By Felix Orban
When George Akume was the Governor of Benue State between 1999 and 2007, a fellow Tiv man known as David Iornem, who was a senator in the defunct 3rd republic, a man whose academic credentials have remained questionable till today, including his claim to professorship, owned a newspaper known as the ‘The New Times’.
Iornem’s paper usually contained only a few pages all dedicated to running down Governor Akume and his administration. Iornem often published his newspaper in Kaduna and only sent copies to Benue, Abuja, Taraba and other neighboring states. The New Times made Akume worthless in the minds of readers. It saw nothing good in the government of Akume.
Senator Iornem whose acts of ignominy via The New Times could only be rivaled by the late Godwin Daboh Adzuana, was the mouthpiece of a group known as ‘Benue Proactive Coalition’ led by Joseph Waya which had the likes of the late Basil Chianson, Sam Ode (current Benue Deputy Governor) Joe Asan, late Abubakar Tsav, Cliff Atile, Paul Biam (current Chief of Staff to Gov Alia) Sam Agwa, Mike Gbe, among others.
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The group ran Akume down in a devastating fashion. In their frequent articles laden with venom, there was nothing good about the man George Akume and his government. The group equally leveled media attacks on anyone else who dared to disagree with their acts of ‘Pull Him Down’.
This history is necessary to place into proper perspective where Kohol Shadrack Iornem, Senator David Iornem’s son is coming from. His father has permanently lost his place among illustrious Tiv sons, owing to his inglorious outings against Tiv personalities during Akume’s time as governor. Iornem is not reckoned with today and is not recognized in any gathering of noble Tiv sons and daughters. Certainly, a man who wrote a book and included in it, a chapter on how to rig elections is not worth any recognition. Senator Iornem is also notorious for running an unapproved university where he gave people fake degrees.
Prof. Kohol Shadrach Iornem contested for the Kwande/Ushongo House of Representatives seat on the platform of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) in 2023 and lost abysmally. He could not garner even a handful of votes. He lost in his hometown Tse-Nyagba in Ushongo as well.
Kohol is the new owner of The New Times, having taken over the management of the paper from his father who is in his 80s now.
Kohol has indeed started on a harder and worse note than his father. He has hired a drunk known as Denen Achussah who is a junk reporter at burukutu joints in Makurdi as editor of the newspaper. No day passes without the newspaper publishing one article or the other to insult some prominent Tiv politicians.
Prof. Iornem is on a malicious mission. The mission is to destroy the political image and standing in the society of those he is against. It is a matter of “like father, like son”. The editor of the paper Achussah is under specific instructions to ensure that certain political figures in the state go down.
The same editor of the newspaper Achussah recently made threats that he would defile the young daughters of a social media influencer in Benue State, Iorliam Shija. Such a reprehensible act is not just an affront to the dignity of Shija’s girls but also a harbinger of the toxic environment that Kohol Iornem’s newspaper is perpetuating. Despite the public outcry and condemnation from various quarters, the management under Kohol has failed to take any punitive action against Achussah, revealing a tacit complicity in the harassment of the young family. The publisher Kohol Iornem was apparently not displeased with the outing of his editor Achussah.
Iornem’s newspaper is a propaganda tool against political opponents.
But this is not how to take after a father. Kohol ought to learn from the fall of his father who is still alive but has been dumped into the waste bin of history as one who rose against other Tiv sons and tried to bring them down. Kohol, who has lived most of his adult life abroad, should know better than his father who believes in Machiavellian politics.
Kohol should have toed the path of a unifier. He ought to have sought to reconcile his father with those he deeply hurt through his publications in TNT. Fortunately, most of such individuals are still alive as his father also is.
He should have rebranded TNT to be a model of excellence in journalism where Benue sons and daughters will not be vilified and destroyed but rather promoted to aspire for greater successes.
Kohol has sadly failed to grab the opportunity!
A sheep indeed does not give birth to a goat.
