Onjefu OkiduAgain, the Idoma nation is tightly gripped by the collective political betrayal of her people. After the APC and PDP primaries in Benue State, the Idoma governor agitation domain has continued to witness graveyard silence, so to say. Yes, graveyard silence! The generality of the Idoma people like their stomach-led political leaders appear to have pulled off their agitation binoculars and are now in search of green abodes.
There are ongoing massive alignments and re-alignments, and gradually, the Idoma governor agitation is being left in the cold with a dystopian feel and uncertain future. Like an orphan, the agitation is willy-nilly abandoned in the chilly-cold street while the people are heartlessly dining and winning with APC and PDP.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe entire affair smacks of the unchanging nature of the Idoma people. Indeed, as philosophers have succinctly submitted, “the most difficult people to set free are happy slaves.” It is very, very difficult to even convince them in the first place that they are slaves. Apparently, everything has remained the same since Adam. The Idoma people have refused to adapt and adjust outside APC and PDP. Virtually, all the platforms erected primarily for the Idoma Governor agitation have been turned into centers for weaponizing lies, misinformation, insolence, gossip, threat, fake news and hate speech by political attack dogs of various hues and colours. The platforms are visibly and continuously loaded with arguments for and against the same superfluous political leaders who have assiduously worked against the Idoma Governor. Very shameful!
Perhaps, nothing is more shameful and nauseating than the quarrels and fights over deputy governorship slots. Here are people who vowed never to play second fiddle to anybody. Here are people who said they would never somersault into the unedifying and undignifying subjugation of the past, fighting over crumbs from the master’s table. Very shameful indeed! In fact, some of the people fighting and quarreling over the deputy governorship slot even swore by their gods, fathers, forefathers, villages and ancestors that they would never stoop little low to play any second fiddle. Here they are shamelessly scrambling to clinch even any fiddle – very, very shameful!
The whole scenario has been made worse by the accentuating factions and grudges that one finds very, very baffling of a people who are supposed to be bridging the gulf of disunity. It is unfortunate that even some contemporary Idoma intellectuals are guilty of the same behaviour despite the fact that they have achieved some power through superior education which should have pushed them through the threshold of parasitic and untruthful predisposition – it is very shameful!
Here is a great irony; the outcomes of some past party primaries in the state indicated very strongly that the Tiv people are not against an Idoma Governor but the Idoma people have consistently subjected themselves to the vile and selfish leadings of their “leaders” and stomach, to portray the contrary. Truth be told, the generality of the Tiv people are not against an Idoma governor. They are not! Unfortunately, the opposite has been built into the psyche of the typical Idoma man and woman who in turn have cultivated incredible self-doubt and defeat – oh, the Tiv are more in number; oh, the Tiv will never allow an Idoma man; oh, unless the Igedes, Etilos, Akweyas, Jukuns, etc. agree; oh, the Idomas don’t have what it takes; oh, it is not yet time; oh, oh and oh!!
In fact, some have even bought into the lame argument of the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, that the Idoma people have not made reasonable state-wide consultations and negotiations, and have not created the needed understanding. Beyond the evidence of 47 years of relegation, way before the APC and PDP primaries, the Benue Rebirth Movement (BRM) spared incredible energy, time and resources to engage virtually all the people that matter, virtually all! The organization has served as a bright light in dark times and has succeeded in creating a reasonable level of awareness and consciousness beyond Idoma land and Benue State. Still, the organization’s efforts have not prevented the Idoma people from sliding into their reprobate past to muddy the waters. It is really shameful!
For instance, as recent as 14th July 2022, the following statement was leading the way or better still, trending on one of the most patronized Idoma Governor social platforms: “ if one of the mega parties had given governorship ticket to zone C person all of us would have queued behind such person and reject the Deputy Governor position across board.” Frankly, was this statement made out of good conscience within the context of the Idoma Governor agitation when there are options of other parties with competent Idoma sons and daughter holding the gubernatorial ticket? Obviously not!!
If old political domination patterns die hard, so do slave mentality. Invariably, prolonged domination has made many Idoma men and women to have forgotten the existence of freedom. In a real sense, this tendency has grown deeper in many Idoma people since the APC and PDP primaries, and has made them to forget that Archbishop Jim Okewu, Dr Mathias Oyigeya, Dr Sam Abah, Mrs Ada Chenge and Dr Ewaoche Obeh had vied for the gubernatorial tickets of their various parties and as a matter of fact, some of them have done the Idoma nation proud by securing the governorship tickets. The expectation is that, after the PDP and APC primaries, much of the conversations in Zone C should have shifted to how a competent, visionary and credible flagbearer of a party outside APC and PDP could be supported.
Actually, the Idoma political leaders have continued to serve as a big bad influence on the Idoma political landscape, but the Idoma people themselves have also continued to perpetuate same unscrupulous leaders by giving themundue attention and loyalty. It is one thing to demand of the Idoma political leaders to be sensitive to the yearnings and aspirations of the people, it is another thing for the Idoma people themselves to collectively denounce their bad and unproductive leaders.
As it is now, no one really cares about the idoma Governor, it’s all soft pretence. The situation has been made worse by the struggle over who bears the Idoma gubernatorial flag. This has in a way generated a wave of non-compliance, lots of anger, lots of hatred, lots of suspicions, lots of fooling around, lots of egos, lots of propaganda, lots of false accusations and what have you. The truth of course is that apart from subjecting their political leaders to intensive moral audits, the Idoma people themselves need to collectively rediscover themselves politically. Yes, the need to, and speedily too.
What has been happening in Benue Zone C since the APC and PDP primaries is not only an embarrassment to the Idoma nation but also a further exposure of the extreme political vulnerability of the people to future political special pleaders, users and exploiters. In particular, the sorry spectacle of Idoma sons and daughters falling over themselves pleading to be made Deputy Governor at this time that all and sundry are looking forward to an Idoma Governor is not only shameful but portrays the Idoma people as clearly unwilling to put on a metal velvet of political maturity that can truly help their emancipation.
The worst thing that can happen to a people is for them to get to a point where they lose faith in reason and themselves. Socrates, one of the great philosophers, submitted that such people “are in a real sense dead.” Another great philosopher, Karl Jaspers, saw them as degraded to become “a machine that surrenders to the apparatus.” Just like a dark cloud, skepticism enveloped in vested interest has followed the Idoma Governor’s agitation right from the world go. And given the people’s current predisposition, it is unlikely to diminish soon. As the 2023 elections draw nearer, expect more shame to emerge. Little is already left to be imagined!
BarkadaSallah in arrears!!!
Dr Okidu writes from Ilorin.
He can be reached through:
E-mail – okidu2002@yahoo.com
Phone – +2348036636139
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