TheCable

BY ABDULRAMAN OKEHI

As the Kogi gubernatorial elections draw near, it is obvious that the political atmosphere in Kogi State is already charged and engulfed with frightening intra and inter party squabbles. For the two major parties, the APC and PDP, the story is not different. In both parties, the most popular contestants appear to be on the receiving end of the ongoing smear campaigns. Whilst, Former Governor Idris Wada is the target in the PDP , Seidu Mohammed is the marked person in the APC fold.

The reasons for these attacks are various but they simply revolve around unhealthy rivalry and calculated bias agenda to diminish the growing influence of these candidates. Fortunately, for those that have been engaged to carry out these age long practice of campaign of calumny against these influential contestants, this era of politics has made many things possible in the name of campaign. Indeed, any story can be invented to serve the purpose of deceiving, confusing or entertaining the voting public.

Regrettably, the inability of political party leaders and faithful to recognise that this is certainly not a time for intra party baseless bickering sadly exposes our collective immaturity in partisan politics. Ordinarily, this period in Kogi politics ought to be reserved for vital dialogue and serious discussions that will help respective party members unite and seek strategies for victory in the coming elections, but this is not the situation in today’s Kogi politics especially in the APC.

Candidly put, in this smear campaign, the camp of Prof. Seidu Mohammed of the APC appears the worst hit because of real or imagined fear that in the absence of impunity and imposition, he may emerge as the Kogi State APC flag bearer in the coming elections. For emphasis, in the APC , there exist two major factions, the Governor Yahaya Bello and Prof. Seidu Mohammed groups. On one hand, Governor Bello’s advantage of incumbency within the party cannot be disregarded but conversely, the popularity of Prof. Seidu Mohammed’s group is a major factor as he has emerged as the people’s attraction, especially given the growing criticisms against the Bello led government in Kogi state. Indeed, most analysts believe that Governor Bello’s past three years in office as governor under the APC has proved to be a keen disappointment for many Kogi citizens and huge minus for the ruling APC. The story about the political future of Yahaya Bello is even made worse because despite the public outcry against his quest for a second tenure in office due to overall poor performance rating, his limited supporters think differently. Rather, than focus on ways of redeeming the image of Governor Bello, they have occupied themselves with channeling their negative energy and huge resources to conduct malicious and defamatory campaigns against Prof. Seidu Mohammed, a well accepted contestant in the APC fold.

In as much as the sentiments expressed by Governor Yahaya Bello’s supporters are not out of place in politics of self interest, the manner they are manufacturing slanderous accusations against the honour of a man, husband, father and influential political leader in the state like Prof. Seidu Mohammed is not permissible under a proper democratic setting. Also, even though Prof. Seidu Mohammed is rumoured and largely seen as a credible replacement for Yahaya Bello in the forthcoming governorship elections, it is politically unprogressive and indecent for the opposing camp within the same party to generate poisonous bias of lies against another party faithful. Such an offensive action against the collective interest of the party is sufficient to attract stiff penalty from the national leadership of the Party. The urgent reality that needs to be addressed herein is that there exist some persons in the APC that pretend to be members but are in essence not projecting the party’s interest to build a united platform for the forthcoming elections.

Many ploys for advancing self interest have been carried out by persons that benefit from intra party crisis of the Kogi state APC but one which stands out is the several petitions that has been written against Prof. Seidu Mohammed to the ICPC,EFCC, FEDERAL CHARACTER COMMISSION and recently the Nigerian Senate. Specifically, the petitions as well the public attack presumably sponsored by the Kogi State Government and its agents against Prof. Seidu Mohammed ,a fellow party member that has been conducting himself appropriately has a semblance of opportunistic fiction writing by some pen-for-sale mercenaries who cannot draw distinctions between reality and figments of their pay masters’ political imaginations.

Let it be said herein that in the past, Governor Bello and his cronies have engaged many unscrupulous groups to write petitions against Prof. Seidu Mohammed all of which were dismissed as they were lacking in merit. Thus, we will not lose sleep over this latest installment of misadventure as we are confident it will go the same way the others did. It is unfortunate that, because he has expressed his interest to run for office of Governor in Kogi state, these people have surfaced with baseless petitions to wipe up sentiments. The good people of Kogi State are well educated, appropriately informed and discerning to read between the lines. They know where this
charade is coming from and will not fall for it. The authors of these petitions and the previous petitions should note that this tactics of intimidation has become stale and should get creative to justify their pay!

Realistically, it is clear that this smear campaign and petitions are a predetermined plot and nobody with a sense of justice will take them seriously. It is not lost on us that this macabre dance is aimed at rubbishing the stellar accomplishments of Prof. Seidu Mohammed and his contributions to the Nigerian nation, Kogi state as well as his community. Indeed, it is clear that this is a predetermined plot to deprive the good people of Kogi State the leadership they deserve and nobody with a sense of justice will take them seriously.

It high time these mercenaries as sponsored by the Kogi Government are advised to make themselves useful to the society as Prof. Seidu Mohammed is focused on deploying his wealth of experience to salvage the good people of Kogi state in the forthcoming governorship elections and no amount of blackmail can deter him thus. These fruitless attempts at tarnishing his image will fail as the Kogi people cannot be deprived of their democratic right to make a choice on who governs them. The EFCC, ICPC and all other anti graft agencies had long ago concluded their investigations and it is incontrovertibly evident that Prof. Seidu Mohammed was cleared of all allegations levelled against him.

In conclusion, we also wish to advise all the relevant agencies of government not to allow itself be used by enemies of Nigeria nay Kogi State to settle political scores or draw it into ridicule or anything that will amount to a serious and professional incompetence. Our Anti Corruption agencies have distinguished themselves creditably and we are very confident that they will continue to do so in years to come. The Kogi State Government and their agents have just demonstrated that we live in a dim season of politics where incumbents no longer campaign with their achievements in office but engage in the destruction of opponents by feeding the public with falsehoods.

The people afraid of Prof. Seidu Mohammed should wake up to the realities of the day and join him in rebuilding Kogi state.

Abdulraman, an APC Chieftain, wrote from Okehi, Kogi State