Noisy Dino Goes Quiet As Reality Knocks on the door, Odds Gradually Stack Up Against Him
● How Tinubu, Wike may join forces with his opponents in Kogi to defeat him.
By Onome Peter
Dino Malaye, governorship candidate of the PDP in Kogi may face hard times on the road to the forthcoming elections.
There are very strong indications that the gubernatorial candidate of the PDP in Kogi State, Senator Dino Melaye may be worried about his political future.
He has reason to.
Melaye has a crucial election to run in a few months from now and the odds are heavily stacked up against him, according to tidbits of information that are being carefully pieced together.
The outgoing Governor, Yahaya Bello is throwing in everything into the ring. A successor would help consolidate his gains in office.
Besides, Bello has the support of the APC which is reportedly intensifying its effort to ensure that governor’s successor wins the next election.
Of course, there are voices of discord within the APC. Political foes like Senator Smart Adeyemi are fighting against the party structure which has excluded them from the governorship race.
Although Bello has been roundly accused of picking a successor from his part of the State and hoisting him on the Kogi people, the APC’s preferred candidate is gradually making inroads of his own.
But this is not the only development which insiders say is unnerving the gubernatorial candidate of the PDP.
Dino, Spokesman of Atiku Abubakar’s campaign organization who lost the bid for the Senate to T.J Yusuf by a narrow margin will be coming against formidable foes in the forthcoming elections.
Among formidable foes that Dino Melaye and his supporters anticipate will be coming after him are President Bola Tinubu and ex-governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike of Rivers State.
President Bola Tinubu might snuff air out of Dino’s lungs when the time comes.“Dino is like a man who went and fetched an ant-infested wood. The ants are crawling all over as he tries to make a fire to cook”, a Kogi politician remarked.
“If Dino wins, his victory would certainly qualify as the seventh wonder of the world”, the politician insisted while rubbing minds with a correspondent of this publication.
As presidential Spokesman for Atiku, Dino went all out to ridicule Tinubu and Wike. It is on record that while mimicking Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Dino repeatedly rose and fell on stage.
As for Wike, there was nothing, printable and unprintable that Dino did not say in a bid to run down the Rivers Governor as he then was.
“It is payback time as the clock ticks and the PDP candidate gets set for the race”, a close Wike associate stressed in Port Harcourt, “Tinubu has turned president while Wike is getting stronger by the day despite the vile predictions made by the Atiku camp that he will be reduced to nothing after leaving office.”
Atiku Abubakar, Iyorchia Ayu and Nyesom Wike. Their differences ruined the chances of the PDP in the last election.
On ground, Dino has Yahaya Bello and the APC apparatus to worry about. There are also Yusuf and his associates in the PDP to think of. They would be the first line of resistance from Dino’s senatorial district if Wike shows interest in the fight.
Wike had told Dino a few months ago that he would not make a good governor even if he were to be elected into office.
Chances that Dino would occupy the Kogi State Government House are becoming increasingly slimmer by the day.
Dino’s calculation was initially anchored on Atiku’s victory in the presidential race. That calculation has since suffered a huge setback.
Atiku did not win and the power play in the National Assembly has not gone the way of the Atiku camp and their allies.
“This latest development in the National Assembly is what is giving Dino’s support base some serious concern”, a Kogi-born politician who is close to the Dino campaign team remarked.
“The political atmosphere as we go about is not something we can go take for granted. It is dicey.
“Yes we are certain of the support of our friends in the PDP including Atiku Abubakar, Iyorchia Ayu and some serving and outgone governors. They will come behind us any day.
“But we pray that Nyesom Wike and the rest of the G5 whom we fought during the last election will not venture in. If they do join the battle and team up with the APC, it will really be a tough fight, particularly when you add Tinubu to it.”
“But this is politics. It’s not over until it is over. Dino may find a silver lining in the sky as we approach the elections”, a source told this medium in Abuja.
Dino is quiet for now, saying very little in public as he goes about wooing would-be voters after securing the ticket of the PDP.
What has fate in stock for him? Will he become the next governor of Kogi State in November?
Only time will tell.