By Hon. Aliu Asipita Abdulmuluku
It was our elders who said: “The elders cannot be in the marketplace and watch the head of the baby at the back of her mother unattended.”
Sadly, for a while now, the traditional institutions and elders of the Ebira Nation have gone limp and lame in the face of an attritious political battle that has defied logic and purpose.
A once-close confidante of former Governor Yahaya Bello (FGYB) of Kogi State, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has remained locked in horns for the last eight to 10 years with the former Governor’s political establishment and legacy. And this has sharply divided the people into those for and against along the lines of Natasha or Yahaya Bello.
Underpinned to this was the undisclosed battle that raged between the late Ohinoyi of Ebira land, HRM Dr. Ado Ibrahim of blessed memory, and former Governor Yahaya Bello.
While the reasons for the publicly obvious unhealthy father-son relationship between the former Governor and the late Ohinoyi throughout the entire lifespan of that administration up until his death, remains cloaked in secrecy, silence and public PR optics for damage control, one thing was glaring: the former Governor believed Sen. Natasha was emboldened by the late Ohinoyi to spite him.
And this drove the wedge deeper between the former Governor and the Ohinoyi, the two political heavyweights and their supporters.
Since then, the former Governor and his once-friend-turned-foe Sen. Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan have remained set on a course for struggle of political supremacy in the Ebira Nation and Kogi State at large.
While some have described this as a healthy democratic balance of power that enabled the people achieve some dividends of democracy, some of us believe this feud has done more damage than wins.
From a bitter political contest for the Senatorial District seat spanning eight years across multiple party lines that ultimately culminated in Natasha re-claiming her widely celebrated mandate through the Courts, to the understandable purported anti-FGYB posture of the Senator during the legal fireworks that followed FGYB’s exit from Lugard House, leading up to the current legal battle of Senator Natasha following her fight with Senate President God’swill Akpabio, the truth remains that the traditional institutions, elders and elites of the land have been unable, albeit incapacitated, to intervene in this seeming war of attrition.
They lay prostate while these children of theirs fight and tear their house apart. Their hands seem to have been proverbially tied behind them by unknown forces.
This incapacitation spans from political patronage, correctness or wishing to be seen as loyal or non-aligned.
Today, the Ebira Nation confronts a glaring challenge on two fronts: at the national level where the former Governor and current Governor (Ahmed Usman Ododo) seem to have a frosty relationship with the current Federal Government, and at the state level where the fights between the FGYB political establishment is covertly on an all-or-non war with the Natasha emerging block.
While this lasts, the ability of our political leaders to lobby the current Federal Government for strategic appointments of her children, siting of federal projects and expansion of strategic partnerships for the actualization of the Ajaokuta Steel Complex as well as other capital and technically-intensive projects have suffered.
We have languished in this political stagnation in the last two years of the President Bola Tinubu administration.
This is the state of affairs or context from which the citizens of Kogi and constituents of Kogi Central Senatorial District in particular have had to operate and analyze from. But will we ever recover from this self-inflicted political oblivion? One may only wonder for how long we would remain in this limbo. But in the interim, this realization seems lost on us all. We are all clapping for the fight and fighters. What a shame!
While the citizens have covertly taken sides with either of the leaders based on certain sentiments or the other, the truth remains that neither the current Ohinoyi, HRH Dr. Ahmed Tijani Anaje (Saakii) seems politically enabled to mobilize other highly influential sons and daughters of the land to solve this intractable crisis and challenge, both at the federal and at the state level, which spanned from the political ambition and feuds of his children.
Beyond this, one may be safe to believe that some political forces or players who are elders seem to have also queued up behind Natasha or the FGYB bloc for vengeance or political power.
While some of us believe the current Ohinoyi and members of the Ebira Traditional Council as well as some influential elites would ordinarily want to seek peace to bring our leaders and house together for our collective good, the challenge of political correctness and consciousness of the sensibility of FGYB, has held them all at bay.
In my humble estimation of Natasha’s posturing, she doesn’t seem to be against the current Ohinoyi, his ascendancy to the throne or his fundamental role for mediation.
One can safely assume she would resist his overtures because of the towering influence of FGYB in his ascension to the throne of our forebears. There is an obvious political pain and bitterness that marks her positions and posturing. And this is the conundrum that beats the drum for our current travail as a people. It is obvious that our Ohinoyi and traditional leaders are navigating delicate landmines field here.
While some persons and political actors have chosen the easy route of supporting Senator Natasha Akpoti in whatever she does, rightly or wrongly, simply to spite the political influence of FGYB, some of us have taken a middle course anchored on logic, reason and wisdom for our collective redemption.
While we may defer to the existential political exigencies of the survival of the Ebira Nation to give a pass to the political maneuverings and decisions of FGYB, we cannot do the same for Senator Natasha Akpoti. At least not in the literal sense of it.
While it is easy to cheer her on through her current political and legal travails, one must ask very pertinent questions: Is this fight with the Senate President in the interest of her constituents and constituency? Of what benefit is this fight to us to the extent of earning a whopping six months suspension? Of what consequences is the continuation on this very path? When this all settles down, who loses? The cheering crowd and content creators or the constituents as well as our image? Are there better approaches to solving this intractable and escalating legal battle that will surely wear out and tear Natasha at the end of the day? How strategic or unwise is it to fight the establishment for things we can achieve via strategic lobby and negotiations? Is it always about proving we are right or ‘I can fight’? But what damage do we do to ourselves and image of our race and progeny afterwards?
In my humble estimation, these are cogent reflections that should poke our minds going forward.
CALL TO ACTION
With a deep sense of responsibility, we call upon the FGYB political establishment and the Sen. Natasha emerging political bloc to de-escalate, and allow our Ohinoyi and his Traditional Council to set in motion a reconciliatory machinery that can restore peace between these warring siblings.
If we can reconcile FGYB, HE Governor Usman Ododo and Sen. Natasha today, one can bet that her travails in the National Assembly as well as with the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation will be quietly resolved.
We also seek to use this medium to call on all well-meaning and influential sons and daughters of the Ebira Nation to reach out from a place of wisdom and reconciliation to these leaders, their proxies and allies for reason to prevail over ego.
As for the constituents or citizens who see this battle as an opportunity to chastise FGYB, Ododo or Natasha, or simply vent frustrations with the political establishment of the Federal Republic of Nigeria or the National Assembly, we wish to draw your attention to the fact that the Ebira Nation and her political as well as socio-economic advancement are being dragged behind in comparison to other regions and Districts simply because of this intractable contestation for political supremacy and ego-tripping.
When all the bloggers trending and stoking these conflicts have cashed out their pay cheques, we would be left with ashes of regrets and thumbnail-sucking at our collective loss.
The time for the Ebira Nation to close ranks is now. The time for our traditional ruler, the Ebira Traditional Council and political elders to step in the gap is now. And don’t forget, this should have long been done since yesterday.
God bless us all as we give attention to this urgent and critical matter.
*Hon. ALIU ASIPITA ABDULMULUKU writes as a concerned son of Ebira Nation and citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Reach out @ asipitamuluku25@gmail.com
