Onjefu OkiduBy Onjefu Okidu
Desperate, greedy and self-serving men (and women) they say make desperate and self-consuming mistakes. There is perhaps no better example of where this sordid state of affairs is demonstrated than in Idoma land that has, in a generation, moved from a clear promise of milk and honey to the labyrinths of mass misery and underdevelopment, aside from earning the uncanny distinction of not having political cohesion and unity.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelAfter a long-winded agitation for the Benue State Governorship slot in 2023, the people seem set for another elaborate journey to no where with the vast majority of the people, almost totally disenchanted, disoriented and disillusioned.
It is amidst this apparently unending motion without movement that one is pushed to critically analyze the character of Idoma “political leaders” before, during and after the APC and PDP primary elections in Benue State. To say the least, the outcome of the primary elections of the two political parties has been quite embarrassing for the Idoma people. It has been a gross embarrassment because there is no evidence of any little attitude change by their “political leaders” despite the people’s loud quest, agitation and struggle for the realization of a governor of Idoma extraction. Against the backdrop of the development, therefore, there is every good reason for grave concern.
The period before the primaries of the two parties threw up many fundamental questions, very many! But, the most obvious is: Why did Idoma political leaders and key stakeholders in both parties accept “the election” of party chairmen from Zone C knowing fully well that it would count against the argument for an Idoma Governor? Obviously, the answer to the question is the outcome of the two primaries. There is no doubting the fact that Idoma party leaders grossly undermined the Idoma people by serving as leeway, solicitors and willing tools to advance the action in order to maintain the political evil of self-service with the authority of long tradition and habitation. Clearly, it could never be inertia and a tame submission to fate but an action deliberately designed to serve a selfish purpose of advancing their age-long betrayal. The truth of course is that their desperation, greediness, self-serving and never-ending betrayal are apparently worsening the political slavery the Idoma people have been subjected to.
The nefarious role of Idoma political “leaders” in the primaries cannot be fully understood without the knowledge of the specificity of the outcome of the primaries. As already well known by some, His Excellency, the Deputy Governor of Benue State, Chief Benson Abounu who contested under the umbrella party took first from the bottom and Chief Steve Lawani, Dr Sam Odeh and others who contested under the broom party do not know their scores talk more of their position. Benson’s performance in zone C can simply be described as woeful. And those of Chief Lawani and Dr Sam Odeh are indescribable because their scores are not even known. And so the question is: Where were the parties’ Idoma leaders and key stakeholders? – the chairmen of the two parties, former and sitting senators, former and sitting House of Representative members, former Ministers, Former Deputy Governors, former and sitting state assembly members, commissioners, local government chairmen, etc. Where were they? As usual, they were busy serving the slave masters by the river bank!
To be fair, Idoma political leaders such as Chief Audu Ogbeh, Senator Ameh Ebute, General Godfrey Ejiga (rtd), Honourable Baba Odeh, Comrade Dan Onjeh and many others who cannot now be readily recalled stood firm (and still stand firm) for an Idoma Governor. These people, without boundaries, have been speaking, lobbying and at the same time writing with all their skillsets for the slavery to end to the extent that they have fallen out of favour with the slave masters. These are Idoma leaders who take leadership as service of the people and have taken the burden with special interest and the fear of God.
Also, organizations such as the Benue Rebirth Movement (BRM), Idoma Development Association (IDA) and Ochetoha k’Idoma are at the forefront of the struggle. Unfortunately, they do not have enough social, political and economic resources and cohesion to face up to the challenge posed by the pharaohs. Although, with the recent courtesy call on the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, the BRM is faced with the strong suspicion of trading away the agitation, the organization remains the face and icon of the struggle. Indeed, already, there is an affirmation that the organization rallies other similar organizations to make the agitation a success outside the APC and PDP.
Although, some serving Idoma politicians would hate to admit it, the reactions of virtually all sitting elected Idoma “leaders” after the primaries make the situation more denigrating for the Idoma people. While some shamelessly and remorselessly embrace silence others through media miscommunication removed all doubts about their betrayals of the people. One of the outstanding miscommunications is by Abba Moro, the Senator representing Benue Zone C Senatorial District of Benue State, the supposedly current political leader of the Idoma people. In a statement he personally signed and made available to traditional and social media, rather than apologize to the people for his unproductive leadership, he further bruises the people’s gushing wound by narrating how he betrayed them.
To be sure, in the statement, he makes it very clear that rather than responding to the mood of the Idoma people, he was responding to the mood of political gladiators/leaders. Listen to him; “Where you gave me your mandate to work in the senate, there is what we call ‘the mood of the Senate.’ People watched the mood of political gladiators/leaders and acted for the best interest of the people.” And the question is: how can an Idoma man agitating for an Idoma Governor in Benue State positively respond to the mood of a Tiv man who is the Governor of the state and succeed in the agitation? It is indeed sad, very sad, that senator Abba Moro does not even recognize the fact that he is currently the political leader of the Idoma people, that as an elected representative of the people, he must serve as the loudest speaker of the Idoma voice.
Whether Abba Moro likes it or not, as an elected Senator representing Benue Zone C senatorial District, he is at the moment the political leader of all Idoma people, and every buck stops at his table. It is in the light of the foregone that it is necessary to highlight the fact that as a representative of all Idoma people mandated to do business on behalf of all the people, Abba Moro cannot afford to behave as he likes.
Oh, yes! He cannot continue to demean the Idoma people by continually arguing for himself, his party, his political godfather and godsons like the ordinary Idoma man in a boozy beer parlor. If he has anything to be insincere about based on personal considerations, it shouldn’t be the battle to deliver the people from the clutches of indignity and enslavement. The concept of election envisages an efficient, effective and well-oiled apparatus of political power whose raison d’etre is the representation of the people.
It needs be emphasized, though, that because of the people’s abject poverty, mass ignorance, chronic unemployment and corruption, it has been possible to enthrone and sustain all manner of “leaders” in Benue Zone C who pay the scantiest regard to the yearnings and aspirations of the people. Forty-six years after the birth of Benue State, the fact stares everyone in the face, to the shame of Idoma “Political leaders,” that no fundamental changes have occurred since then, sufficient enough, to warrant an Idoma Governor, or at the very least, a little positive shift in the mentality of the “leaders” in support of the agitation for an Idoma Governor.
The fate of the Idoma nation is too precious to be continually left in the hands of reckless and self-serving leaders who do not flow with the yearnings and aspirations of the people. It follows, therefore, that the sooner the Idoma electorates terminate the representation of the present crop of their political leaders and enthrone more responsive ones the sooner they restore to the Idoma people their dignity and inherent political benefits. As Abba Moro himself has advised, there is need for all Idoma sons and daughters to stop being social media noisemakers, get off the platforms and move into their various rural communities to educate and enlighten the people in-person on the need for the change. God rules in the affairs of men but men have to work hard and smart. Enough of the noise on social media!
Happy Democracy Day!
Dr Okidu writes from Ilorin.
He can be reached through: E-mail – okidu2002@yahoo.com
Phone – +2348036636139
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