Audu: A joke taken too far?

The build-up to the Kogi State's All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial primaries was an interesting one. There were 28 candidates; most of them good men (and a woman) and made in their own right. During the electioneering campaign, former governor, Abubakar Audu and now candidate of the party, in his characteristic imperial posture, had described them as non-starters and 'small boys' born only yesterday, and that none of them could stand up to him or equal his credentials.

That was when a journalist asked for his views about other aspirants. It turned out to be true. On Sunday 29 September, 2015, Audu trounced 27 other aspirants to emerge the party's standard bearer. The description above is one condescending trait of the ex-governor, who had failed in his two previous bids to come back to complete his conquest of Kogi. Now, the party (or should I say the delegates) have chosen Audu. APC is a party after my heart. Although I am not a politician, from the sideline I had watched the party evolved.

Like many other Nigerians, I did not give their merger concept a good chance of success. I thought it was another fluke, in the manner of previous failed alliances among political parties. However the three major parties – Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) pulled it through and soon formed the APC. Yet, skepticism continued to trail the emergence of the party. A lot of people, and that includes my humble self, had thought their presidential primaries would be their Waterloo. Again, that came to pass. This was followed by General Muhammadu Buhari's emergence as the standard bearer of the party in the 2015 presidential election, which excited all and sundry. It was indeed the game changer.

The rest is now history. The Buhari tsunami also manifested in hitherto PDP states falling to the APC. Nigerians wanted change, they desired it, they deserved it and they worked to make it happen. With their conduct since emerging as the ruling party, I'm beginning to have doubts. But it's too early in the day to judge them. With Audu's emergence, is it plausible to say the party is on course in Kogi?

To start with, Audu does not represent change on which the party's populism rests. Audu does not believe in democratic ethos; forget his recent recourse to the electoral process to emerge. He was an imperial governor, an autocrat who coveted power and does not brook criticisms.

It is only those who kow-towed to him, or 'worship' him or even treated him like an emperor that got the best out of him. This was Audu as governor. Has he changed? I'm not too sure. At this stage in the life of the state, when the people are crying for equity, fairness and justice, Audu is the wrong person to emerge because he does not represent any of those qualities.

Kogi is a multi-ethnic state. Each group is different as it comes. But to the best of my little knowledge of the state, none of the three major ethnic stocks' traditional /cultural ethos is hanged on monarchical autocracy. But with Audu, who sees himself as the Lord of the Manor and conqueror of Kogi, the rest of the state are vassals, while the people are his subjects.

In modern day democratic structure, governance is a collective endeavour. How will Audu function in a new dispensation that places premium on discourse and dialogue as against his dictatorial tendencies?

But, all these may pale into insignificance, if he has truly changed as his supporters would have us believe, that is if people actually do change. On the other hand, can we really discountenance his past ills as governor? Do we really have short memory as people insinuate? How can APC, the party after our hearts, descend so low to choose a man whose past records linger in our subconscious as its candidate?

In all these katakata, President Buhari has remained quite uhmm. I dare say that this silence could cost the party a lot. The president was silent, when so-called party members messed up the National Assembly's choice of principal officers. The party is still licking its wounds. Now, Kogi has happened. Which state is next?

Audu's case with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over his four-year tenure in the past is ongoing. The amount allegedly involved is put at over N10billion. I won't dwell much on that because he has not been pronounced guilty by any court of law. We cannot forget the memory of the unsuitable environment journalists worked in when Audu was governor nor can we discountenance the acid attack on one of the promising journalists from the state reporting for The Guardian then. Nothing has been proven against the ex-governor though. We cannot forget in a hurry Audu's open altercation with leaders of the Kogi nor his mistreatment of civil servants and teachers who he infamously described as 'dead woods.'

Common, Kogi deserves more than this! After Audu was announced as the APC candidate, a discussion group I belong to went into frenzy. One of the commentators said: “The whole world is laughing at Kogi if Audu is the best the APC can produce in a state composed of talented people.” This is a wrong assumption. The blame for the choice of Audu as the governorship candidate of the state should be placed squarely on the APC leadership, which is not circumspect, and unfortunately could not manage the bull in a China shop that Audu is.

Come to think of it, has the party just frittered away an imminent victory to a dying PDP?

Abubakar writes from Abuja

#opinion