Trust Prince Abubakar Audu to have a swirl of controversy trailing his final exit. Just before his scheduled Muslim burial at his hometown, Ogbonicha in Kogi State yesterday, rumours swept Nigeria that Audu had resurrected from the dead. Thousands of jubilant youths danced around Idah to celebrate the news, which would have been the first Resurrection since Jesus Christ. Unfortunately the rumours were not true and Audu was laid to rest after a short funeral prayer.
Abubakar Audu’s death on Sunday, just when the Returning Officer was declaring results in the hotly contested Kogi State governorship election, will be remembered for a long time as the most shockingly-timed death of a Nigerian public figure. The election was officially declared to be inconclusive but in fact, the figures showed that Audu had won the election. The Electoral Act provides that an election is inconclusive if the number of registered voters in areas where the election was cancelled exceeds the gap in votes between the leader and the second placed candidates. APC’s candidate Audu led PDP’s Governor Idris Wada by 41,000 votes but 49,000 registered voters were disenfranchised in the affected places. In theory, Wada could overtake Audu when supplementary elections are held in those cancelled polling stations.

The reality is very different, however. Voter turnout in the state as a whole was less than half of registered voters so at best, only about 25,000 will vote in the supplementary polls. Even if Wada gets all of them, he would still lose the election by a wide margin. Hence, Audu died precisely when he won the election. One online news site claimed yesterday that Audu died because of “the shock” he got when the election was declared inconclusive, since he expected an outright win. This is unreasonable. Audu was one of the toughest men in Nigerian politics who did not collapse and die when, as an incumbent, he was defeated in 2003 by Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, a man Audu had described on the soap box as “a mere carpenter.” Nor did he die in 2007, in 2008 and again in 2011 when he lost more elections to Idris and to Wada.

That Audu had been in poor health was an open secret. During the APC presidential primaries in November last year, I was invited to Asokoro together with a small group of journalists to see Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso. We had to wait for half an hour because Kwankwaso was meeting with one of his staunchest supporters, Audu. Finally we were ushered into a room to meet the two of them. Both men sat imperiously in chairs in the centre of a large hall while we sat in smaller chairs around them. I noticed that Audu looked pale and pumped up, was sleepy, and he was constantly looking at the carpet. I kind of jolted him from sleep when I walked up to him and introduced myself, and he pretended to remember me.

I knew that was not Audu’s normal mien because I had known him personally since 1995 when my colleague at New Nigerian Hajiya Ramatu Ali introduced me to him so I could rent his house at Unguwar Dosa. By then he was already the former Governor of Kogi State. Prince Abubakar Audu burst into the political scene soon after Kogi State’s creation in August 1991. He was a Commissioner in Benue State before Igalaland was excised and merged into Kogi State. The fight between NRC’s candidate Audu and SDP’s candidate, the late Dr. Steven Achema for the governorship of Kogi in 1991 was very acrimonious and it ended in victory for Audu. His brief rule of the state was also acrimonious because he took no prisoners.

Audu twice came to New Nigerian in the 1990s to see me over his rent. He was always accompanied by his friend, former Niger State Governor Dr. Musa Inuwa, now late. Even then, Audu was the most heavily dressed public figure around, ahead of even his Osun State gubernatorial contemporary Alhaji Isiaka Adeleke. Sometime in 1993 I strayed into a tailor’s shop at Yoruba Road, Kaduna and found the tailors hard at work. Hanging on the shop’s walls were large calendars of Abubakar Audu in resplendent regalia, and the head tailor proudly told me that it was his shop that did all those heavily embroidered gowns.

I was still his tenant when Audu bounced back as Kogi’s governor in 1999. I visited him in Lokoja in 2001 and quickly saw the stuff that he was made of. Governor Audu sat in a small office which was right under a mountain; it was the same spot where Lord Lugard had his office when he was Governor of Northern Nigeria in 1900. Top officials, including commissioners, approached Audu’s office with trepidation. Before we even sat down, he asked if I had gone round the state to see his projects. Audu said he will not speak until I see the projects so the Chief Press Secretary took us in a dash around the state to see housing estates, roads, water projects, schools, hospitals, a hotel and the then brand new Abubakar Audu University, Ayingba.
To be frank, I had never been so impressed to see a politician’s projects even though as editor of New Nigerian I visited lots of such projects in many states. Audu’s projects were as immaculate as his gowns. He had exacting personal standards and all contractors shivered in his presence. Audu personally went to road construction sites and measured the “shoulder” of the roads. He inspected building projects to ensure they were as neat as his own houses, and he chose a most beautiful site for the state university, a former agric project office, which he rapidly built up with more facilities. However, his larger than life ego was also on display. When the opposition PDP criticised him for naming the state university after himself, Audu pointed out that Ahmadu Bello University was also named after its founder. I also visited a wonderful eye hospital he built in his hometown which he named after his father, Audu Oyigi Memorial Eye Hospital. Other projects we saw were the imposing Government House then under construction and the Confluence Hotel, on the very spot where River Niger runs into River Benue.

Just before I sat down to interview Audu in Lokoja, his press secretary called me aside and said, “Please praise him for what he has done! My Oga likes praise!” I was taken aback by that request but since what I saw was truly impressive, I told Audu that I was impressed by his projects. He smiled broadly and adjusted his sharply pressed gown in acknowledgment.

Audu’s shocking death just before he officially won a governorship election has already caused confusion in the electoral commission and in the legal community. Already, big lawyers are arguing this way and that on television screens and in the newspapers. INEC must decide, based on its Legal Department’s advice, what to do in the circumstances. Its options are either to conclude the supplementary election with Audu’s running mate stepping in for him or to stop the process, allow APC to nominate another candidate and then start the election afresh. Whatever option INEC chooses will be challenged in court all the way to the Supreme Court.
The tangled legal web is actually less complicated than the tangled political web. Kogi State’s politics is a mishmash of individual, party, factional, tribal, religious and language group aspirations, plus workers’ grievances and outside influences. PDP for example would want the election to be run again. Its calculations will be that Audu led Wada by 40,000 votes and since a rerun APC primary will be very acrimonious, some of its supporters could peel off and vote for Wada. Such a calculation however assumes that Governor Idris Wada will be able to retain his 199,000 votes in a rerun election. This is very unlikely; many of his supporters are likely to see him as a lost case and will either migrate to APC to be on the winning side or stay away from the polls.

As for APC, I saw one pundit saying on television that it would like the election to continue so that its victory is assured. This analysis completely discounts the ethnic factor in Kogi politics, which appears to be its main driving force since the state’s creation. Just like the Tiv majority in Benue, Kogi’s Igala majority has no timetable for power shift to the Igbirra or the Okun. If the polls were to go ahead to a conclusion, an accidental power shift would have taken place to Audu’s running mate, James Faleke. Instead, Kogi’s APC leaders would most certainly prefer a new election in which they will be able to nominate another ethnic Igala candidate.
One way or another, a governor will be sworn-in in Kogi State in January or at a later date, depending upon the legal and electoral wrangles. It is a pity that this will not be Prince Abubakar Audu, one of the most flamboyant, most determined, most colourful, most controversial and also most effective Nigerian politicians of this generation.


http://dailytrust.com.ng/news/general/abubakar-audu-the-mighty-are-fallen/120943.html#LgV3bAUi1zTESWOS.99

If u had nevr seen or heard of his works(negativ nd positv) u wnt hav an inkling to who ds man Audu ws,haven lived in kogi fr 14yrs,i knw a litle abt rumoura and facts on ds man,it ws once rumoured he made a highly respected traditnal ruler sit on d floor wen he ws paid a visit.


Those younger yrs,u wil alwys hear on Radio kogi,fm station d nly state owned Radio station,funny tales of The 'Mighty Works'of D Prince.

At dat tym dere shal be no commercial break witout ds song"LIFE E DON BETTER,KOGI STATE DON GUD,GOVERNOR AUDU U DO WEL TANK U.U DO WELL TANK U,EHN TANK×2"evryday Audu ws a Real topic.

His kind of ego is second nly to IDI AMIN.
Bt At ds Snail pace of Wada,kogi needed his Charisma.

Thank God av left d rural state to my home state of Delta.#DELTAROCKS.

LET ME B D FIRST TO WISH master SEUN ND ALL NAIRALANDERS,HAPPY CHRISMAS IN ADVANCE.

Sir ROCK555,God wil arest ur dad Ijn Amen.

Vanity upon vanity! The billionaire burial rite wasn't even upto 15k. May all the recycled politicians learn from this sudden demise of the very ambitious prince abubakar Audu. Let them give space for youth jare. Rip may u find forgiveness with God. Amen

Audu is from a royal home. It is traditional that people sit on the mat when they visit the ruler.

The mighty falls so that the weakling may rise. The sun sets so that the moon will blossom.