A former Commissioner of Information in Kogi state, Dr Tom Ohikere has said that the Kogi state assembly in collaboration with the government needs to legislate power rotation as it is essential to the stability and smooth governance of the state.
According to Ohikere, who is a member of the Kogi state APC Elders Forum and Managing Director of the APC NewsOnline, putting in place a legal framework for power rotation will guarantee a sense of fairness and equity among the three major tribes in the state and consequently diffuse ethnic tension and divisionism that is rapidly becoming the bane of governance and forge a coherent identity for the state.
The one time director of the Buhari Support Organization (BSO) made this known during an interactive session with journalists on Monday in Abuja, stating that until this is done elections in the state will inevitably end up as a tribal hegemonic warfare struggle.
Ohikere said, “It is important and urgent for the Kogi state house of assembly to pass a law institutionalizing power rotation in Kogi state because of the obvious necessities and inherent benefits.
“Kogi unlike other states of the federation, though it has several tribes but they would easily align and identify with the three major ones, of the Igalas, the Ebiras and the Okuns, and they have been locked in a bitter struggle for power and control since the formation of the state, at the expense of good, common and progressive governance.
Speaking further Ohikere stated that, “After years of marginalization fever and cry against the singular Igala domination, by fortutity and providence power passed to Kogi Central, that is the Ebiras under Governor Yahaya Bello and hopefully it may be returned under Alhaji Usman Ododo, if the APC emerges triumphant at the November poll. But there needs to be a formal agreement or compact that creates the consciousness that executive power in Kogi state is not the prerogative of any singular tribe, thus paving the way for its shift, simply, progressively and uncontroversially to Kogi West in the near future.
“Such decision and institutionalization no doubt will alter the nature of politicking in the state especially when it comes to the scramble for political – executive power. This is a clarion call to all the stakeholders in the Kogi project.