About 3,439 delegates from the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi State will converge on the Confluence Stadium, Lokoja, to pick the party’s standard-bearer in the November 21 governorship election.
The delegates, who will vote today were painstakingly selected from the 21 council areas of the state.
The breakdown of the delegates indicates that from the eastern senatorial district would come 1,411 delegates, which is 41 percent, western senatorial district 1,207 (35 percent) and from the central senatorial district would come 821, which is 24 percent of the total number of the delegates.
The delegates, who would file out today are aware that only one out of the 28 aspirants who had already paid the stipulated fees and duly screened would eventually emerge. The aspirants are former governor of the state, Prince Abubakar Audu, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, Senator Alex Usman Kadiri, Hussein Idris Kashim, Alhaji Sanusi Abubakar Aliyu (Gamji), Senator Nicholas Yahaya Ugbane, Sani Halilu Shuaibu, Suleman Baba Ali, AVM Saliu Atawodi, Muhammad Abdullahi, Senator Nuruddeen Abatemi Usman, the only women contestant, Princess Hadiza Ibrahim, Yakubu Mohammed, a former acting governor of the state, Honourable Clarence Olafemi and Suleiman Ejeh Abutu. Also cleared to contest in the primary are Sunday Ejibo, Otunba Suleman Lanre Ipinmisho, Dr. Tim Nda Diche, Habeeb Abdullahi Yakeen, Rotimi Yakub Obadofin, Babatunde Irukera, Ocholi Enojh James, Aliyu Zakari Jiya, Olushola George Olumoroti and Dr. Onukaba Adinoyi Ojo.
One of the contestants Prince Abubakar Audu could be described as a veteran of election contest in the state having participated in all gubernatorial elections conducted in the state since 1999.
Audu presided over the state as the first civilian governor in 1992, but had his tenure terminated by the military government of General Sani Abacha. At the inception of the civilian government in 1999, he came back and emerged as the governor under the All Peoples Party (APP) but had his second term ambition in 2003 truncated by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and since then he has been making efforts to return to the Lugard House.
However, looking at the list of contestants, one could see that most of them are former PDP loyalists in the state who are aggrieved with the PDP administration and decided to pitch their tent with APC and decided to seek the governorship seat. Special mention should be made of Dr Alex Kadiri, Chief Clarence Olafemi, AVM Saliu Atawodi and Dr Onukaba Adinoyi Ojo, all are signatories to the Save Our Soul ( SOS) letter sent to the then President Goodluck Jonathan and complained about some knotty issues affecting the PDP in the state.
Today, they are a leading contenders in the race for the ticket under the APC. That not withstanding, in order to forestall a rowdy atmosphere at the venue, immediately after the screening, the National Organisong Secretary of the party, Senator Osita Izunaso had warned that the party would not hesitate to, within the armbit of the constitution of the party, deal with any contestant who engages in any act that could lead to breach of the peace in and around the venue. To the Organising Secretary, the high figure of the contestants (28) is an indication that APC is the most popular platform in the state. To buttress his stand, he informed that the outcome of the March/April 2015 elections which saw the party winning the three senatorial seats, six out of the nine House of Representatives seats and contributed 75 per cent margin in the last presidential election was a good indicator that APC is the party to beat in the coming gubernatorial election.
In order to forestall any untowards actions by the contestants after the primary, all of them signed an undertaking to abide by the outcome. The state chairman of the party, Alhaji Haddy Ametuo informed Saturday Tribune that all the aspirants, in their own wisdom, agreed to sign the agreement.
According to him, such is an indication that they are serious and ready to push out the PDP away from the state. He added: “nobody forced them to sign; the aspirants called for it and jointly agreed that whoever loses would support the winner to win the election.”
Supporting this line of thought, Honourable Eneche Linus, currently representing Olamaboro state constituency at the House of Assembly, says that whoever wins should call for the support of others in the interest of fair play and that of the party, believing that nobody should work against each other and the party. According to him, “they should borrow a leaf from the former president Atiku Abubakar and the former governor of Kano State, Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso, who lost the presidential primary to President Muhammadu Buhari. The duo had the financial muscle to join and sponsor another party but they remained with APC and assisted financially and ensured the Buhari victory.”
To him the signing of the agreement is in the right direction.
But political observers in the state fear that the agreement may not stand in the face of rumour doing the rounds among the aspirants that some officials of the party are interested in the victory of a particular candidate in view of his closeness to the leaders of the party, both at the state and at the party’s national headquarters. The observers believe that if such candidate eventually emerges, it might upset the apple cart.
Ametuo, however, denied the existence of such interest saying all aspirants on the same pedestal, insisting that all of them would be given equal treatment. “There is no special aspirant; all of them would pass through the primary with same guidelines, there is no master among the contestants,” he said.
The three factors that might play a role in the primary are money, the issue of powershift and the direction of the party. On the role of money, the delegates, as they file out, would not mind to have a replay of what happened in 2012 during the PDP primary where some delegates who came to the venue in public transport went back home as “the owners” of personal vehicles.
Whoever has the deep pocket among the contenders and is ready to give might have an edge over the others who underplay the influence of money.
Also the issue of powershift which has become more serious in the West and Central senatorial districts might determine how the delegates from the area would vote. Though not very clear, the powershift agreement, alleged to have been signed with some contestants that would spend a term and thereafter allow the power to rotate to either the West or Central senatorial district might play a vital role today.
The eastern senatorial district of the state has been producing the governors since the creation of the state, but the West and Central districts have now formed a pressure group, insisting that whoever will encourage power rotation would get their support.
However, the party, also, would have its own direction in the emergence of a candidate.Though silent on what the direction will be, it is a rarity for a political party to conduct a primary and not have a hand in whoever would be its candidate.
But both members of the APC and the opposition are eagerly waiting to see who would be the lucky candidate.
