HALIMA ALFA AND KOGI POLITICS
Halima Alfa has come under attack from a segment of the Igala elite who masquerade as champions of a so-called agenda in a multi-ethic state. But history will surely be kind to Halima because of stance.
The election of Yahaya Bello as the governor of our state was a sign that finally, the ethnic equality we yearned for in the confluence state has been achieved. The re-election of Bello will signpost that parochialism is dead in our state. Barrister Halima looks at the re-election of Yahaya Bello as the tipping point of leadership in Kogi. Her vision is one that encapsulates the dream of the whole segment of the Kogi society and she intends to have nothing to do with an agenda that is divisive. She believes there is no minority or majority in our state when it comes to leadership aspirations and that is why she will, for the remaining part of her life, fights any agenda that limits the dream and possibility of any man because of the ethnic group he belongs to. She is proudly Igala, but feels pained if the gift of providence is used as a yardstick to perpetuate injustices against other ethnic groupings.
Halima Alfa is from Idah local government, an important town to the Igala nation. Her local government has never produced a governor for the state. The present senator and the gubernatorial candidate of the PDP, Mr Musa Wada, hails from Dekina, but nobody is begrudging them by virtue of where they come from as they are qualified by law to pursue their dreams. Musa Wada is very qualified to be governor of the state if the people wish, but Halima feels nobody should be a governor of the state because of the advantage of belonging to the major ethnic group, but by virtue of character and leadership ability. Halima is of the APC, a party of choice. She is a supporter of Yahaya Bello, the governor of the state whom the party has democratically chosen to be the candidate of the party in the next gubernatorial election in the state.
Halima has been suggesting a redefinition and a realignment of ideology, leadership and peoples’ interests, without which the idea of Igala nationalism will be more of noise making.
Musa Musawa, Abuja