Kogi poll: Odds against Bello

Going by the results of the recent National Assembly elections in Kogi State, observers are apprehensive about the chances of Governor Yahaya Bello in the November election. The governor appears to be facing a stiff opposition within and outside the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Rasaq Olaitan reports.

WINNING his second term mandate is not going to be an easy ride for Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State. There are enough reasons to suggest that Bello and the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) are heading for a collision, ahead of the governorship primary scheduled for August. The grounds for the clash are so fertile that the governor, unsure of his fate in the APC, is said to be shopping for an alternative party to realise his second term ambition.

The governor may have started making arrangements to seek for his re-election on the platform of the Accord Party (AP). He has denied this.

Bello’s imminent face-off with the National Secretariat of the APC is not unconnected with a string of petitions  by individuals and groups against him. The petitioners are warning about the consequences of fielding Bello as the candidate, because his style of leadership has alienated him from  stakeholders within and outside the party. Some of the petitioners demanded that Bello should not be given a second term ticket.

Consequently, powerful forces in Abuja and in the top echelons of the APC are said to have moved against the governor. These include the APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole; Kogi-born National Women Leader Hajia Baiwa Salamotu; and the Abubakar Audu/James Faleke faction of the Kogi APC.

A source puts it this way: “The ticket has already been taken. There will not be a second term, because Bello’s abysmal style of leadership has further subjected the state to political and economic hemorrhage and Abuja has been made to be aware of all of these and the consequences of handing the party’s ticket to him.”

Last week, a group, Kogi Rescue Mission (KRM), embarked on a peaceful protest to the national headquarters of the APC, with numerous placards stating the group’s grievances. During the protest, the group, led by its President Ali Dan, described the Bello-led administration as a threat to welfare and the economic prosperity of the state.

In its protest letter to the party’s national leadership, the group highlighted various anti-people activities of the administration, including suicidal deaths amongst the state civil servants whose salaries have not been paid for many months, misuse of state resources, hunger and perceived molestation of people perceived not to be supporters of the government.

The protest letter reads: “Salaries of civil servants for November and 60 per cent of December 2017 are yet to be paid, despite the fact that the government receiving N20 billion as bailout funds, N10b development reimbursement funds, over N21 billion  from the Paris Club refund and money from the monthly federal allocations, as well as internally generated revenue.

“As a result of the non-payment of salaries, a number of civil servants decided to take their own lives, because of their inability to meet up with their family needs, while over a hundred have died due to lack of funds to continue treatment.”

Ali added: “Businesses have folded up, people are leaving for other states to seek refuge and workers have become paupers, feeding from hand to mouth. You will believe me that on no account will the people support and vote for a governor that operates draconian policy of this nature.”

The KRM, who decried the dearth of public institutions in the state, also told APC national leadership that workers have been turned to internally displaced persons (IDPs) without recourse to dignity of labour, as enshrined in the labour acts.

His words: “Workers in Kogi State are now living like IDPs; Kogi State has become hunger/poverty capital of the country, as nothing seems to be working due to the sorry state of salaries.

“In Kogi State today, there are no public primary schools for the past two years, as they only exist in structures, without teachers to teach the pupils; due to non-payment of salaries. There are no primary health centres for the past two years; pensioners are not been paid for the past 12 months; there’s no judiciary for the past eight months, due to non-payment of their salaries and no development anywhere in the state. Everything in Kogi State is in comatose and the people are despondent.”

Ali appealed to the national leadership of the APC not to risk giving the ticket to Bello, adding that, with his appalling style of leadership, the ruling party has no electoral destiny in the state.

He said: “We are calling on President Muhammadu Buhari, the APC National Working Committee (NWC)  led by Comrade Adams Oshiomole and the National Leader, Sen. Bola Tinubu, not to risk the ticket of the APC for Yahaya Bello.

“If there is integrity in our party, the APC, that means Bello will not feature in the forthcoming Kogi State governorship election on the ticket of the APC. At the moment, Kogi State owes over N140 billion and the governor recently applied for another loan of N30 billion from the Central Bank of Nigeria, which will make the debt profile of the state to rise to N170 billion.

“We are crying for the help of President Muhammadu Buhari and the NWC of the APC, led by Adams Oshiomhole and the National Leader, Bola Tinubu, to salvage Kogi State from this extreme slavery of the Yahaya Bello-led administration.”

Amid claims and counter claims that Kogi State government owes its workers about 38 months’ salaries, another group, the Network of Kogi State Associations, has written to the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), seeking authentication of the sum of N309.75 billion accrued to the state in over three and half years.

The letter by its General Secretary, Mr. Atekojo Usman, urged the AGF to authenticate the inflow of funds to the administration from January 2016 till date. The group, an umbrella body to numerous socio-cultural and political groups, said the move was in the interest of the people.

Part of the letter reads: “As bona fide indigenes of Kogi State, we wish to request your good office to expeditiously and comprehensively authenticate financial releases to Kogi State government since Governor Yahaya Bello assumed office on January 27, 2016.”

It said the state under Bello “obtained loans between May 2017 and January  2018, got Paris Club refunds in three tranches, got bailout refund from the Federal Government, as well as statutory allocation for the state and local governments.”

Part of the plot to stop Bello from actualising his second term ambition, it was gathered, is the ongoing case instituted at an Abuja Federal High Court by the Haddy Ametuo-led Kogi State APC executives. The Ametuo-led party executive was allegedly removed from office by Bello with the backing of erstwhile National Chairman, Chief John Oyegun, and replaced with loyalists of the governor. The sacked executive committee is in court to demand for its reinstatement. If that happens, not only would Bello lose his grips on the party, he is certainly going to come up against a hostile executives and delegates during the forthcoming governorship primary.

It is not immediately certain who among those currently positioning themselves to take over from Bello in the APC has got the nod of the APC kingmakers. What is certain is that the plot against the governor thickened last week with the official declaration by former Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Jibrin Usman, to contest for the  APC platform. The decision by him to run on the APC platform came as a surprise to many who expected him to join the PDP. However, informed sources in the APC and those close to the retired naval chief indicate that the choice of party may be a part of the bigger plot to deny Bello the APC ticket.

A source close to the naval chief who does not want his name in print said: “This is not about Admiral Jibrin Usman. It is about the choice of Kogi people, especially the suffering masses. After due consultations, we are glad he has eventually bowed to pressure and accepted to run for governorship in the interest of the masses. He was wanted in the PDP and so also in the APC. Anyway, he has always been in the APC. We decided that the APC is the appropriate platform to actualise the mission to rescue Kogi from maladministration.

“Of course, Kogi State is very strategic and the APC at the centre will not want to lose such a strategic state to the opposition. We are confident that by the grace of Almighty God, with the level of consultations and the support of the APC apparatus right from the national, state, local government to the ward levels, Admiral Jibrin Usman will clinch the APC ticket in August and subsequently with the majority votes of the Kogi electorate, irrespective of party and ethnic considerations, he will emerge the governor-elect after the November 2 governorship election.”

In separate statements at the weekend, two groups, the Forum of Ex-political Office Holders and the KRM, said they have endorsed Usman’s aspiration to contest the November governorship election.

In a statement by its Secretary General, Suleiman Adaji, the Forum of Ex-political Office Holders, said the former political office holders who served under former Governor Idris Wada between 2012 and 2016 are excited about the governorship ambition of Admiral Jibrin Usman. He disclosed that if Usman wins the election, members of the forum have been assured of the payment of their outstanding four month’s salary arrears, which the administration of Governor Bello has refused to pay.

The KRM coordinator, Comrade Ahmed Muazu, said Usman’s decision to yield to pressure to run for the governorship was an answer to the prayers of the good people of Kogi State.

He said the support of the movement for the candidature of Jibril Usman dates back to 2017 and that it was “borne out of the deepest conviction of his capacity and capability to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people, as well as reposition the state for development.”

The group, he stressed, “has observed with pleasure the giant contributions made by the naval boss during his service years to the development of the state”. This, he added, “is a pointer that if given the opportunity he would do more for the state”.

Muazu listed some of the contributions of the former military chief to the progress of Kogi State to include the establishment of a naval base in Banda, Lokoja and Idah and a naval secondary school at Okura among others. He added: “His great disposition to the safety and protection of our common treasury makes him a natural solution to the restoration of good governance in Kogi State come November 2019.”

The Special Adviser to Bello on Social Media, Aliyu Abubakar Adeiza, has taken a swipe at critics of the administration. He said the the governor has performed well to deserve a second term in office. Adeiza said the allegations of non-performance against Bello and speculations that he would not get a second term ticket are “clearly ill-conceived, ill-motivated and borne out of mischief”.

He dismissed the speculations as mere “rumours” peddled by “diaspora politicians”. He said facts available show that the governor has done well in the areas of education, roads and health, given what he met on ground at the time of inauguration.

Adeiza said: “It was when Governor Yahaya Bello (GYB) came in that things started improving. If anyone says GYB has created confusion in the state, it is all propaganda. We will give GYB another four years. He would do more to strengthen some of these landmark achievements. The PDP and all those padding such rumours are no match for GYB in the coming election. The only threat is the threat to the peace in Kogi, because of their inordinate ambition and apparent readiness to cause havoc.”