No doubts, Kogi Local Government Area of Kogi State has obviously witnessed tremendous progress and development in the last seven (7) years of His Excellency, Executive Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Adoza Bello’s administration even though these development were laced with mix reactions emanating from amongst political henchmen of the area leading to unabated media crossfire between the believers and members of the All Progressive Congress (APC) family.
Of lately, there seems to be a diverse claims, agitations and consultations from among the feelers of the Local Government; as to who is closer to the system and to the All Progressive Congress (APC) November Governorship candidate – Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo.
Whilst it’s normal and of course not debatable owing to the nature and Methodology of our contemporary politicking driven by the supremacy of our constitution – it’s lugubrious down the lane that same political associations and support groups are found – crossfiring each time and this to me is a serious dilemma because of the dynamics that defined the emergence of Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo, largely characterized by unrevealed but justified considerations.
Ironically, the hypocritical ultimacy of political convenience as against principle has never been this blatant. Leaders vehemently opposing each other’s ideas.
As the politicians slug it out, they keep deliberately torrenting the conflict down to the level of their followers whose minds have over time fallen victim of manipulative conditioning by the politicians.
This conflict as I perceived, is largely an Intra-party leadership conflict, and we’ve consistently been falling victim to these manipulative tendencies because we’ve failed to understand certain political and social realities.
However, the most important among such realities is the glaring yet often forgotten fact that the allegiance of almost every politician is more to the power superstructure.
I find these alarming issues very destructive; for it exposes our moral manipulative systems and presents us with the philosophical framework for subjecting our political actions Local Government to intellectual scrutiny.
It provides the basis for validation (or not) and examination of the consistency of our collective actions with reputable Islamic knowledge.
In the context of this write-up, it affords us the opportunity to re–examine our Social Media activities by revealing to us those social and political realities of ours that render us susceptible to this manipulative tendencies.
However, one thing is clear, that Kogi Local Government is our greatest source of susceptibility to manipulation and even marginalization. Even as the Local Government was not devoid of internal skirmishes, we were presentable as a United, influential front – externally.
The earlier we begin to understand the leadership ethics and principles of good governance – and the alarming rate of Insecurity, poverty, economic underdevelopment, inefficient educational and healthcare systems; infrastructural inadequacies among others, bedeviling the area, the better for us.
Let it be on record that our collective challenges and our collective resolve should be having competent leaders to reverse the situation. Ours should be geared towards sustaining and consolidating the unmatched political negotiating base and influence and leverage that to ensure we force the leadership to stick to their side of the social contract.
A stitch in time saves nine.
– Abdulkadir Bin ABDULMALIK is a seasoned political/Policy analyst and writes from Lokoja, Kogi State.
