By Samson Ochono
There is one Miyetti Allah paid agent who is using a Yoruba name “Tunji Ajibade” to constantly write and publish articles to smear the name of Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom. Ajibade has been handed the difficult job of denigrating the Governor and he also knows how tough his task is. He mission-impossible is to change the narrative and extricate Fulani herdsmen from any blame regarding the terrorist attacks in Benue and other parts of the country. He accuses Governor Ortom of negatively profiling Fulani and setting them up for hatred.
But Ajibade is alone on that lane. Even Fulani groups like Miyetti Allah and Fulani Nationality Movement, FUNAM have never denied attacking and killing innocent farmers. They only try to justify their evil acts with fake claims that their cattle were rustled by the farmers.
Each time Ajibade publishes the ill-intended articles, he receives heavy bashing from Nigerians in the comments section. He sounds like a broken record which repeats a single beat. His articles also smack of a man who survives on cash-and-carry writings. While he, as a paid pen, is attacking people on pages of newspapers, his paymasters (herdsmen) carry sophisticated weapons attacking people in different communities.
His job is to salvage the image of his Fulani sponsors while assassinating the reputation of Governor Ortom who is the champion of justice for voiceless Nigerians.
Ajibade is a merchant of acrimony who is not only loquacious and empty-headed but is also prompted by a schizophrenic mindset to twist facts and sit truth on its head. He is a man on a voyage to profit from the spilling of the blood of innocent Nigerians, yet, he expects patriots like Samuel Ortom to remain mute. He may be profiting from his perfidious enterprise now but time is coming when his likes will tender unreserved public apologies to Governor Ortom and a few others who have stood for justice in this country.
The Benue State Governor has never changed the narrative as it affects the herder attacks. Right from when he assumed office, Governor Ortom identified the herders as perpetrators of mayhem in his state. He has consistently stated that the agenda of the terror pastoralists is to take over the land. He has always said Fulani of this generation want to complete what their great grandfather Usman Dan Fodio started in 1804 but was stopped by Tiv people at Ushongo Hills. So where Ajibade got his illusion that Governor Ortom has dropped the first narrative only exists in his myopic imagination.
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It is pertinent to state once again that whenever the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom speaks, he does so on behalf of millions of voiceless Nigerians. Ortom is not a glib. He is not flippant. He doesn’t focus on frivolities. He goes for substance. He sees what others only get to see weeks or even months later. He is a leader with uncommon depth whose utterances are guided by divine foresight. Governor Ortom is forthright. He says it as it is. All his predictions and warnings, particularly about security and economic matters, have come to pass.
The Benue State Governor is a voice of conscience and reason that must be taken seriously, even if Ajibade and his kind do not like Ortom for who he is and what he does, they must learn to separate the message from the messenger. The message may be the saving grace to avert the looming national calamity that stares us in the face.
In times of national turbulence, proactive measures are key to nipping in the bud the impending danger and on this, Governor Ortom acts like the gadfly to sting the Federal Government to consciousness to act earlier than it should be late. His advocacy against open grazing of cattle should be taken seriously as a time bomb that is already exploding to consume the country.
Another important lesson to mention here is that Governor Ortom loves his fatherland and desires to see things function correctly because he has chosen to remain undeterred in the face of even threats to his life for speaking against the myriad of social problems that are eating deeply into the fabric of our nationhood.
Let it be known that posterity will be fair to those who braved the odds to sustain the state of our national sovereignty and spoke as well as acted in defence of citizens of this great country. Governor Ortom has already secured a place in the annals of Nigeria for his bold, firm and courageous stand towards ensuring that the country works to protect the interests of all citizens irrespective of their backgrounds.
Ochono writes from Apo, Abuja.
