From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Chairman, Kogi East Elders Council, and Chairman, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) Arch. Gabriel Aduku has expressed worry over recent political violence ahead of governorship election in Kogi State, saying the election may not hold if such violence continues unabated.
Kogi governorship election is scheduled for November 11th, 2023.
Aduku who was elected recently as the Chairman, National Executive Council (NEC) of ACF said it has become undemocratic, situation whereby the power that be would not allow political opponents and other stakeholders to run for political offices in the State, and subjecting them to intimation and threat.
He called on relevant authorities to wade into insecurity in Kogi State to save the people from being killed outrightly and their property burnt to ashes because of political interests.
Fielding questions from Reporters at the weekend, shortly after meeting with the staff of ACF in Kaduna, Aduku said there are development potentials in the North, assuring that he would meet with government at all levels to harness such potentials for the development of the region and the country in general.
The coming election in Kogi State is not only sensitive but is something of great concern in view of insecurity in the State. Kogi State is pestered with insecurity for the past few years, even at the beginning of this democracy and it is escalating.
“You can see that there will be no election at the end of day if this violence continue to occur, and my feeling is that there may be no election in Kogi State, it is an obvious thing because people are allowed to carry arms and go to specific places that are not favourable to the administration to destroy them. You have them on record, I can’t mention them one after the other for you. In the last three weeks you can see the violence coming and other plans may be on. I am on the radar because I am preaching for peaceful election to hold. But we have experts who use violence for election rather than using peaceful manner. So it is a great concern to us.
“So it is very scaring that going into the election it becomes concepts of violence, concepts of destruction, this is being openly said now. We are concerned about it. I am concerned about because I am at the centre of it, how to ensure we have a peaceful election. This insecurity is not even good for our relationship as a State. Some of us are privileged to know how Kaba province was, and how we related very well under the regional government. And now it is a State and we have resources which God has planted in that State for us to use, but we are jogging around, and we don’t seem to have the right leadership, and it is getting worse. We have a young man who took over government by divine intervention with everybody hoping that he was going to cause positive evolution for Kogi State.
“We have not enjoyed peaceful election since the current leadership came into government. It has been attack here and there. And one cannot find major things he has done for the State. It pains some of us with concernens because we cannot go into election with fears. Election supposed to be a peaceful action. The Kogi East senatorial District is a very large area with a very big population, the people are peace loving, humble and disciplined but for the current governor to mishandle them call for great concern. Nobody is saying that a governor should not be interested who take over from him, no, it is normal, but if is going to be done in such a way that you humiliate some persons in the State, you cuddle them through violence which has been obvious, and not by discussion, it will not be fair. So that is our concerns.
“We are therefore saying without hesitation that violence will not be acceptable. We need a peaceful election in Kogi State. Enough of what had happened before now. We need a peaceful election where people will vote for leaders that lead them. I am not here to tell you what constitutes unfair election. You in the media know it, you have heard how people were burnt because of election, a poor woman was burnt in her house because of politics. People have their hotels and property burnt because such person is no longer in tune with what the administration wants done, therefore he should be destroyed. The Kogi East people have to come together for a common front in the election because they have the population and the landmark, and even the origin of putting Kogi together from Kaba province and the colonial days, they have come to realise that it is no longer the normal liberal politics , but to support their own to save them from insecurity, they have to try to have a governor that comes from there to have good governance, not with begging and working under stress.
“I don’t think any other part of the country has experienced what we are experiencing in the State in the past five to six years of the present administration. This is fact. And we hoping that the government itself will do something with sanity to enable it do peaceful election in Kogi State. We need peaceful election, meaning that it will be fair and just. That conducive atmosphere is one of our major concerns. You cannot go and start destroying property and homes of people. I have a catalogue of it, but I can’t say it now. It is obvious, and it is escalating. Can we have it going on, and we think we can do election, it will not be fair. We will like to appeal to the government of day that Kogi State deserves and needs peaceful election”.
On the area of priority and role he will play as the ACF chairman, Aduku said, “I will continue to play the role which I believe had been played by those who had occupied this office earlier. I put forward and face those things that affect the lives of the people, things that will make development go to the interior. Concepts were put forward for discussion and insecurity came, and so the concepts of security was also put forward for discussion. And today we are being challenged by those concepts and new ones too. The freedom of travelling all over the country as it used to be is no longer there.
“This is something for discussion. We can’t make substantive progress if there is no peace around. There is fears that one can be kidnapped or hijacked if there is no peace. Kidnapping has become an industry because they lack what to do, and they find kidnapping lucrative. If something is not done in no distance time to engage the youths, but allow kidnapping and Boko Haram to continue, then we are not going to have a country. We will like to interact with a sector of the government to express our opinion for the people of the North and Nigeria also. There are other concepts of physical development that turn this country and change it round.
“I will bring it up in the forum that rivers Benue and Niger serve this country, nature has brought it that way. We met it when Yola was functioning as a Port. And goods were coming to Lokoja through Yola up to Liverpool. There cotton, groundnut and others for export. The same thing coming through Baro, down to Lokoja to Buriti up to Liverpool. There was Royal company or what did they call it that time, including UAC, they were functioning. There were established along the rivers. All these got disappeared when we got Independence. The land that produced these things are still especially in Zaria. And today the population is increasing, it is not going down. We abandoned all these because they say petrol is flowing. We have other mineral resources in the ground that can bring development. What is happening; illegal mining is right on top. Why should it be so. ACF was put down to look at the interest of the North and Nigeria. So as I was saying rivers Niger and Benue meet at Lokoja and flow down to Delta. And it was thoroughly used. We need to bring it back, not to be a burden to Nigeria.
“Technology today can help us to do alot to make those rivers work for Nigeria. There are alot of things that can be done under water; people live under water. In developed countries they build houses inside water. Why should our own be a burden on us. They can still be used for transportation. Dangote is building a big refinery there, and still hoping to be transported by the same road? or through pipeline, when transportation by river is there. The rivers are flowing at both side, and before you know, they become places people take interest to visit. And that is tourism which its own is big industry. This is one of the areas a place like ACF can advise any government to look into and invest. It is for the development and comfort of Nigerian people to discuss freely without delay”.
On his mission to Kaduna, the ACF chairman said, “I am on a brief visit to Kaduna to have a brief interaction with the staff of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) where I have been pronounced as the new Chairman of the Forum. It was quite an interesting interaction with the staff. It was all about familiarising myself with the past, present and future happenings at the Forum. I had interesting discussion with not only the staff but with eminent Nigerians from the North who are residing in Kaduna. We exchanged ideas and opinions about what had transpired here since the formation of ACF in 2001. I am looking forward to the formal inauguration of the leadership of the Forum. And when we settle down we shall look at factors that could bring development to the North that can also impact on the development of Nigeria as whole because North plays critical role in the development of our country”.