In every government, there is a caucus, a cabal the people described as most powerful appointees. There are those who either the President, Governor or the Chairman of a local government consider as his confidants. Those people are simply described in Nigerian parlance as the kitchen cabinet.
Right from the time of Governor Aper Aku to other successive governors before Governor Alia, they have had kitchen cabinets drawn from the large pool of appointees.
The criteria for becoming a member of the kitchen cabinet are trust, sycophancy and capacity to deliver. But in most cases, capacity is relegated to the background and faithful gossipers are included in the fold and trusted with key positions of government. The case is not different with the Governor Alia -led government.
When Governor Alia was sworn into office, it took him months to make appointments. Flying rumours had perched on many ears that there were too many interests in the appointments. And rightly so the Chief of Staff to the Benue State government, Paul Biam confirmed on Sunrise Channels Television programme that party stakeholders, including those in Abuja submitted names for appointment.
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The appointments took a long time coming but Governor Alia finally made his appointments from commissioners to Advisers, Principal Special assistants among others.
He had promised to select a team he believed would work for the good of the state, however, among the appointees, there are those whom Governor Alia trusts most and have merited the kitchen cabinet status. It goes to agree with the aphorism that indeed all animals are equal but some are more equal than others.
Here are the most powerful Appointees
Just one year and few months in office and from the activities of Governor Alia with his appointees the following are the most powerful appointees in his government.
Paul Biam: He is the Chief of Staff to the Benue State government but he is believed to be so powerful that his name is heard far more often than the Deputy Governor. He had on several occasions taken the position of the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Tersoo Kula, to speak on the political crisis in the state. He is believed to be one leading the political rhythms in the Governor Alia camp and who allegedly brought to the public the phrase, ‘Original APC’ which is ascribed to Governor Alia’s Camp.
Among the most powerful appointee is Terna Francis: He is the Director General at Benue State Education Quality Assurance Agency, a new agency created by the governor. Since the resumption of duty by the young man, the commissioner for education, who was the Director General of the Alia-Ode Governorship campaign, Rev Frederick Ikyaan is barely heard. More activities concerning education in the state are carried out by Terna Francis. Governor Alia seems to trust Terna more than Ikyaan the reason why less is heard of the office of the commissioner for education. Terna seems to get speedy approvals from the Governor on his proposals considering his activities which is in contrast with what other appointees go through to get approvals.
A few days ago, Terna Francis constituted a school demolition committee without the knowledge of the commissioner for education. The commissioner has since replied him describing his action to demolish schools in Benue without his knowledge as insubordination. It would not be any surprise if Terna goes ahead to execute his school demolition plan, after all, he has a big masquerade behind.
The commissioner for power and Transport, Barr Omale Omale, has won the trust of Governor Alia so much so that he was appointed chairman of the committee on palliatives even while there is a commissioner for Humanitarian and Disaster management and the Executive Secretary of Benue State Emergency Board who ordinarily would have handled the task.
Another super appointee is the Executive Chairman, of Benue State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Doctor Grace Adagba. There is a woman in everything. She is believed to be one woman so trusted by the governor. In some stories, it is told that accessing the governor through her is easier than any other known means in the state. She is in-charge of one of the Ministries with plenty of funds running in billions. Frankly, only trust persons can merit such position in any given government.
It was said that she accused journalists in Benue state to be working for opposition party
At the sideline, there is another very powerful person who is not an appointee but is believed to be very powerful make things work in the government. He is Moses Ternenge. In a leaked audio alleged to be his voice contained therein, Ternenge explains how impactful and protective he has been to the Governor. How he and other people installed the speaker to protect the Governor’s interest at the State Assembly and many more.
Read an extract of the audio which has been translated from Tiv to English language.
“This foolish boy which we made him speaker, has carried offices and given to people who are against Alia. We gave him Speaker so that he’d be sitting with us and making decisions, he took “appropriation committee” and gave it to Becky. Do you want to put the governor in the spotlight?
“They’ve said many things about me, that this guy is blocking people from seeing the governor, this guy doesn’t want people to see Alia. I didn’t come here to make money, I came here to help Alia fix Benue, that was the agreement when we made him governor. Now they are saying I wasn’t part of the campaign.
“This thing pains me a lot. You see that immediately I got here, the governor started asking me about court cases, why didn’t he ask those who were talking.
God has uplifted me in such a way not to fear any evil man. I don’t align with evil people. Even Alia, it’s because he is a priest, else I had refused that I will not deal with politicians. But when he came as a priest, we thought, we’d rally round him to help him succeed.
Do they know how we made him the governor? Or do they want us to dry dirty linen in the public? Instead of Kunav to concentrate and plead with Uba to go and halt the court case, they are misbehaving.
The governor knows me, he knows me. Do you know the evil that is been hatched against us in this house? This thing we are saying is not a secret. We came here with good intentions. You know my capacity, we came here with the intention to help. But this is becoming too much so we’ll have to talk now. They even arranged for people to assassinate us.
There are people pleading with us to work against the governor but we declined that we are going to work with the governor and we are not going to turn back.
I don’t see any governor in Benue who will intimidate me, none, because I have the capacity and it is God that gave me that. Why will you intimidate me? If you want to intimidate me because you are the governor, I’ll descend on you. Nobody will intimidate me. But if you need respect, we’d deal with respect. It is God that has given me this capacity my brother, it’s not as if I have a godfather.
These appointees and Ternenge are said to be the ones benefiting most in the Alia government while other appointees struggle to pay their bills including house rents and school fees of their children.
Read: Appointees of Governor Alia
