Kogi Guber: I Will Win With Landslide Because Bello’s Loyalists Are With Me – SDP Candidate, Ajaka
By Ozumi Abdul
As we count down to the Kogi governorship election scheduled for November 11, being next month, the governorship candidate of Social Democratic Party (SDP), Alhaji Murtal Yakubu Ajaka, has exuded the confidence that he will win the poll with landslide, even against governor Yahaya Bello’s anointed candidate and the candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo.
Ajaka made this known in his exclusive interview with The Cable, an online news platform monitored by Politics Digest on Saturday.
The former deputy national publicity secretary and member of the national working committee, of the APC is in the high spirit that he has the loyalists of the state governor, Yahaya Bello on his side who is working assiduously round the clock to ensure his victory in next month governorship poll in the state.
Ajaka revealed that he was a staunch loyalist of the APC, but decided to pursue his governorship ambition under the platform of the SDP when he was disqualified from participating in the APC governorship primary election on April 14, 2023,
He then flayed Governor Yahaya Bello, for what he called lack of sincerity in governance, adding that the state is lacking critical infrastructural development.
He said, the only thing that one can readily point to as the governor’s achievements are “thuggery, intimidation and violence”.
He said the fair of the people of Kogi state to express themselves willingly under Governor Yahaya Bello is worse off that of the former Head of State military era, General Sani Abacha.
He also said that the governor’s emergence during his first term in 2015 was a ” miracle ” by God, but failed woefully to do what God had chosen him to do for the people of Kogi state.
“As you can see, I have shown sincerity and determination to serve the people and determination to give more infrastructure to Kogi people; that is the problem we are having in Kogi. Not just Kogi, it’s a national issue. [But] Kogi is the worst and people know. With the small opportunity I got at the national secretariat, people are feeling the impact.
“The only things that Yahaya Bello improved in Kogi are thuggery, intimidation and violence, it’s only in Kogi that people are afraid of expressing themselves.”
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“It is so because of the people in charge. Since 2003, the state has been regressing, if it takes 10 steps forward, it goes 50 steps backwards. That was why we thought that with the emergence of Yahaya Bello, things were going to change because of the way he emerged. It was a pure case of miracle. God said he would be the governor of Kogi and he became, but I don’t think he followed God to do what he was supposed to do for us.
“He caused more insecurity, and the infrastructure, education sector, and agricultural sector all got worse than he met it, virtually everything he met, he brought the standard down. The only thing that he improved on was thuggery, intimidation and violence, it’s only in Kogi that people are afraid of expressing themselves. Even under Abacha, as difficult as it was, there were still dissenting voices.
Regarding whether the stakeholders outside his Kogi East Senatorial zone will support him, since the state is heavily polarised, Ajaka laughed it off, noting that the governor failed to lead as a statesman, and wants his ” brother ” to succeed him.
He boasted that his senatorial district boasts of superior numerical advantage, adding that other local government areas of Kogi Central, where the governor comes from is even “against” him.
“Yahaya Bello failed to lead as a statesman, he wants to give it to his brother from the same local government. It has never happened in the history of the state.”
“Yes, I do. However, the eastern plank is the most populated and most agitated, but it’s a normal thing when you are in the majority. The incumbent governor did not manage things well. There is a way he would have handled this succession issue and it wouldn’t have caused any problem.
“If you are not ready to go with the majority, you give it to the next majority which is the Okun people (the Yoruba-speaking part of Kogi). If you had given it to them, the Igala man has no justification to say he will be in that office for now. Yahaya Bello failed to lead as a statesman; he wants to give it to his brother from the same local government. It has never happened in the history of the state — even when the Igalas were doing it back to back — for an Igala man to succeed an Igala man from the same local government.
“Right in his backyard in Adavi, Okehi, and Ajaokuta, they are all against the governor, because everything has turned out to be about Okene. Yes, all these local governments sprung from Okene but they have become autonomous — and they want to be treated equally”.
He also said the governor betrayed him by failing to rub his back, even though he rubbed his back (governor) when he was vying for the presidential ticket of the APC before the 2023 general elections.
“No, I was not a supporter, we were together in the party and we were very close allies. And when he wanted to be president I had no choice but to follow him because there’s nothing God cannot do. If God wants you to be president then none of us can stop that.
“He approached me to rub his back and he’ll rub my back; that is I support him for president and he supports me for the governorship race. That’s how I came into the race, he knows my capacity to network, and we leveraged on that in his campaign”..
