. BY DOMINIC KIDZU
Sometimes you have to remind people that you are there too before they realize that you also have been sitting on the table with them. Otherwise privilege can easily be appropriated as a right for one and an egregious denial for another, even when the community bitterkola is by tradition required to be shared node by node.
All sentient political actors and followers in Boki are aware that zoning of electoral political offices is done according to the traditional old clans, which is the same thing as ward clusters. Conveniently, the three old clans in Boki 2 are politically delineated into six wards, at two wards per clan. Thus Osokom 1 clan has Ogep and Ekpashi wards, Osokom 2 – Kakwagom/Bawup and Oku/Borum/Njua wards, while Irruan clan has Buda and Bunyia/Okubuchi wards.
Since the beginning of the fourth republic, each of these clans have gone to the state House of Assembly at least once, which means three wards have taken and three wards, one each per clan have not taken. As 2027 begins to crystallize upon us the three wards outstanding are Bunyia/Okubuchi ward in Irruan, Kakwagom/Bawup in Osokom 2, and Ogep ward in Osokom 2 clan.
Now Kakwagom/Bawup in Osokom 2 is already holding the head of the bull with their son in the Federal House of Representatives and most likely to go back, unless there are strange planetary movements. Ogep ward in Osokom 1 has its sister ward, Ekpashi, still sitting in the House of Assembly since 2015 in a hitherto unprecedented three-term tenure. Moving the seat from Ekpashi to Ogep is only akin to moving money from the right pocket to the left in the name of equitable sharing.
The ward that deserves the diadem come 2027 is Bunyia/Okubuchi, especially because of the likelihood of the Chairmanship of the local government going to the same Osokom 1. One cannot put two chewing sticks in their mouth and hope to achieve a good and healthy brushing. This then is a clarion call for the right and equitable thing to be done by the leadership as we approach the banks of the Rubicon. And this is not because I am involved.
Dominic Kidzu writes from Koki Leo Street in Bunyia Irruan.