Kogi Poll: Bello And Wada Battles For 1.5m Votes, Plays Ethnic Card

Governor Yahaya Bello of the All Progressives Congress, APC, is locked in a tight race to retain his seat with Engr Musa Wada of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in today’s governorship election.

This is in spite of the fact that 21 other candidates are in the race.

With the flag-bearers playing the ethnic card during the campaigns and given the issues they raised and how they stand in the local councils, the outcome of the election may be too close to call.

In the same manner, Senators Dino Melaye and Smart Adeyemi are squaring up in a make or mar contest for the Kogi West senatorial seat.

Apart from the exchange of brick-bats, mudslinging and violence that trailed the campaigns, it is worrisome that the election has also taken an ethnic coloration just like in time past. The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had spoken about its fear of violence. Last Monday’s razing of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Secretariat, whose candidate was initially disqualified by INEC but added barely a week ago through Court verdict, has further given credence to fear that violence may mar the poll.

Ethnic card

Ethnicity has always played a major role in the outcome of elections in Kogi State. Kogi has three major ethnic groups scattered across the three senatorial districts: The Igala in the East, Ebira in the Central and Okun in the West. This time around, the ethnic card is between the Ebira whose son, Yahaya Bello, is sweeping with the APC broom; and the Igala whose son, Musa Wada, is taking shelter under the PDP umbrella.

In 1999, the contest between Prince Audu Abubakar from Kogi East and the late Architect Stephen Olorunfemi from Kogi West was largely based on ethnic interests. Audu had contested on the platform of the defunct National Republican Convention, NRC while Olorunfemi ran on the platform of the Social Democratic Party, SDP.

While people from the Eastern flank voted massively for Audu, Olorunfemi controlled votes from the West, leaving Kogi Central as the battleground.

This scenario was repeated in 2007, when the Central voted overwhelmingly for their own, Senator Salami Ohiare of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, against Alhaji Ibrahim Idris of the PDP from the East, who received massive votes from his senatorial district, controlled mainly by the Igala. Then, Kogi West was the free zone.

Those elections also witnessed high-scale violence, leading to loss of lives and destruction of property across the state. And now, as the state votes today the fangs of ethnicity and violence have led to apprehension. The development has made the Igala to consider PDP as an Igala party, and APC as an Ebira party.

The voters

INEC‘s record showed that 1, 646,350 voters registered in the state as of August 31, 2019. However, only 1, 485, 828, collected their Permanent Voters’ Cards PVCs, while 160,522 PVCs were uncollected.

The breakdown showed that Kogi East Senatorial district has the highest number of voters with 804, 715. Kogi West is second with 432, 515 voters, while Kogi Central is third with 409,120 voters; sharing a formula of 49, 26 and 25 percentage respectively.

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The PDP candidate during an appearance in Kaakaki, AIT programme, fired a salvo saying that the votes from his senatorial axis would not be enough to make him governor. The people from the other two zones termed and condemned it as an ethnic card. But few days later, the Ebira Peoples Association, EPA, openly endorsed their son, Bello. The Igala too took same stand when their social cultural group, Igala Cultural Development Association, ICDA, throw its weight behind Wada, while the Okun Development Association, ODA also backed Bello; in order to negotiate power in 2023.

The development stirred political dust, and sensing danger, the three cultural bodies aligned later, decided to jettison their first stand, and organised a peace Summit. But their step came late; the zones had already pitched tents with their kinsmen in the race.