APC Kogi West Senatorial Primary Controversy: Where is the Omooluwabi in Us as Okun People? Are the Elders No Longer in the House?
By Obafemi Olugbemi
The controversy introduced into the just concluded Kogi West Senatorial primary of the All Progressives Congress by some agents of the Kogi State Government has raised questions about who we are as Okun people, our culture, our traditions, and how we are raised and nurtured to uphold good character and self-discipline in all ramifications.
This made me remember my late father, who believed only in orderliness and the truth, nothing but the truth. No matter who you were to him—his wife, friend, biological children, or others—he was bold and courageous enough to speak the truth no matter whose ox was gored.
- Advertisement -
As his son, he always told me to tread the path of truth and justice in everything I do in life. My mother would always tell me to stand strong in the face of injustice because injustice to one is injustice to all.
This upbringing has been so helpful to me in life, and it has been my guiding principle so far.
Coming to the situation at hand, for us in Okun nation, Omooluwabi is not a slogan. It is a code. It speaks of our character, of humility, and of doing the right thing even when no one is watching.
An Omooluwabi respects elders, honors agreements, and places community above self. It is the reason Okunland has long prided itself on settling disputes under the tree with kola and counsel, not with insults and injunctions.
That cultural memory is why the fallout from the APC Kogi West primary stings more than a normal political loss.
How can a candidate who withdrew his participation a day before the primary, citing presidential intervention, suddenly turn back and claim he was still part of the process to the point of winning an election he knew he was not part of? Where is the Omooluwabi in him?
That question cuts deepest. In Okun tradition, elders are not just old men. They are custodians of tone, mediators of conflict, and the first to remind ambitious sons that titles without temperament mean little.
Their absence in public view during this primary has not gone unnoticed.
People are asking: who called the meetings? Who reminded the aspirants that Kogi West is bigger than one ticket? Who stood up to say, “let us finish this the Okun way” before it spilled into the open?
The silence, real or perceived, has created a vacuum that social media and partisans have filled with heat instead of light.
Beyond the Ticket
This is not about rejecting Karimi or dismissing Aro. Both are Okun sons with records of service. The issue is what the process signals for the next generation.
If young politicians learn that primaries are settled far from home and that cultural values can be suspended for political convenience, what remains of Omooluwabi?
Kogi West needs strong representation in Abuja. But it also needs to protect the social fabric that makes Okunland distinct: respect for elders, fairness in contest, and the belief that no one is bigger than the community.
It is not part of our culture and tradition for outsiders to decide for us. The Kogi West Senatorial ticket should be decided by the people themselves, and they spoke loudly on 18th May, 2026, with Kogi State Government appointees and party leaders from across the seven local government areas participating and supervising. How then can the results be rewritten when they were not generated from the wards which is primary source, while some party leaders and officials are being pressured by a third party to change the narrative?
It is on record, with Hon. Haruna Isa as the returning officer, that Senator Sunday Karimi scored over 51,000 votes to emerge winner of the Kogi West Senatorial ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress. How come they are changing their stance? Were they asleep when the process started and was completed on 18th May?
What is the challenge with the emergence of the people’s senator? Kogi West needs peace. Please let the people rest. The insecurity in the area is already a serious headache; do not add another problem.
Healing will require more than press statements. It will take visible reconciliation, elders stepping forward not to anoint but to mediate, and winners remembering that a return ticket comes with a return responsibility to all, including those who lost.
The APC in Kogi West still has time to show that politics and culture are not enemies, that Omooluwabi is not archaic, and that the elders are indeed still in the house. When they speak, the house listens.
Because if Okun people lose their moral compass in the race for power, the victory will be hollow, no matter how many votes it carries.
(DEMOCRACY NEWSLINE NEWSPAPER, MAY 27TH 2026)
