By joshua OPEN LETTER TO HONOURABLE TAJUDEEN YUSUF
By Pastor Stanley Ajileye
Dear Honourable Tajudeen Yusuf,
Greetings.
I write this letter not as an opponent, but as a friend, brother, and, perhaps more importantly, as one of your unrepentant supporters.
For the entire twelve years you served in the House of Representatives, I stood firmly behind you. I supported you because I believed in equity, fairness and the political arrangement that guided our people. At the time, many of us in Ijumu, my Local Government, consciously supported your aspiration because we understood that the House of Representatives seat could not reasonably come to Ijumu while the Senate was still being held by our own constituency.
We made that sacrifice because we believed in Okun equity.
We believed in rotation.
We believed that political power, like every other resource, must be shared fairly among the component parts of our district.
That is why your present aspiration has become difficult for me to reconcile with the very principles upon which many of us supported you.
Honourable, you left the National Assembly barely three years ago. Why, therefore, the urgency to disrupt the rotational arrangement that many of us have laboured for years to establish, an arrangement from which you yourself benefited maximally?
Okun land is known for order. Okun people are respected for their commitment to equity and fairness. We must not suddenly abandon the principles that have held us together simply because political circumstances have changed.
For sixteen unbroken years, the Kabba-Bunu/Ijumu Federal Constituency dominated the Senate. We felt we have taken more than a fair share of the arrangement because we understood the principle of rotation, we continued then to hope that a time should come for the Yag a constituency to take their turn.
By the grace of God, that moment has now come. The Senate has moved to Yagba.
I therefore believe that the responsible thing to do is to allow Yagba to enjoy its rightful turn for at least two terms before the baton moves again.
And when that time comes, it should naturally move to Lokoja/Kogi Koton Karfe Federal Constituency, which is also an integral part of our larger Kogi West political family and has patiently waited for another opportunity since the terms enjoyed by Distinguished Senator Tunde Ogbeha.
This is not about denying anyone his constitutional right to contest an election.
It is about asking ourselves whether everything that is legally possible is necessarily politically right, morally fair and socially desirable.
You have every right to aspire to the Senate. But as leaders, we must sometimes look beyond what we can personally obtain and ask what will preserve the unity, trust and political stability of our people.
Honourable, I understand that you are a fervent Christian. As a fellow believer, I appeal to the values that we both profess.
The Bible teaches us that, “Let all things be done decently and in order.” It also teaches us to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Would it not therefore be a contradiction for me, who has consistently preached and advocated equity, to suddenly mobilise support for an arrangement that I personally consider inequitable?
I cannot do it.
Not because I do not love you.
Not because I have forgotten your years of service.
Not because I have ceased to admire you.
But precisely because I consider you my friend and brother, I owe you the truth.
I also owe my people the truth.
There are insinuations in some quarters that your current aspiration may have received encouragement from individuals who are apprehensive about the political strength of Distinguished Senator Sunday Steve Karimi, particularly because of his outspoken advocacy for the interests of Kogi West.
I have deliberately refused to believe that narrative about you.
I have insisted that you are a man of integrity who would not allow himself to be used as a political instrument against another Okun son.
I still hold that position.
But Honourable, politics has taught us a painful lesson: those who cannot defeat a people united often attempt to divide them.
We must therefore be careful not to allow ourselves to become instruments in a game whose ultimate objective may be to weaken the very political family to which we all belong.
The question is simple:
Who truly benefits if Okun people turn against one another?
Who benefits if Kabba-Bunu/ Ijumu fights Yagba, Yagba fights Lokoja/Kogi Koton Karfe, and one Okun brother is encouraged to destroy the political prospects of another?
Certainly not the people.
Certainly not Okun land.
And certainly not the legacy of our political fathers who painstakingly built the principle of rotation and accommodation that has helped maintain peace among us.
Honourable, if indeed there are powerful political forces encouraging you to make this move, I would respectfully ask you to consider one further question:
Why can they not wait and support you for the governorship election in 2027?
Why place you on a collision course with the prevailing political sentiment in Kogi West when there may be other, broader opportunities for your political future?
You have spent years building political goodwill, relationships and a reputation for yourself. Please do not allow a temporary political calculation to jeopardise a legacy that took decades to build.
Do not allow yourself to be positioned against the political tide of Kogi West.
Do not permit others to use your ambition to create a battle whose consequences you may ultimately have to bear alone.
There is an old wisdom that says a person should be careful not to follow a corpse to the grave.
Please do not follow anyone into a political graveyard simply because they have convinced you that the road leads to victory.
There is still time.
It is not too late to rethink this.
It is not too late to step back, consult widely, listen to the voices of our elders, consider the feelings of the various constituencies, and place the larger interest of Okun land above individual ambition.
Honourable Tajudeen Yusuf, history will not only remember the offices we occupied. It will remember the decisions we made when our personal interests came face to face with the interests of our people.
This is one of those moments.
You have served your people in the House of Representatives for twelve years. You have had your turn. You have enjoyed the goodwill of many of us who supported you because we believed in equity.
Now, I respectfully ask you to demonstrate the same spirit of equity by allowing the present rotational arrangement to run its course.
Let Yagba have its turn. Let Lokoja/Kogi Koton Karfe wait for its turn. Let the political order remain intact.
And when your own next opportunity comes, let it come without the bitterness, division and suspicion that this present contest may generate.
I remain your brother.
I remain your friend.
I remain one of your most ardent supporters.
But friendship does not mean silence, and support does not mean abandoning principle.
Sometimes, the greatest support a friend can give you is the courage to tell you what you may not want to hear.
Honourable, please rethink this.
For your sake.
For the sake of our people.
For the sake of Okun unity.
And for the sake of the political legacy we will leave behind for generations yet unborn.
Yours in brotherhood, friendship and commitment to equity,
Pastor Stanley Ajileye