The
governorship primaries election to pick the flagbearer of the ruling All
Progressives Congress (APC) in the confluence state of Kogi might have produced
two-time governor of the state, 72-year-old Abubakar Audu, a storm is however,
gathering over his choice.
Aside the
various petitions and protestations, damning allegations of corrupt, high level
moral decadence and arrogance being leveled against Audu, President Muhammadu
Buhari and the National Executive Council (NEC) of the party are now being told
to either drop Audu, who they claimed collected up to N1 Billion from
ex-president Goodluck Jonathan to sabotage the APC during the presidential
poll.
‘Ask him
how much he took from some senatorial candidates, it is unimaginable. He took
N100 Million each from some of them; he took N70 Million each from some House
of Reps candidates and N20 Million each from some candidates of the state house
of assembly. Some of these guys, who won are still indebted to him, that man is
not the best we have.
Apart
from the corruption allegation, marginalization and perceived callousness of
Prince Audu, his moral comportment, according to one of our sources, leaves
much to be desired as it is said to have affected his marriage to a 13-year-old
daughter of an Egyptian cab driver and marriage to a
24-year-old lady,
“this is not the kind of character Kogi State needs at this time,” an aggrieved
source lamented last week.
A source exclaimed that in saner climes, 72-year-old Audu
would be behind bars for paedophilia, but that this is Nigeria, ‘where sadly
anything goes unpunished no matter how grievous; if not how will a man be on
trial for over 12 years and the case is still in progress?’
Members of the APC, who spoke with First
Weekly Magazine shortly after the primaries said that the emergence
of Audu might be the commencement of an
agonizing journey to perdition. This they attributed to the harrowing
experience of the people under the despotic rule of Prince Audu from 1999 to
2003 and this explains why he eventually lost in his bid for a second term to
former governor Ibrahim Idris despite the power of incumbency and the large war
chest at his disposal.
Apart from the preposterous corruption prosecution
Prince Audu has been facing since 2003 for an alleged N11 billion heist which
is in the public domain, the generality of Kogites wonder what informed the
mantra of Audu’s campaign; “to rescue Kogi” ‘considering the fact that the rot
and parlous situation of Kogi State presently is a manifestation of the chaotic
and horrible rule of Prince Audu.’
Our source further revealed that the apparent
marginalization of the people of Kogi West and Central was the brain-child
of Prince Audu, which solid foundation he was said to have laid and built on
during his second term as governor.
Audu allegedly promoted mediocrity over merit and he was
said to have embarked on a systemic ethnic cleansing of the state civil service,
“which at the end of his tenure resulted in his Igala kinsmen from Kogi East having
24,601 as employees of Kogi State Government, while Kogi West has 6,519 and
Kogi Central was left with a paltry 4,069 in a state where the combined population
of Kogi West and Central constitute over 55% of the total population of the
state.”
“While the East has 9 of the 21 LGAs in Kogi State, it
is contributing only 7% of the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) as against
the 93% generated from Kogi West and Central with 7 and 5 LGAs respectively.
“But in a bizarre and ironic manner the Eastern axis
gets 80% of capital projects and 70% of the revenue whenever it is shared. This
is the sad commentary of the people of Kogi State as initiated by Prince Audu
which his successors have sustained,” said a competent source.
The pitiable situation of Kogi State civil service is
in right now was set in motion by Prince Audu, according to reliable sources in
the state, who said that even before workers were being owed for months.
“It was Prince Audu that ordered that there would be
no leave allowances and bonuses for civil servants under his watch; a
convention that has degenerated to situations where government workers at all
tiers of government in the state are not paid sometimes for up to 12 months.
“Kogi equally boasts of the ignoble record of paying
gratuity of retired workers on instalments that have seen retirees of close to
10 years not been able to collect their gratuity in full,” said a source.
Prince Audu is seen as vindictive, egocentric
tribalist, who believes that apart from his kins and kith, people from the west
and central axis of the state are vassal citizens, ‘who must be subjugated and
kept in perpetual servitude with the active connivance of greedy and specious
leaders from these zones.’
Our sources also spoke of Prince Audu’s alleged legendary
lack of respect for the traditional institution adding that this will not make
his return to Lugard House a palatable anticipation for the traditional rulers,
who will now have to sit on the floor when meeting with Prince Audu.
One person jokingly added that the furniture allowance
under Audu should be lower since people who go to him for meetings him are not
expected to seat on chairs.
The only reasonable explanation for the manifest
desperation of Prince Audu for another stint at Lugard House, according to
reliable sources, is the opportunity of being spared the EFFC prosecution that
is on-going for another four years because of the immunity he hopes to enjoy
notwithstanding his alleged dubious claim of genuine love for Kogi State.
“Prince Audu’s contemporaries have long moved on to
higher callings, but he is strangely still fixated in the illusion that the
state is his fiefdom.
Audu’s alleged marginalization is equally reflected in
political appointments, capital projects which our sources highlighted thus;
Description
Kogi East
Kogi
West
Kogi Central
Commissioners
10
5 4
Special
Assistants
33 16
8
Snr.
S.A 60 10 4
Board
Chairmen
14
3
8
Board
members 200
50
50
-firstweeklymagazine