NOW THAT AUDU IS GONE. AYOKANMI EZRA

Picture courtesy of  Daily Times

Audu is dead! It still feels surreal that we can witness his demise. To say that his death came at an inauspicious time is being economical. Like I said elsewhere, this situation proves once again the futility of all acquisition in life. The tendency is for people to forget that one day the greatest fear of all mortals will come upon us rich, poor, learned, unschooled, clean (neat), dirty, powerful or downtrodden. That line was somewhat a quote from the much esteemed Revd. B.M. Owojaiye.

Audu lived life to the fullest. Late Audu, like Solomon in the holy book, did not deprive his heart of whatever his eyes rested upon. Little wonder he is reputed to have acquired a nineteen year old wife not too long ago. He is famed for his flowing attires and very flamboyant lifestyle. My dad was describing him to me recently when I met him for our usual jaw-jaw. His description was that of a brilliant and erudite banker colleague who, though arrogant, was nonetheless very good at his job. This, I dare say, he carried over to his handling of affairs as executive governor of the then infant Kogi State. Love him, hate him, he ran his race. Now the baton has been passed to his admirers and adherents.

One question bothering the minds of keen observers of this unfolding drama is: when did Audu actually die? Speculation is rife as to the actual chain of events that culminated in the announcement of his passing. The new thinking is that he died a few hours after casting his vote on thsat fateful Saturday. If that was the case then this is your classic cover-up story. It is plausible to believe that the powers that be were already in the know shortly it happened on that Saturday. Olatunde Dare, ace columnist of "At Home Abroad" in The Nation Newspaper, averred as much when he said in his column on 24th November, 2015 that Asiwaju Tinubu's voice was' flat and bereft of its usual animation' when he put a call through to him to congratulate him on yet another feat of political triumph. My humble opinion is that not only Tinubu but the Presidency, the State government, INEC and big wigs within the APC must have been aware that something was amiss as at that Saturday. An incident will suffice. I was with my friend Hon. Segun Abereoran, the P.A. to Distinguished Senator Dino Melaiye, and Hon. Ademola Bello (Destiny) on the night of Sunday the 22nd November, 2015 when he called to find out where his boss was. He was told the Senator was already in Ogbonicha the country home of Audu. This reinforces my belief that they all had knowledge which was not in the public domain.

The announcement of the election result on Sunday, with benefit of hindsight, reinforces my belief that some people somewhere were trying to pull the wool over our eyes again. My reading of the whole scenario is that there is really no cause to declare the election inconclusive. APC clearly won in sixteen LGAs and garnered 25% of the votes cast in the remaining five with the exception of Dekina where elections did not take place in only one constituency due to lack of security for the INEC officials not as a result of violence. Conspiracy theorists are of the view that interested stakeholders from the Eastern Senatorial Zone having correctly read that if the fact of Audu's death became public knowledge after the declaration of the results as already known to them then nothing would stand in the way of Faleke being declared the beneficiary of the election victory. The fact is the margin of victory being smaller than the total number of cancelled votes wouldn't have arisen had security been provided for that constituency in Dekina. The question is 'How plausible is the explanation of lack of security?' The whole world knew that elections were due to take place in Kogi State more than a year before the 21st of November. A logistical problem as basic as provision of security for election officials should not have come up. The election was for only one State and by all accounts enough security personnel were drafted to Kogi State for the exercise. Someone in INEC must take the blame and for me the INEC chairman must raise his hand and bear the brunt of blame for this serious infraction.

For me the Resident Electoral Officer and the Returning Officer of the election are also accomplice. They contributed to this logjam by being economical with the truth as it relates to the number of votes remaining to be cast. Going by the trend of voting throughout the election every polling unit recorded 50% accreditation of the registered voters. Good psephology dictates that the trend cannot be broken in only one LGA. At best of the 49000 plus votes left in Dekina LGA only about 25000 will eventually come to be accredited. That figure does not make much of an impact on the election since the APC already has a commanding lead of 41000 plus votes over the PDP. My assertion still remains that the Eastern Senatorial district is trying to manipulate the process so that another candidate can emerge from that zone and the Returning Officer is an abettor in this.

There is already an almighty jostle for Audu's place. Those who lost the party primaries that threw up Audu are positioning themselves for another shot at the crown jewels. In the fore front has to be Yahaya Bello. In spite of his relative youth his deep pocket has galvanised and catapulted him to the front of the line. His relative inexperience may be a drawback but he has wide appeal among the youth and agents of power shift. The herculean task before him is to convince party turks that he is the right candidate moving forward. These party elders will find him a hard sell though as the predominant feeling among the Igalas is that another of their sons should take up the mantle. There is agitation already gaining momentum that the first son of the late Audu should step into his father's shoes. The guy's inexperience doesn't seem to faze the hawks putting this proposition forward. One needs to situate this position in the fact that a lot of hopes and aspirations were riding on the Audu’s train. Without Audu that train is set to derail. In effect this set of followers have only one gambit left to throw in the ring: Muhammed Abubakar Audu. He is the only light at the end of their tunnel.

The enigma called Abiodun Faleke is slowly unraveling. It is a known fact that he is Tinubu's protege. How far this project will go is left to conjecture. His principal is to me the best politician by a mile in Africa. I don't like him as a person but one cannot but admire his tenacity and drive. No known politician of Nigerian descent past or present can hold a candle to his achievements. When everyone else crumbled under the Obasanjo’s juggernaut he stood alone. Today he has installed a President. To install a governor in Kogi State was going well until his preferred candidate decided to croak. I suspect this was the gambit that was to play out at some point in the future only that death did not read the script. Installing Faleke will test all the political ingenuity he may have. If he is ultimately successful then he would have translated to another stratosphere politically. We may have to set up a department in our tertiary institutions to study the JAGABAN himself. However, in this case, I think he will have to compromise in order to retain his hold on the apparatus of the APC in Kogi State.

Now that Audu is gone the flamboyance is gone out of Kogi politics. The pretenders to his throne are dour to say the least. The coming of the likes of Yahaya Bello to the scene is a spark that might ignite brighter days to come. His limitations not withstanding he appears to be the next generation. Being of Ebira extraction may however hold him back. Someone like Issa Echocho is a newcomer to the APC and as such may not carry so much weight. Asides that, the jury is still out on him because of allegations of sleaze attached to his time with the defunct Afribank.

Now that Audu is gone some hopes and aspirations have gone to the grave with him. It is rumoured that he had the burning desire to see Ibrahim Idris in chains in retaliation for what the aforementioned did to him. Folklore has it that he has a giant poster in his house of the event of his arrest and detention as a reminder of his intention to wreak vengeance. That desire is in the grave with him. A boss of mine in the office tied his hopes of becoming the next Local Govt Treasurer from his LGA to Audu's apron strings. Now that Audu is gone I’m interested to see how that particular ambition plays out. Some that I know were gunning for one appointment or the other in the now aborted Audu administration. All those permutations have now gone out the window. New alignments and realignments would have commenced since the announcement of his demise. New power blocs and equations will now be the order of the day. Starting with the soon to be held APC primary election to select Audu's replacement we will get an insight into who the power players in Kogi politics will be.

In all of this I hope Kogi West will not just be an appendage. Again, I hope the high and the mighty can see the futility of earthly acquisition. Audu was buried in swathing cloth in spite of all his earthly splendor. His pretty teenage wife will now go to another man, his earthly goods to his children and relatives to use as they like: judiciously or not, his political dynasty to be wrestled over, like dogs wrestle over a piece of bone. That once again reminds me of this assertion from Revd. B.M. Owojaiye, “ no matter who you are, lowly placed, highly placed, rich, poor one day we must all die”. Are you prepared?