Kogi State is divided into three Senatorial Districts; Central, East and West, populated by the Ebira, Igala and Yoruba majority tribes, respectively. In Kogi’s 33 years of three dispensations of democracy, the Igala of Kogi East, who according to 2006 census constitute 46 per cent of the state’s population have produced three governors who ruled the state for nearly two decades. Subsequently, the Ebira of Kogi Central have produced two governors, and are currently on a third term of 12 years in the Lugard House, while the Yoruba of the West have none.
There are, of course, subsisting arguments for or against the constitutionality of power rotation amongst the component parts of Kogi State. Until 2015, there was also the usual capitulation by the minorities; Kogi West and Central to sitting governors from Igala ethnic groups. But while the Ebira have had their breakthrough, albeit occasioned by some “divine intervention”, the West seems not to have learnt from the past. The lack of unity and inability to present and rally around a consensus candidate, is believed to be responsible for the fate of Kogi West people, which has seen the more elite region lag behind in the inequitable distribution of power in the self-styled Confluence State.
