The governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, has won his third term in office. Usman Ododo, the presumed contestant, was just a facade. Ododo didn’t campaign; he is an empty- head. Bello went everywhere to show his motivation to remain in power indirectly.
The sham and forged election results exemplify the political ideological precepts of Nigeria’s kleptocracy. The word ” democracy ” is a parody. It’s weightless. If voters’ mandate is irrelevant because corruption predominates, then we should coin another name for our system of a representative government.
Unequivocally, the Independent Electoral Commission ( INEC) supported Bello’s rigging method. It has worked for him over and over again. Money is the master. Honesty and rule of law do not exist in our country.
A win was a -must -achieved objective for the outgoing governor. The alternative would have been immediate jail term. For eight years, he squandered over 75% of all the revenues accrued to Kogi State with brazen impunity. With statutory immunity for serving state governors in Nigeria, the looting frenzy is unpunishable, at least while in office. At the termination of the tenured position, a state governor would have stolen enough funds to remain free from prosecution. Justice is for sale. No financially wealthy public servant in the country has been in prison for corruption, except the unfortunate few. The governor of Kogi State knows very well that to be free of prosecution for all the money he has looted,a puppet like Ododo, who would remain enslaved while Yahaya Bello misgoverns, is the most desirable. Hence, the fortitude to decimate the electoral process.
The ideological maxim is: win at all cost; bribe the corrupt judiciary to reaffirm your victory.
Yahaya Bello knows the game. He has won, but he fails to realize one thing: positive law can easily be manipulated; natural law is immutable.
This utopia will surely give way to reality. Candor supercedes silver and gold.
Dan Omale
