The other side Of Audu

Ibelieve strongly that every story has two sides and none can be truly correct until the other side is adequately presented. It is even very apt because of our peculiar style of politics where hate and filth are daily hurled at people deliberately and for selfish political gains.

That is why I prayed to God many years ago to give me the uncommon grace to only see the good side of people. That is why when people are tearing others apart, I will simply ask myself, is that all? For every thesis, there must be an anti thesis in order to arrive at the synthesis. Until positive is joined to the negative, there can’t be light.

The eligibility of Abubakar Audu for the forthcoming governorship election has attracted as much heat as light. Emotions and reason have also featured almost on equal proportions, but that is not totally unexpected.

This article is actually not designed to exculpate Audu or asses his character, that is meant for his media team but I don’t think we should deliberately ignore facts of history and sacrifice sound achievements on the altar of dirty politics of vendetta. allow reason to prevail over emotions and if we are to consider antecedent, abilty and excellence in governance, then Audu Abubakar is the right choice.

I have chosen the word ‘right’ deliberately because he might not be the best in the state but compared with the other candidates we have before us, none and I make bold to say none can be compared with Audu.

As part of the team of journalists who toured the whole country during the

Obasanjo regime on assessment of developments, Audu was declared the second best performed governor after Odili, despite the fact that Audu was in the opposition.

This was a team that was led by Professor Jerry Gana and Senator Smart Adeyemi both now in the PDP.

Why was Audu adjudged the best? The team was impressed by the standard of his

housing schemes for public officers. Because of the agrarian nature of the state, Audu made construction of both rural and urban roads a major priority. Others are electrification schemes and water projects.

Also included in his achievements was the founding of Kogi State Polytechnic, the establishment of a television station, radio station, both AM and FM, a state newspaper and the transformation of the colonial residence of Lord Lugard into an ultra modern Government House Complex, the construction of office blocks for ministries as the new state had no office accommodation, the construction of shopping arcade complex to enhance commercial activities in the state.

In the area of industrialisation, Audu established many companies and the Obajana Cement Factory is just one of them. The cement project is now one of the major employers of laboUr in the state. Even the state university is to the credit of Audu.

The prevailing political atmosphere in our state today deserves a reasoned adoption of strategies that measure the performance metrics as a meaningful comparative analysis of the achievements of the candidates.

In the absence of such measurable facts, the atmosphere will be choked with mere political fallacies consciously spread to subsume facts and reasons.

As much as the trend of undermining the achievements of Audu is within the liberty of democracy, it is expedient for other people to speak with reasoned engagements to refocus the attention of the voters to the performance of Audu rather than the ensuing politics of hate.

There are other allegations against Audu that are worth considering here; one is the allegation of corruption, the other is the allegation of arrogance. I have met Audu before, and in fairness he posses great clout and selfconfidence that can easily be mistaken for arrogance. Audu is such a principled man, high organized and strict, a disposition that many are not too comfortable with.

On the issue of 11 billion, I will advise very strongly that we need to thread with caution. This is because as a people in this country, we are gradually descending into a system where allegations are been taken for conviction. I don’t think its right to conclude on a person based on allegation before it is finally decided by the court of law.

Ayo Olododo is a public affairs analysts based in Abuja