Kogi: Why Are We So Unblest?

456
Spread the love

A popular saying in Yoruba, roughly translated goes thus: You give birth to a vagabond; expect to suffer the pang of being condemned to live with the reign of delinquency. In the case of my dear state of Kogi, it is actually a case of the chieftains of the ruling APC munching the sour grape while the teeth of the children – the hapless Kogites are set on the edge.

For a drama that started mid-month when a group 25 lawbreakers in Kogi House of Assembly not only upended the Nigerian constitution but proceeded to substitute a strange rule of procedure to suit their fancies, the week ended came with a fitting anti-climax when the revered court of the Attah of Igala, hosted another cynical spectacle: the conferment of Oga-Onu-ogu- Attah of the Igala kingdom title on Yahaya Bello, the state governor by the Attah Igala and President Kogi State Traditional Council HRM Dr Micheal Ameh Oboni II.

As you guessed – an inescapable part of the ritual was the presentation, days before, of a sparkling white Rolls Royce Phantom – allegedly, by Igala sons in Governor Bello’s government led by the 45year old Edward Onoja – until recently the Chief of Staff to the governor. A friend who sent the photograph to yours truly couldn’t resist sending another photograph with a footnote that the pock-marked, crater-riddled road actually leads to the new home of the pricey toy!

So much for the outrage over the so-called impeachment of the deputy governor, Elder Simon Achuba; those who make much of the travesty going on in Kogi perhaps forgot those elegant words of the scriptures as stated in Matthew 7: 17-18: “Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit; neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit”.

Talk of expecting an administration sired in iniquity and a most cynical misrepresentation of the law to produce exemplar governance. It won’t happen!

Of course, many forget that Yahaya Adoza Bello, the current occupant of Lugard House was never a product of democratic choice. Certainly not of the good people of Kogi who trooped out to gift the APC candidate Prince Abubakar Audu with 240,876 votes trailed by his PDP challenger, Idris Wada with 199,514 votes in November 2015.  Unlike that Achebean character “whose palm-kernels were cracked for them by a benevolent spirit” and so expected to be humble, the straggler that swept into office with a miserly 6,885 votes surely knows about the efficacy of raw power to bother about the niceties of the law, process let alone the views of the ordinary man on the street. That would appear one lesson that the good people of Kogi are yet to learn!

Surely, Yahaya Bello is no ordinary governor. Here is a man who took on the civil service and rendered the institution totally prostrate. After suffering bouts of forced starvation, the institution today knows better than look the governor in the face. He sought to muscle the judiciary only to find its leadership a hard nut to crack. And with the legislature firmly in his pocket, he could do as he pleased, unchallenged. In Kogi, the word of GYB, like those of ancient kings, is said to be law.

In case you have not heard, he also claims to be the beloved son of the president – an association he routinely flaunt to anyone who cared. If you ever doubted about his stature, or his ability to make things happen, picture a man who could cause our world-acclaimed thrifty president to request National Assembly’s authorization for reimbursement of N10 billion spent by the state government on federal roads few weeks into his re-election! That individual with the appellation ‘White Lion’ surely knows a thing or two about turning the levers of presidential power particularly as the same request was denied the former governor in 2015 on the grounds that it would be used to finance an election that was also few weeks away. To those who say that the awesome presidential influence is yet to be felt on the infrastructure front after a record N50 billion in bailout funds, I can only say – sour grapes; who says presidential errands has been this good!

Back to the action of the 25 lawbreakers in the Kogi House of Assembly. Should that surprise anyone?

Until I read the silly statement credited to the assembly’s majority leader, Hassan Abdulahi, yours truly could have sworn that the members merely fell to the seduction of mischief! Now, it is clear that some the so-called legislators in the assembly may not have seen a copy of the Nigerian Constitution – whether the original or the amended; or as for those that have read, they surely have difficulty understanding the contents!

And what did the House Majority Leader Abdulahi say? First, that the panel was merely a fact finding body hence lacking powers to form an opinion! Secondly, that the rule of procedure which the panel members subscribed to was explicit about this! Thirdly, that the wisdom of the House supersedes the findings of the panel.

Remember, this is a panel that has a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, John Baiyeshea as chairman.

Ironically, the same House that was mindful of section 188(5) hence their directive on the chief judge to appoint a panel of seven persons to investigate the allegations made against the deputy governor would later shut its eyes to the express provision of section 188(8) that: “where the panel reports to the House of Assembly that the allegation has not been proved, no further proceedings shall be taken in respect of the matter.”

If you consider such climate of impunity terrible to bear, consider further that citizens will, less than three weeks from now be called upon to exercise their democratic choice.

Never mind that the electoral umpire has already dubbed the November 16 election as possibly the most monetised ever; a verdict will be returned one way or the other. And with the army of enforcers already on the leash, it would hardly matter how many heads will be broken or lives lost, an electoral contest would have taken place. Who cares about the rule of majority when the precedence of 2015 is there to guide? Surely, democracy a la Kogi is on the march!

– Sanya Oni


Spread the love



Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *