Bad leadership bane of Igalaland, says Idris

Dr. Omede Idris

Friday Olokor, Abuja

A former President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Dr. Omede Idris, has identified division and acrimony as the bane of the Igala ethnic nationality.

According to Idris, although Igala sons and daughters have held some positions, development will not be in the Igala ethnic nationality so long as division and acrimony continue to thrive among them.

“Other ethnic groups have used population advantage to maintain unity for a common purpose”, he stated.

Idris, a former Commissioner for Health in the state, said this in a keynote address entitled, “Crisis on multiple fronts: Igala language, culture and leadership in the 21st century”, which he delivered in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, during the annual National Conference of Igala Association.

The paper was obtained by THE PUNCH on Tuesday in Abuja.

He said, “Over time, there has been leadership discourse in Kogi East or Igala land, but no aggressive/sustained approach has been given to contents of such discourse for implementation. Despite the population advantage that the Igala (people) have in Kogi State in addition to educational status and land mass, the tribe has not been able to harness this advantage to the benefit of her people, due to individual rather than group or collective approach to fundamental issues that affect the people.

“Elective offices, job and appointment opportunities, project sites, and development, have suffered as a consequence of this absence of internal cohesion. While states like Benue have internal cohesion and understanding in joint deliberations and negotiations amongst the various tribes, same cannot be said of Igala specifically and Kogi State in general.

“Of the entire Igala geo-political movement, it is only at our present abode – Kogi State – that Igala as an entity was ever privileged to have produced a democratically elected governor of a state.”

He said it was due to sheer strength of the majority population that an Igala, late Prince Abubakar Audu, emerged as the first democratically elected governor of Kogi State between 1991 and 1992, on the platform of the defunct National Republican Convention