Your Excellency,
I am writing this open letter to you because of my love for the All Progressive Congress (APC), a party which you and other progressives fought hard to build to entrench the progressive political ideologies to the body politics of our great country.
The formation of the APC brought relief to the citizens of our country who were indeed looking for the needed political breath of fresh air.
Your victory in the last Presidential election was indeed the needed fillip we had that indeed democracy have come to stay in Nigeria. For those of us who have followed your political trajectories for long, we are very happy for your victory because you are our vivid memento for a free, transparent, fair and peaceful democratic process in the recruitments of leaders at every turn.
The political happenings in the Kogi state All Progressive Congress lately indeed is giving a lot of it’s citizens a lot of concern as it is anything but shameful and despicable. It is even more surprising and shameful when it is seen from the prisms of the party leadership and stakeholders seating on the fence and doing nothing about it.
The peace you are seeing in the party in the state today is that of the grave yard because our people are anxiously waiting for the gubernatorial election to bury the APC in the state. if this anomalies in the party are not corrected and in time too and this is the truth they would never tell you.
I am one of the stakeholders of the party who led the awareness campaign team to Kogi state in 2013 to rebrand the party.
The present state Governor, Yahaya Bello, joined the party during the Governorship primaries of the party and went into contest with the eventual winner of the primary election, late Prince Abubakar Audu who defeated him. After the primary election, the eventual winner, Prince Abubakar Audu, invited him severally to come and work with him for the victory of the party at the general election but he vehemently refused. He went ahead writing all sorts of petitions seeking for the disqualification of Prince Abubakar Audu.
But in the spirit of reconciliation, I remember Prince Abubakar Audu going to Bello’s house to see him but he refused to come down to see him even though Audu was ahead of him in age, position and political seniority. I also remembered Bello going ahead to support the opposition PDP to win his polling unit and ward in the process and a look at the results of the 2015 general election will exonerate this position. It is even on record that he collected money and work against his own party.
Your Excellency, it is also a matter of fact that this same Prince Abubakar Audu that Bello worked against and the party won the 2025 guber election in Kogi state but when he eventually died (may his gentle soul rest in peace),Yahaya Bello became the state governor by default and became the biggest beneficiary of the process.
After about eight years at the saddle of leadership as the governor of the state, Yahaya Bello is now in the process of installing his cousin and crony from the same ward, district, tribe and local government as the one to succeed him as the next governor of the state against the wishes of the majority of members of the party in the state.
Your Excellency, I can tell you with every sense of patriotism and loyalty that the primary election held in the state was a charade. If the state governor, Yahaya Bello is allowed to play God by rigging out some of the best leaders and leading lights of the party like Senator Smart Adeyemi, Murtala Yakubu Ajaka, Prince Shuaibu Abubakar Audu on which father glory he became governor in broad day light with the connivance of the leaders of the party in the state and at the national level, then where is the change mantra and new political dispensation promised as the corner Stone of the party’s political ideology?.
Your Excellency, a critical glance of the last Presidential election results would attest to the fact that Bello do not have the political strength and base to fight the majority in the state .It was the general expectation that Bello would have either zoned the guber seat to the Kogi west senatorial zone for the sake of fairness and equity in the state because the zone have not had a shot on the guber seat or allow for a free and fair primary to allow the majority have its way but instigated by the urge to cover his track, Bello belittled himself by being now nomenclatured as the most parochial and politically divisive leader Kogi state ever had and this I would bet you would lead to the APC losing the state if elections are held today.
The All Progressive Congress is a party held in high esteem in Kogi state as reflected in it’s victory at all elections in the state since it’s formation in 2015 and blessed with leaders who have integrity as it’s political assets. Leaders like President Mohammadu Buhari, yourself, and many more that time would constraint me to mention, our people are waiting to see if you will allow this charade to persist and validated.
The next election in the state is now being looked at by the people as the battle of strength and numbers between the zones in the state who would like to show which zone is the majority in the state.
The PDP has chosen Senator Dino Malaiye from the Kogi west as its candidate and with the governor picking his cousin from the Kogi central as the candidate of the APC angering the majority Igala from the Kogi East, what is there to assure any lover of the party that the party would be victorious in the election?. The answer is blowing in the air.
We are hereby seeking you as a leader we all trust would always stand by the truth knowing how important Kogi state is to the APC to see to it that the right things are done irrespective of whose ox is gored by allowing for the people to chose the leaders they want in a peaceful, transparent and democratic manner. This is the only way to avoid the tsunami to come and the Armageddon well foretold ahead for the APC in Kogi state.
Yahaya Bello is a young man that have with this decision of his has lost the love he formerly had with the people and he has lost touch with the political reality on ground as the people of the state are now politically sophisticated and are ready to have their way.
Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
Musa Wada.
