The crisis in Kogi

THE Confluence State is becoming increasingly unsafe. It is fast becoming a hotbed of crisis.  Ironically, the two gladiators at the centre of the current political crisis in the state, Governor Yahaya Bello and Senator Dino Melaye, were hitherto on good terms but reportedly parted ways for undisclosed reasons recently and since then, the state has hardly known peace. But this is a state that should not allow any crisis to fester given the numerous challenges besetting it already. First, the state harbours arguably the most dangerous axis of armed robbery and kidnapping in the country and even though not in the North-East, it is known to have cells of Boko Haram insurgents.

Secondly, until recently, the legislative and executive arms of government in the state were at daggers drawn and there were serious divisions within the legislature. Again, the governor has been unable to organise local government election and the state-owned university has been shut since January. Long before it became fashionable for state governments to owe workers arrears of salaries, Kogi held an unenviable record in that regard. The negatives are legion, yet some political elite in the state seem unperturbed as they continue to stoke the fire of crisis.

Perhaps if Bello and Melaye had restricted the expression of their disagreement to throwing insults and expletives at each other in the open, public concern would have been limited to their questionable moral fibre. However, their incessant incendiary statements have not only overheated the polity but also culminated in occasional breakdown of law and order with attendant loss of lives and property. That is unacceptable. The two politicians must be urgently called to order. It should be stressed that the usual polar positions often taken by these dramatis personae on issues are not rooted in altruism. The party that often mouths issues that tend to put him on the side of the masses of the state is apparently doing that to put his political enemy on the spot and settle personal scores. There have been accusations and official rebuttals of assassination attempts. Sadly, however, lives and property were lost in the recent deadly encounter around the Kogi State Polytechnic.

Without doubt, the duo have been embarrassingly childish and not exemplary in their conduct despite their exalted offices. While Melaye is reportedly calling for the suspension of all democratic structures in the state by way of official proclamation of a state of emergency, Governor Bello is allegedly behind the ongoing move by “the people of Kogi West Senatorial District” to recall him from the Senate. And it is rather unsettling that there is as yet no end in sight to this ugly trend. There is, therefore, the need for official intervention to institute a thorough investigation of the crisis with a view to sanctioning the culprits before the state is turned into a theater of war. The expectation was that after the highest court in the land had validated Bello’s choice as the candidate of his party and his emergence as the governor of the state, all misgivings at the party level should have been buried. And, of course, the governor was also expected to have played the politics of inclusion to bring the various tendencies within the party on board. But the contending parties are apparently still sticking to their old, entrenched positions.

Sadly, the All Progressive Congress (APC) which produced the political leaders at various levels in the state seems lethargic and clueless regarding the steps to take to bring its representatives in government within the province of decency and orderliness. The state chapter of the party is in disarray. For instance, the views of the party leadership in the state and those of the state government on issues are usually at variance. Members of the party are perhaps the most virulent opposition of the state government. The executives of the state chapter of the APC are at loggerheads with the governor, yet the leaders of the party at the centre have done nothing tangible to rein in the ugly development. Not even a word of caution has come officially from the party’s national leadership to curb inciting statements from Bello and Melaye.  This is a pointer to the apparent absence of party discipline which in itself is a symptom of the more fundamental issues of structural challenges in the top hierarchy of the party.

Unfortunately, the electorate are the major victims of the crisis. The crisis arising from the absence of cohesion and cooperation between the party and its government causes heightened concern about safety and security of lives and property, poor governance at the state level and poor representation at the centre. We urge politicians in the state to learn to play by the rules and behave like statesmen in order to save the long-suffering people of Kogi the pains of avoidable crisis.