By Dennis Agema
It was Nigeria’s literary giant Chinua Achebe who wrote that “Those whom the gods want to kill, they first make mad”.
The above statement is true about the current Governor of Benue State, Hyacinth Alia who is fighting himself and everyone in sight.
The man who is now governing Benue State is heartless, and his intolerant conduct does not have respect even for neighborliness. In New GRA in Makurdi where Alia resides, he has barricaded the street on both ends and once it is 8pm, no one is allowed to drive into the street. The heavily armed security men wouldn’t allow anyone to get in. His neighbours have been having a hell of a time. They live like neighbours in a military zone.
The other day Alia was passing and saw one of his neighbours drying his mattress outside his house by the roadside and stopped. He had ordered the man to take the mattress away and never again display “that dirty looking thing” for people to see. He accused the now trembling man of defacing the town. Even the governor’s aides who were with him could not believe their eyes and ears.
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Alia has repeatedly boasted that he must do a second term in office, whether anyone likes it or not! He recently told his opponents to forget about contesting for the governorship in 2027 and wait till he is done with 8 years. Wow!
But what is more shocking is the number of fights Governor Alia is waging against people who don’t want to fight him. In his first two days in office, Alia wore boxing gloves and invited the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Senator George Akume for a bout. Akume has since refused to join Alia in the boxing ring but the Governor has continued to punch empty air and throw jabs in the direction of his unwilling and absent opponent.
Alia attempted to serve Akume the biggest humiliation of his life at the burial of Wantaregh Paul Unongo recently, but the SGF survived the ambush and it was Alia who ended up receiving disgrace. His plan was to stop Akume from speaking at the burial but he failed. The crowd at the burial shouted in opposition to all the explanations he was trying to offer.
Alia has also been fighting his predecessor Samuel Ortom whom he set up two commissions of inquiry to probe. He has sealed almost all the companies that Ortom founded so as to cripple the former governor.
At the same time, Alia is at war against all members of the National Assembly from Benue State whom he describes as “ubokoti mbaiorov (meaning hollow/empty men who have no value). No day passes without his aides throwing insults at the Benue Senators and House of Representatives members.
But governor Alia is not aware (Yes Faga) that his rating in the minds of Benue people has drastically dropped with his popularity also nosediving.
Alia has failed to fulfill most of his promises to Benue people. It is a paradox that a man who said he would end insecurity in the state and return those displaced by Fulani herdsmen to their ancestral homes within his first 100 days in office is looking for sacrificial lambs and blame targets to explain why he can’t keep the promise. The man who hoodwinked the people into believing that he had the solution to their problems – despite warnings that he was a scam – is now romancing with enemies of the people who allegedly sponsored his campaign which was hinged on falsehood.
Security has collapsed in parts of the state. Fulani herders have taken over many communities and are destroying people’s means of livelihood and have been killing people, but Alia is saying nothing and doing nothing.
After a year and seven months in office, Alia is still without a clear plan of what he wants to do as governor. He has been receiving unprecedented amounts from the federation’s account and other interventions, yet, he promised to clear the arrears of salaries and pensions but has not done so. Makurdi streets are in a terrible state.
Governor Alia has murdered due process and has ruined the civil service in the state. He awards contracts directly without the approval of the Executive Council and no one knows the amount involved. Most of what the man does is not budgeted for, but sadly, the rubber stamp Benue State House of Assembly is mute.
Tiv people say ishua i lamen i we iya ga (a bird which makes too much noise does not build a nest).
* Dennis Agema writes from Lugbe, Abuja.
