By Boluwaji Obahopo, Lokoja

As the Kogi governorship election draws closer, supporters of the two leading parties, APC and PDP, are already locked in a war of words over their flagbearers. On November 21, 2015 the people of Kogi State will make an important decision about who to elect as their governor as fixed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Two weeks later, on December 5, it will be the turn of Bayelsa people to go to the polls.

 Wada

In both cases, the people will be faced with choices they have been familiar with in the past as both races are between the incumbent governors and former governors.

The frontline candidates in Kogi are the incumbent Governor, Capt Idris Wada, and ex-Governor Abubakar Audu, while in Bayelsa, the race is between ex-Governor Timipre Sylva and incumbent Seriake Dickson.

In both cases, the electorate have the rare opportunity of making an informed choice based on the verifiable scorecards of the candidates’ stints in office.

Battle of wits

In Kogi, Audu’s handlers are mindful of that fact and have had a head start of campaigning based on what they describe as ‘unparalleled achievements’ during his six-year reign as Governor of Kogi State between 1991-1993 and 1999-2003.   Many people have also ascribed to Audu the title of ‘Father of Modern Kogi’.

The achievements they list out includes the establishment of the Kogi State University, Kogi State Polytechnic, NTA Kogi, Confluence Beach Hotels, Graphics Newspapers and some housing estates. They go further to attribute the legwork that led to the establishment of Dangote Cement Company, Obajana to the efforts of Audu. Audu’s opponents however are quick to point out that the ‘achievements’ were more of cosmetic achievements.

One case they always refer to is the conversion of the buildings of a world bank agricultural project to a university that could not offer one accredited course and renaming same after the former governor; and that It later took the PDP administrations for the university to change its name from Prince Abubakar University (PAU) to Kogi State University (KSU) as well as the achievement of the category A accreditation it presently enjoys.

 Audu

They go further to assert that even the Graphics newspapers that Audu claims to have established was just a newspaper house in name as all their publications were printed by Tribune Publishing House, and that it was the present administration of Capt. Idris Wada that established a printing press for the newspaper in Lokoja, thus making the state paper a true Kogi newspaper.

They also wonder why Audu should lay claim to the establishment of Obajana Cement when the state had no public private partnership law in place until the advent of the Wada administration. They go further to challenge Audu to mention the direct stake he negotiated for the state in Obajana cement, a full privately-owned institution.

Wada’s handlers are quick to state that in a little over three years, Wada has built a foundation for a truly modern Kogi despite the fact that he has had access to less than half of the resources at the disposal of Audu during his time. This is a fact that even Audu has attested to at different fora!

Wada’s canvassers have pointed at the unprecedented 200 percent leap in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) as one of the achievements of the incumbent. They also point at the great improvement in peace and security as opposed to the climate of thuggery and violence that reigned during Audu’s time.

They often point to the establishment of a modern transport plan that includes government subsidised transport system, the first of its kind in the state; the establishment of a modern mega transport terminal as well as the establishment of inter- and intra-city land and water transport schemes.

Other achievements the Wada camp promote are the attraction of foreign investments like Allo Cement Company, Cargill USA and Nigeria-Korea Vocational Centre via an aggressive drive to attract investments.

They posit that if Wada could be given same six years that Audu had, Kogi would be massively transformed as all the ongoing projects like 250-bed teaching hospital, the Phase II Lokoja Project which is being heralded with the 16km Otokiti Ganaja Bypass Road, the Lokoja Water Reticulation, the 11 storey Kogi House among others would have been completed.

Between Character and performance

However, political analysts are of the opinion that beyond performance, Wada and Audu are going to compete on the basis of character. Audu’s supporters acknowledge their candidate’s weakness on this front but are quick to point that his ‘arrogant’ tendencies are nothing close to his penchant for sterling performance.

People of the state, especially the civil servants, have the nostalgic feeling that during Audu’s previous adventures in power, he ruled like an emperor and saw the state as an extension of his fiefdom. He was said to be notorious for his pomposity and outright disdain for others.

“As governor, lesser human beings including his commissioners and other top functionaries of government cringed in his presence”, said Husseini Alhassan, a retired civil servant. “They dared not sit whenever the ‘emperor’ was on the throne. People were just expected to crawl before him and obey him without objection.

Salaries and allowances were regularly withheld without explanation. Civil servants, especially from the Yoruba West and Ebira Central were routinely  laid off without regard to extant rules.”

Elder Eneojo Samson, a resident of Ofu Local Government Area, still views the choice between Audu and Wada as one between democracy and the forces of oligarchy. “In addition to development, Wada has brought freedom.

Today nobody is scared of airing their opinion. We even have people who are being sponsored to protest against the government and they still walk the streets freely. In Audu’s time, people with genuine grievances could not air them freely without reprimand from the powers that be then.”

Aside the fear of past poor human relationship, the ex-governor is also still in the public glare over his case with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on N11 billion charges.

Audu supporters are however singing a new song about him. They claim their principal has learnt his lessons, a song his opponents consider croaky. Those opponents point out to the recent incident at the Eid prayer where Muslim faithful had to delay their prayer for some hours to wait for him.

They also refer to two weeks ago, when the former governor, while returning from a trip abroad, had a large number of supporters ‘mobilized’ to Jamaata Bridge where they waited several hours to receive him. The long wait was said to have taken a toll on the health of an aged man who collapsed and was rushed to a near by hospital for revival.

Who wears the crown

Now that Kogites have experiences about the two leading candidates, the question political pundits are asking is whom will Kogites hand the political green card, and who will receive the red card between Audu and Wada? Will the November guber election go the same way like the three previous occasions where Audu received the red card? Or will Audu receive the same blessing like President Muhammedu Buhari who got lucky on the fourth try?