By Musa Tanimu Nasidi
My attention has been drawn to an article by one Umar Yakubu Ali with the introduction:” what is the offence of ward C”? in which the author drawn the attention of other wards on the need to consider ward C for the slot of Kogi state House of Assembly for Lokoja 1 Constituency.
According to the author, the ward in his words” have tried several times and have been denied the opportunity despite their commitment to moving Lokoja 1 state Constituency forward”
Well, what the author failed to realise or intentionally ignored is that the position of Member Lokoja 1 Constituency is contestable and ward C had contested severally but failed due to lack of cohesion. You’ll recalled that in all the contests where ward D picked the ticket irrespective of political parties, ward C always presented two candidates at the party primary elections level while ward D always presented a common front.
A clear example was in 2015, while the APC presented the then Alfa Imam from ward D to contest for the party primary election,ward C under PDP saw Hon. Gwodobe and Hon Baba Sule from Ward C facing Hon Babadoko as sole aspirant from Ward D the same scenario was repeated when the PDP zoned the assembly seat to same ward with the aim of affording them the unholy opportunities to produce the Member Lokoja 1 Constituency: every right thinking politician expected the two principal actors to reach a consensus, Alas! the rest is history!!
Same scenario played in 2019 where same political actors from the same ward C failed to stepdown or reach consensus which again gave Ward D that always presented a common front to picked the PDP House of Assembly ticket for 2019 Lokoja 1 Constituency.
The writer’s analysis on various wards that represented the constituency was not in doubt,but the question is were those wards that clinched the tickets previously secured them on the platter of Gold?
The answer is NO! ALLAH DEY from ward A Contested with his counterpart PETER AKOGU a.k.a El- Shatima from ward A, Late Hon. Buba jibril fought gallantly with Hon Hashimu Alhassan from ward D while Hon Baba Sule always face the battle of his life internally with Hon. Gwodobe : this lack of cohesion from the two politicians always deprived them the opportunities accorded them by their party, not that they were denied.
The writer have every constitutional right to support a Candidate of his/ her choice from whichever wards, but the issue of:”GIVEN TO CAESAR WHAT BELONG TO CAESAR” as advocated doesn’t arise, especially in a Democratic setting where every individual have the right to vote and be voted for as enshrined in the 1999 constitution as amended.
The ward in question produced an Executive Chairman of Lokoja LGA, a Vice Chairman of same Council, commissioners in 1999 and 2011 to 2015, Special advisers under the previous administration to mentioned few.
The intro should have been; What’s the offence of ward B when they were denied elective position, particularly with regard to Lokoja Local Government chairmanship slot since the creation of the then Kogi Local Government in 1976?
What is their offence that they remain the only ward that was denied elective office since the inception of democracy in 1999?
That would have been the questions which my brother skipped.
I am not holding brief for any candidates, it’s my believe that like ward C citizens, every ward in Lokoja 1 constituency have the constitutional right to aspire for any political office, power still remain with the people who have the constitutional right to elect their representative.
The people of Lokoja 1 Constituency in general and ward C in particular, have every right to decide on the 9th of March 2019 to chose between; Hon. Muhammed Bature of Accord Party (ACP),Hon. Isah Tanimu Umar of All Progressive Congress (APC) and Hon. Sulaiman Babadoko of People’s Democratic Party,( PDP) and others.
