All stakeholders in the Kogi State project should advise the Election Petitions Tribunal headed by Justice Ibrahim Bako to refrain from turning the state into a springboard for political blood-letting in Nigeria.It was in Kogi that an EPT first nullified the election of a State House of Assembly Speaker in all the 36 state assemblies in the country.Now, it is the turn of the governor and it will also go down on record that the first governorship election to be nullified in Nigeria after the 2007 poll was that of Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Idris Ibrahim.Stakeholders in the state, who can read the handwriting on the wall, would no doubt begin to wonder if Kogi, among the existing 36 states, is clandestinely not being used as an experimenting state for political turmoil in Nigeria.If the media reports on the monitoring of the election tribunals set up nationwide are anything to go by, then one can rightly say that the first nullification of any governorship election in the country should not have come from Kogi, but from some other states, where glaring and countless daylight electoral fraud took place."The above is an extract from an article by the writer titled 'Kogi as springboard for political blood-letting' published on page 20 in Sunday Punch of October 21, 2007 and on pages 7 and 10 in P.M. News (a popular evening newspaper in Lagos) of Monday, October 22 and 23, 2007, respectively. The purpose of the write-up is twofold: One, to decry the impression that rigging of election was massive in Kogi State and secondly, to express worry on why Kogi State should be used as an experiment to test the reactions of people through the stance of the 2007 Election Petitions Tribunal in Kogi State.The gubernatorial election is scheduled to hold tomorrow in Kogi State. There is no doubt that an election is widely adjudged to be successful after taking into consideration several factors that usually come to play in the election process. Such factors include the manner by which the election is handled by the electoral body put in place to conduct the election and in this case, INEC headed by the tested Professor Atahiru Jega who, no doubt, has been adjudged by Nigerians both at home and in the Diaspora, as being the fairest umpire in any election in the history of Nigeria, open disenfranchisement of voters through non provision of voting materials at the right place and at the right time, peaceful conduct of election through absence of thuggery and violence in any form and lastly, the ability of the electoral body at ensuring that the votes of voters count at the end of the day by ensuring that any result so declared by INEC, in this case, is a true representation of the people's votes.It is also worthy to mention that the non-partisanship of the law enforcement agents conduct themselves in an unbiased manner by ensuring that an atmosphere for a level-playing ground for all political parties contesting the election is put in place. This is no doubt a crucial tonic that is required for a successful election.It is therefore in the light of the above, that INEC and the law enforcement agents are advised to carry out their duties diligently and without bias or favour to any of the contesting political parties during the election.On the part of politicians in the state, it is pertinent to strongly make an appeal to them to educate their supporters with a view to ensuring the emergence of an election that will be conducted under a peaceful atmosphere and this can only be achieved when the election is devoid of thuggery and violence. Intimidation of voters, in any form, should be avoided for sake of prevention of post-election unrest in the state.There is no doubt that the December 3, 2011 gubernatorial election is a crucial one towards the emancipation of the people from abject poverty which glaringly and sad enough, cuts across the people in the state. This unfortunate situation no doubt is a confirmation of an adage "poverty has no ethnic colouration'. It is therefore imperative for the people to vote wisely by ensuring that whoever emerges as the occupant of the Lugard House after the election is one who indeed would be seen at the end of the day to have been voted for purely on merit in all the length and breadth of the state and not on party basis. This is the only way by which our state that has been adjudged as a near-bankrupt state, can be moved forward in the ladder of development in all ramifications.Before now, all political parties have been jostling to ensure that one of their candidates occupies the Lugard House through the selling of programmes to the electorate and it is no gainsaying that the ball is now in the court of the eligible voters who must see that the power to decide who leads them in the next four years to the promised land, lies squarely on them.At this juncture, voters in Kogi State must bear two things in mind. One, that poverty has no ethnic colouring as earlier mentioned as it is obvious that in our state today, poverty and impoverishment of the people cut across the three Senatorial districts in the state. Secondly, the words of wisdom of Abraham Lincoln who said that "the essence of a government is for the government to provide for the people, what the people cannot provide for themselves". It is for these postulations, that the person to emerge as the next governor of our dear state should be one elected purely on merit and not necessarily on party basis.Long Live Kogi State, Long Live Nigeria.'Joseph is Publicity Secretary, Lagos/Ogun States Chapter of Okun Development Association.odunayo_joseph2006@yahoo.com
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