By Mson Fachir
The story that the former governor of Benue state, Senator Gabriel Suswam is planning to take Governor Hyacinth Alia away from the All Progressives Congress (APC) is refusing to go away. The defeated Senator has schemed his way into Governor Alia’s heart and occupied it as the godfather.
Governor Alia’s political battle for power with his party, the APC has gotten worse and has now graduated to open insults from the governor and his supporters targeted at Secretary to the Government of the Federation,(SGF) Senator George Akume. Though Akume himself has remained silent and unmoved, his supporters, particularly the women wing of APC have begun to respond in equal measure with songs exposing Alia’s betrayal, many lies and untrustworthiness.
Senator Suswam wants to be the next National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in order to take Governor Alia into the party and hand over its structures in Benue State to him to enable him get a soft landing for the 2027 Governorship ticket on the party’s platform. Both men are now seen almost everywhere together.
Yesterday Friday 19th July 2024 during an event at the Benue State University Teaching Hospital, Suswam and Alia were hugging and laughing heartily apparently in celebration of their “perfect” schemes.
Since Governor Alia took over, no day passes without Suswam engaging him in a long conversation on phone and in some cases physically. Most decisions Governor Alia has so far taken against APC stakeholders are products of Suswam’s advice.
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According to sources, Alia has already spent over N5 billion to make Suswam PDP National Chairman and has donated to the former Benue State Governor a car worth over N250 million to facilitate his campaign.
Meanwhile, Governor Alia had a few months ago chartered two private jets for the burial of Senator Suswam’s mother-in-law in Ibadan. While one of the jets conveyed Governor Alia’s delegation for the burial programme, the other one was used to fly Suswam’s friends and well wishers.
If Suswam continues to exert his influence over Alia, the governor will soon lose sight of his own identity. As a political novice, Alia has made ill-advised alliances that have strained his relationships with loyal party members who played a significant role in his electoral victory.
Former Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Emmanuel Jime has emerged as Governor Alia’s secondary influential figure, following in the footsteps of Suswam. Jime harbours a deep-seated animosity towards Akume, similar to an intense hatred towards a snake. He and Suswam are in an ungodly relationship with Governor Alia to destroy APC in Benue State.
The current situation is far from what core APC members had envisioned and worked tirelessly for. Their efforts were not invested in traversing villages, sacrificing sleepless nights to promote Alia’s candidacy, only to witness him become a political protégé of Gabriel Suswam. If Suswam possessed all the ideas and strategies for political survival and victory, he would not have experienced a crushing defeat in the hands of Senator Emmanuel Udende in the 2023 election.
Meanwhile, insider information has it that Governor Alia who is already one leg out of APC has secretly been building structures of Social Democratic Party, SDP in Benue State as plan B, in case his plot with Suswam fails. SDP is controlled by Suswam’s arch rival Senator Barnabas Gemade.
Alia is riding on a cart of confusion whose horses are being pulled in opposite directions by two political enemies.
