The Kogi State Government said yesterday that the posthumous leadership award bestowed on the late All Progressive Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Prince Abubakar Audu was not meant to serve any diversionary purpose but to recognize the contributions of the late leader to the infrastructural and general development of the state.
Chief of Staff to the Kogi State Governor, Mr. Edward Onoja, said this while reacting to comments credited to the son of the late leader, Mohammed Audu, who had disparaged the award as self-serving and diversionary.
Speaking to Government House correspondents in Lokoja, Mr. Onoja who appeared visibly surprised at Mohammed Audu’s disparagement of an honour done to his illustrious father, wondered who else was more deserving of the award on strict merit.
‘Governor Yahaya Bello bestowed the state’s highest leadership award on late Prince Abubakar because it was unanimously agreed that no past Governor in Kogi State had impacted the state developmentally in the last 25 years like him. In addition to that the late leader was also the first Executive Governor of our State. What can be worthier than that?’ He queried.
“It is sad that Mohammed Audu would to go to press to say the award was diversionary and self serving. How does that serve the Governor? Rather, it serves the political family of the late Audu. It serves the memory of the late Audu, it serves the good people of Kogi East and the generality of Kogi people”, he said.
On whether the timing of the award was not suspiciously too close to the expected Supreme Court judgment on the various Petitions against Governor Bello’s election, Hon. Onoja wondered how purveyors of that rumour connected the dots.
‘It is rather unfortunate and illogical for anybody to think that the award has anything to do with the pending case at the Supreme Court. One, the Bello Administration did not choose 27th of August for Kogi’s Silver Jubilee. It is a historical event and Kogi State, just like others created on the same day with her in 1991, commemorated it on the appropriate day. Two, the Supreme Court is guided by the facts and laws before her in any case, and not by happenstance in states. Twice now, the Judiciary has upheld Governor Bello’s emergence and it is those who want judgments to be based on other things apart from law and facts who are chasing shadows. The people of Kogi State want nothing other than that Governor Bello should be allowed to continue his work without further distractions from people weighed down by circumstantial debts to forces outside Kogi State. People seeking to pay their debts with the resources of Kogi State. The Bello Administration remains hugely confident in the Supreme Court of Nigeria and her ability to do justice without the fear of vested interest.’
“So, bestowing an award on the late Prince Abubakar Audu has no bearing on the awaited judgement at the Supreme Court.’, he concluded.
Hon. Edward Onoja explained that beside the recent leadership award, Governor Yahaya Bello had earlier named the Kogi State University, the highest tertiary institution in the state, after the late Prince Abubakar Audu to honour and immortalize his memory. A gesture that he Mohammed Audu gratefully appreciated at the time.
‘Unfortunately, he seems to have mired himself in parochial politics since then and is now being ordered to disrespect the memory and belittle the achievements, of his own father. That is just wrong on so many levels.’ Hon. Onoja opined.
According to him, the immediate past administration in the state had earlier proposed to name the state polytechnic after the late leader but Governor Bello thought it more deserving to name the highest institution in the state after the late political icon, who also established and nurtured it to greatness during his tenure as Governor.
Hon Onoja concluded by reminding Mohammed Audu that it takes more than the ‘accident of birth’ to inherit a political family and its structures after the death of a leader. ‘Mohammed must come to terms with the truth that a political movement does not answer to the principles of primogeniture so it does not automatically devolve on a deceased leader’s first son. That is possibly the most laughable assumption of the Kogi 2015 Governorship drama coming out of the James Faleke/Mohammed Audu coalition of carpetbaggers.
It would be recalled that the State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello conferred a posthumous award on the late Prince Abubakar Audu at 25th Anniversary of the creation of the state in recognition of the former leader’s contributions to the development of the state. Members of the late Prince Audu’s extended and political family led by his immediate younger brother and frontline political pupil, turned out in their numbers to receive the award for which they greatly appreciated Governor Yahaya Bello and the Administration.
