A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi State, Dr Alex Kadiri, who represented Kogi East Senatorial District at the National Assembly between 1999 and 2003, speaks with AYODELE ADESANMI on issues affecting the state politics. Excerpts:
You and other former members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) defected to the APC, two years ago, shortly after six of you sent a Save Our Soul to President Goodluck Jonathan and other leaders of the PDP on the state of affairs in Kogi State. What informed your defection then?
I expected a change in the situation and proper address of the complaints we made. That would have satisfied us. But all those who signed the letter defected from the PDP based on their own convictions, as we never held a meeting to move jointly. If there is a situation you don’t like and you complain to those you believe can cause a change that could make you continue to be in the system but then, they do nothing about it, then you have two options: to remain there to continue to take the mess or to opt out. In our own case, we opted out. What really made us opt out was the level of impunity and the fact that the party and the government were not following the manifesto of the party, the fact that there was no development in the state, the fact that there was intense corruption in the state, and that instruments of the government which are supposed to be for the public, were directed and meant for a family. Where we are going, however, might not be better than where we are coming from, but it would be a new beginning and besides, let us see if we can effect changes in the new environment. We had tried to make things work in the old place because we have complained verbally and in writing but nothing has been done to address our complaints
You are believed to be very close to Governor Idris Wada and his family. Couldn’t your move be viewed as a revolt against a friend and close associate?
The day we voted for Governor Wada in 2012, his late father, he and his brother, a medical doctor, came to my house before they went to vote. To me, that tells the story. In the build-up to the governorship contest in the 2012 election, there were 17 contestants, including myself, jostling for the ticket. To make it more transparent, the aspirants formed the Kogi State Governorship Aspirants Forum. And the forum members, in their wisdom, made me the chairman. We held regular meetings. Later, a former governor, Ibrahim Idris, advised us to prune down the number and agree on one candidate. To be honest with you, Captain Wada then was never an aspirant. He was never one of us. Even by the time he became the governor, he was not a member of the PDP. Therefore, as the chairman of that aspirants’ forum, I want the people to separate that from Alex Kadiri, who is a native of Odu a village, in Dekina Local Government Area, who is wearing another cap for the main purpose that I have children and I, therefore, must be seen to be upright in whatever I do. I don’t want anything to be counted against my children in future when I am no more. Besides, I don’t want anybody to point at any of my children that, you are the daughter of Alex Kadiri, who is very flippant, who cannot be trusted. However, when Captain Wada was given the ticket, he came to my house and I gave him my honest advice; that ‘most of us have been in this game for over 15 years and Ibrahim Idris, the former governor, has decided that you are the one who would succeed him. Fair enough. But I will tell you to go and see all the aspirants one by one.’ I added that some might be hostile but ‘such is expected but let it be on record that you meet them before you start your campaign.’
The perception then was that the people were not happy that somebody who never aspired for the position and was never a member of the party was now given the ticket to run for the office that some had been struggling for in the last 10 years. I, therefore, resolved that as a chairman of the forum, I was not going to abandon my members. However, out of the 17 aspirants, only two are still working with Captain Wada. One of the requests Wada put to me when he came to my house then was that I should call a meeting of the aspirants so that he could come to talk to them but l advised him against it. I told him to meet them one by one and should be prepared to take their angers, but he refused. He felt he had been given the ticket; that they either take it or leave it. The following day, his wife also came to my house and I told her that her husband was here yesterday and I told him what to do.
What are your plans now with others that have moved to the other side?
There was never a time that the other aspirants and I held a meeting to move from the PDP to the APC. Everyone left on his own and at his convenient time. I joined the APC during the time Major-General (Muhammadu) Buhari came to Lokoja to receive some defectors while Senator Ugbane, Air Vice Marshal Atawodi and others joined one and a half months later. We joined APC individually but it was not ambition that made us join the APC. To me, ambition to any office depends on God. The office of the governor of Kogi State will not be vacant until next year, although the election will be held this year. I don’t know what others are planning, but nobody has informed me that he is contesting for any position and I have not informed anybody that I am going to contest. Personally, I left PDP for APC because of the impunity in the PDP, and about this, among others, I complained, even put it in writing. Therefore, there was nothing secretive about it and nothing was done about it.
What would you say about governance in Kogi State under the leadership of Captain Wada?
When you give somebody an office he was not prepared for, when you give somebody an office he did not ask for, when you give somebody an office he did not labour or work for, then whatever such a person does, nobody can blame him.
We cannot continue panel-beating the problem of Kogi State. There is a limit to how one can panel-beat the problem of the people. Somehow, someone has to grab the bull by the horns and do the right thing and any day we do the right thing, things would work. There might be initial pains, but things will work out later. The most important thing is that we need to sit up and do what is right and make the people of the state happy.
Don’t you see the problem of the state as being a result of monopoly of the leadership position of the state by one ethnic race since its creation?
I have tried my best to address this issue. However, I am an Igala man and I am proud to be one, but it would be a mistake for Igala man to think he would continually be the governor of Kogi State. To me, it would be better if we sit at a roundtable and discuss it. However, on the basis of this, I called a meeting of the Igalas, the Ebiras and the Okuns at Anyigba in 2002. Notable sons and daughters of the ethnic groups were present and at the meeting, we raised the issue and agreed that the Igala cannot continue to monopolise the governorship of this state. But to my greatest surprise, the issue was used against me in 2003 when I contested for the governorship primary by my own people. They said I was too soft and I lost a lot of votes as my Igala kinsmen voted against me in the primary. But whether we like it or not, it will happen one day that the lgala will relinquish the position but how it will happen is what I am afraid of. I want it to happen in peace but, to my greatest surprise, other people think we can keep it in perpetuity. The hold on power by the lgala was in active connivance and participation of politicians from the West and Central senatorial districts because it is not possible for any lgala man to beat his chest and stand for primary and win on the strength of lgala. The situation in Kogi cannot be compared with that of Benue State.
In Benue, a Tiv man can be governor and pick another Tiv man as deputy and still win. Tiv people in Benue have two thirds of the council areas, two thirds of the population and with that, they can satisfy the constitutional requirements. This, however, contradicts the situation in Kogi State. For the lgala to be governor perpetually, there must be active participation of the Ebiras and the Okuns. This is a danger signal and the day it would explode, nobody would be able to control it. However, at every time of any administration, an Igala man must be Chief of Staff, Permanent Secretary, government house, Commissioner for Finance and Accountant-General of the state, among others. To be honest with you, there has never been anywhere where lgala sat down and took a decision that all these positions should remain in lgala land. However, my lgala brothers and sisters are innocent of this matter. It is the man at the helm of affairs who decides to surround himself with people he knows and most of them are not even qualified for those positions but he just kept them there for personal reasons.
