Senator representing Kogi West, Smart Adeyemi, has announced his intention to run for governor of Kogi State, which is coming up later this year. All Progressives Congress (APC), under whose platform Adeyemi is contesting, had slated April 10, 2023, for the party’s governorship primaries in Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo states.
Adeyemi, who is serving his third term in the Senate, representing Kogi West, is known for his imprint on the political landscape of the state since joining politics in 2007, after serving as a two-term President of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ). He served two terms of eight years as Senator on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Although he had lost his initial bid for a third term to Senator Dino Melaye, then of the APC, in 2015, Adeyemi, however, bounced back to the Senate in 2019, reclaiming Kogi West Senate mandate from Melaye. But this only came to be after he and Melaye had swapped parties.
Prior to 2019 polls, Adeyemi left PDP to pitch tent with APC, and to the embrace of Governor Yahaya Bello, who appointed him Chairman, Kogi Elders advisory Council.
This became expedient when, in the search for legitimacy at the early stages of Bello’s reign, the administration had to contend with internal opposition in the ruling APC, arising from the controversial process leading to Bello’s emergence as governor.
Recall that Abubakar Audu/James Faleke faction had challenged the choice of Bello ahead of Faleke, who was running mate to Audu, who died while cruising to victory at the 2015 polls.
His running mate, Faleke, had been denied the right to claim the mandate by the courts, which transferred the votes to Yahaya Bello, who had come second in the August 2015 APC governorship primary.
After protracted legal battles, the Supreme Court affirmed Bello as winner of the supplementary election that followed November governorship election earlier declared as inconclusive, upon Audu’s sudden death.
For most of the past seven years APC has been holding sway in the state, Adeyemi was visibly marked as an outspoken, vociferous defender of Bello’s policies. He was the coordinator for Bello’s second term campaign in 2019.
