Kogi State, The Confluence State and the State where the river Niger and Benue meet before flowing together was created in the Year 1991.
The State have three major Tribes namely; The Igalas from the East, The Egbiras from the Central and The Okuns from the Western Side of the State and since the return of democratic rule since 1999, The Igalas who are the majority with 9 Local Government out of the 21 Local Government has ruled the state for 16 years, that is, from 1999-2015 producing 3 different Governors
The Igalas with their numbers, dominated the political space of the state and indeed, politics and election is a game of numbers and the Igalas having that number, hence, dominated.
The hand of the pendulum shifted in the year 2015 when Prince Abubakar Audu who was eminent to emerge as Governor elect in 2015, died before he could be officially declared by INEC. This unfortunate incidence though tragic, brought about the emergence of Alhaji Yahaya Bello who came second in the APC primaries and hence, inherited the votes of Prince Audu Abubakar and became Governor and a chance was given to the Egbiras to take over the mantle of leadership for the very first time in Kogi Stare.
Governor Yahaya Bello an Egbira Governor faced difficulties of being accepted by the People in his first Tenure owing to the fact that he was not the man they voted for and coupled with some policies as regards prolonged screening to eliminate ghost workers in the Kogi state civil service leading to non salary payment, made the administration epileptic as it faced criticism from all as-sundry owing to his unfriendly policies and him being accepted by the people.
In the year 2019, Alhaji Yahaya Bello sought to be elected for a second term in office. An election he has to seek the people’s vote for the first time after inheriting The Late Prince Audu Abubakar votes in the year 2015.
From account of previous elections held in Kogi State, Kogi East has always produced majority of the votes coupled with them having local government areas with more registered voters etc. with local government such as Dekina, Ankpa, Ofu and Idah with block votes, it looked eminent that Kogi East with their block votes would vote uniformly for an Igala candidate so as to return power back to the east but reverse was the case as votes from 5 Local Government in Kogi central namely: Okene, Adavi, Okehi, Ajaokuta and Lokoja was enough for Alhaji Yahaya Bello to be elected as Governor.
Surprisingly, local government like Dekina and Ankpa Local Government couldn’t live to their full potential as the votes from these two local government was almost tripled by Votes from Okene local Government alone
In Okene Local Government, Yahaya Bello got 122,762 votes, 64,657 votes in Adavi, 36,954 votes in Okehi, 19,457 votes in Lokoja and 17,952 votes in Lokoja totaling to 251,782 votes just from 5 local government in Kogi Central as against the PDP candidate, Musa Wada who got 189,704 total votes from 9 local government. Yahaya Bello latter went on to win the election with 406,222 votes from 12 local government, wining only two local government from Kogi East.
Reminiscing back to the 2015 Governorship Election, the Top 3 local government were, Dekina, Ankpa and Okene but it all changed in 2019 as Dekina was not near top 4. Only Ankpa tried to measure in but the number of votes from just one local government in Kogi Central suppressed her votes so well that her votes made no significance.
Although, the Election, marred with violence especially in Kogi East didn’t stop the emergence of Governor Yahaya Bello as he was Elected for the first time after inheriting votes in his first term and he was returned governor for the second term.
Different opinions were raised aftermath of the election as an election that was largely rigged especially with huge amount of votes from one Senatorial district who by population may not major up to Kogi East.
The 2023 Kogi State Government Election is almost here and it is important to ask again that going by the statistic before us from the 2015 election, can we say that Kogi Central now controls the voting power of the state or those numbers where just manufactured numbers.
Was it that the Kogi Central in a Unity of votes were able to deliver their Son as against the Kogi East who had a non united vote? and if the Kogi Central are able to clinch any of the major party ticket for the upcoming Kogi State Governorship election, would they be a repeat of the 2015 election?.
This and many more questions bothers us, hence the assertion and question: Kogi Central – The New Decider of who rules Kogi State by Voting Power?.
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