The Kogi State Governorship Election is scheduled for November 21. The polls may still be weeks away, but the scenario has reopened an old wound. It has thrown up two known gladiators who have had the privilege of governing the state at various times. These two gladiators are: the incumbent governor and Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Capt Idris Wada and Prince Abubakar Audu, two time governor of the state who is contesting for the fifth time on the platform of the All Progressives Congress. There are also other contestants like Philip Omeiza Salawu, immediate past Deputy Governor to Ex-Governor Ibrahim Idris who will be flying the flag of Labour Party, LP, Akwu Goodman, All Progressives Grand Alliance and Enesi Ozigi, of Peoples Progressive Party, PPA. While Audu and Wada are of the Igala Stock, Salawu and Enesi are from the Ebira speaking region of Kogi State.
Political analysts have however narrowed the contest to a two horse race, between Wada and his main challenger, Audu. The two men are not in unfamiliar territory. They had earlier been the toasts of political pundits in 2011 when the state went to the polls to elect their governor. On that occasion, Audu suffered a bloodied nose from the then inexperienced Wada as it were.
The two major contenders have had the opportunity to govern the State so their leadership qualities are not new to the people. Prince Audu was governor in 1991 to 1993 and from 1999 to 2003. Capt Wada is about completing his first term of four years.
An objective profiling of the two men while in public office is therefore not out of place. An eagle eye look at their achievements, temperament and other antecedents therefore affords the electorate the golden opportunity to make informed choice based on their performance and character traits.
Audu’s supporters largely present him as the father of Kogi. According to them his performance in office is yet to be surpassed by any other administration in the state. They list the establishment of Kogi State University (KSU), Establishment of Confluence Beach Hotel and Establishment of Diagnostic and Reference Hospital in Ayangba as his major achievements. Audu’s opponents are however quick to point out that most of the projects he lays claim to are phantom projects- that could not withstand the test of time. For example, the university Audu established apart from being named after himself was just a university in name as it lacked the basic facilities to offer any accredited course. It was successive governments that renamed the university to Kogi State University and ensured that facilities and resources were provided for the category A accreditation that the university’s courses enjoy today. Even APC stalwarts like Alex Kadiri pointed out in a recent interview that “Audu merely used the infrastructure already put on ground by the World Bank. Kogi State University is standing on the site of the World Bank Agricultural Project, where they had an airstrip. All the houses the lecturers are living were built with the loans collected from the World Bank. The state is still paying back and it is part of the debt every government must pay. The loan may not be fully liquidated in the next eight to nine years”.
Apart from ensuring accreditation of all courses in KSU, Wada has gone ahead to establish the College of Medical Science and is constructing a world-class 250-bed teaching hospital. He has also established the Faculty of Education to improve the quality of teaching staff in the state.
Another major project credited to Audu is the Confluence Beach Hotel which played host to conferences during his administration. Apart from constituting a drainpipe on the state’s resources, the devastating floods experienced by the state in 2012 exposed the underbelly of that project as it was constructed without any environmental impact assessment study. Governor Wada on his part set up the first modern environmental laboratory in the state to forestall such poorly planned projects in the future. He has also attracted investors that will take over the rehabilitation and management of the hotel.
One achievement that Audu’s supporters claim is the establishment of Dangote Cement factory at Obajana. Objective analysts in the state are at a loss how they come about that claim as no benefit in terms of dividend payment has come to Kogi State since the inception of the factory.
An area where Audu’s supporters cannot claim any achievement is in the area of agriculture. Wada’s focus on agriculture has resulted in the state becoming the number one cassava growing state in the nation. The feat has attracted the World Bank, the Federal Government and Cargill USA- a top manufacturing company ; now there is a move to partner with the state to establish the first staple crop processing zone in the nation at Alape, Kogi State. When completed, the income of the state will increase by about N14billion per annum.
Unlike Audu who operated under a period of economic boom, Wada is operating under an unprecedented period of sharply dwindling revenue. Today, he has achieved an unparalleled 200 percent increase in internally generated revenue throughout the creation of a single revenue account and e-collection of revenue accruable to the state.
Wada has tried to keep faith with the state’s workers by ensuring that their salaries are paid as at when due. He has also cleared all the 21 years arrears of pension backlogs that he met. It is a known fact that in spite of the economic boom during Audu’s era, he owed civil servants for upwards of six months and blatantly refused to pay pensioners because he referred to them as ‘dead woods’. Another area where Wada is given full credit is the respect of the citizen’s inalienable right to freedom of speech. People of different shades express their opinions freely without fear of intimidation and victimization. The Wada administration is known for tolerance of opposing views even when they border on the absurd. During Prince Audu’s reign, this was not the case. The Prince reigned with iron hands and was generally intolerant of criticism and fostered tyranny on the people. People have not forgotten that in those dark days, a journalist was bathed with acid on the streets of Lokoja. Today, journalists in the state can attest to the fact that they now operate in an environment where they operate without let or hindrance. Servants and the various labour unions also agitate for their rights without the fear of intimidation. Traditional rulers can equally bear testimony to the fact that they no longer go through the excruciating pain of waiting by Jamata Bridge to welcome the governor whenever he travels to Abuja and his several trips abroad. The arrogance and flamboyance of the past has today been replaced by simplicity and humility in governance.
‘Wada has tried to keep faith with the state’s workers by ensuring that their salaries are paid as at when due. He has also cleared all the 21 years arrears of pension backlogs that he met. It is a known fact that in spite of the economic boom during Audu’s era, he owed civil servants for upwards of six months’
- Abu writes from Lokoja, Kogi State
