The unpredictability of life is sometimes beyond human comprehension. The newly elected governor of Kogi state and the All Progressives Congress substituted candidate, Alhaji Yahaya Bello would not have thought of his status changing at least 3 weeks ago.
The victory of the APC candidate did not come on a platter of gold after the Saturday, December 5 supplementary election. This would not have been possible if not for Prince Abubakar Audu’s ghost.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Bello will be sworn in as the 4th democratically elected governor of Kogi state come January 2016.
The death of the former governor which paved the way for Yahaya Bello should not be taken for granted as the newly elected governor owes so much credit to him. This further shows that Abubakar Audu’s ghost might have left Kogi state, but its effect was crystal clear as revealed after the final election.
One of the interesting thing about the newly elected governor was that he was just a teenager when the late Prince Abubakar Audu governed Kogi state as the first executive governor between 1992 and 1993.
Some of the factors that worked for Yahaya Bello goes beyond what he himself could ever imagine.
Yahaya Bello’s loyalty to Abubakar Audu’s course not in doubt
When the death of Prince Audu occurred on Sunday, November 22, there was so much confusion in the air. The problem of finding a suitable replacement for the late Audu almost polarised the APC.
This was due to the fact that Audu’s running mate, Honourable James Abiodun Faleke came out fuming that he should be made the governorship candidate. However, Yahaya Bello maintained his calm when all these issues rented the air.
Eventually when he was chosen by his party as Audu’s replacement, he promised to carry everybody along. He even sent an olive branch to Faleke.
He also promised to continue with the vision of the late Audu in order to bring development to Kogi. He knew from the onset that without selling himself using Audu, he might have faced stiffer opposition and total rejection.
In a publication on this same platform 3 days ago captioned, “Bello Begs Faleke To Accept Outcome Of Poll.”
Yahaya Bello himself acknowledged the Abubakar Audu effect regarding his choice of candidacy.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign spokesperson, Abdulmalik Suleiman, himself released a statement stating, “we plead with them to cooperate with Bello to develop the state in line with the vision of our late icon, Prince Abubakar Audu.”
Abubakar Audu’s ghost extinguished the Igala dominance
This is the irony of the election that threw Yahaya Bello out. Looking at the 3 previous executive governors of Kogi state from 1992 with the present governor included, a year after the state was created. They include: Prince Abubakar Audu, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris and Captain Idris Wada.
They are all of Igala tribe. If Audu had not die, the Igala hegemony would still have continued. However, Audu’s death brought up the selection of an Ebira man in the person of Alhaji Yahaya Bello.
Despite the fact that Yahaya belongs to a tribe that has been playing second fiddle to the Igala tribe for a long time, the electorates did not care about that as they were not sympathetic to cast all the over 40,000 votes that would have swung the pendulum of victory to Wada, an Igala man at the supplementary election of Saturday, December 5.
A tree can sometimes make a forest
It is often believe that a single man cannot turn the tides of things. However, what Abubakar Audu could not achieve while he was alive, was achieved in his demise. Nobody even spoke about anyone else after Audu’s death.
It was only the song of Audu that every Kogite was singing. This was revealed after the additional election when there was voter apathy as people did not come out in large numbers to vote. This was because the electorates knew already that the votes of Audu had won the election for Yahaya Bello.
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