third term in office by promoting his relation, Ododo, is counterfactual thinking.

The governor’s tactical onslaught to destabilize Kogi East’s aspiration to nominate and vote their chosen gubernatorial candidate, Murtala Ajaka( Muri), will end up in a fruitless exercise. His hired mercenary, Makama, who has sold his body and soul for pittance, will sooner or later come to realize that blood is thicker than water. His sponsors will ditch him for a better accessory after the assignment to kill his kinsmen is over.

It is obvious that in a free and fair election, which must take place this time in the state, the white lion’s chance is zero. He has, for almost eight years, performed abysmally. He has looted the State’s treasury at the expense of people’s lives. With brazen arrogance, Kogi indigenes of all stripes have been subjected to vassalage under his government. Yet, with impudence, the governor still wants to dominate the politics of the state by disposing equity and justice. How does he think that the humble but valiant Igalas, will accept such invectives?

All rational Igala people are certain and convinced that unleashing mayhem in Kogi East during the forthcoming gubernatorial election is inevitable. Such instability will give the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) no other option but to cancel the rights to vote in the area, or at best, expunge all results from the eastern part. Infact his political thugs have now unleashed a wave of arson in Igala land, burning the houses of supporters of Muritala Ajaka.

We are conscious of the evil proposition to eliminate Muri and throw the Igalas into a frantic, distraught to find a replacement at the dawn of the exercise.

Finally, the Igalas, are united in a rare fortitude to take their rightful position in Kogi state. The time for servitude, serfdom, under bastard feudalism of Yahaya Bello’s authoritarianism is over. His grandeur, creative destruction, will befall him.

Dan Omale writes from Lokoja