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By Pita Agbese
The dams holding back doubts on Gov H.I. Alia’s ability to lead Benue effectively and efficiently broke open yesterday. There were no floodgates to hold back the deluge of disappointment and despondency among many of us who had high expectations that Benue was in good hands under Alia’s leadership. Questions on Alia’s capacity to lead well which used to be asked in whispers and hushed tones began to be openly and loudly voiced out with the shameless outing of Alia’s high-ranking appointees and the Speaker of the State Assembly.
Those doubts were encapsulated by the question: “Did Benue get it wrong, again?” Hirtherto, feelings of unease about Alia’s governance style were assuaged by a presumption that what we were seeing were the unavoidable wrong steps of a novice in politics. Unlike a seasoned race horse, Alia did not bolt out of the starting gate, but we tried to reassure ourselves that as time went on, Alia would come roaring back with demonstrated capacity for governance.
It was thought that Alia was going through a steep learning curve and the ship of state would be righted and put on course once he had successfully climbed the apex of the steep learning curve. Now, it is apparent that if any learning was taking place, the results are not in the offing. What is worse, there is no indication that the pupil has absorbed any of the lessons we assumed he was learning. It was not that Alia failed to learn because he had no capacity to learn. He has the intellectual capacity to excel in his learning.
The uncomfortable reality is that his learning faculties are clogged by an arrogance of an all-knowing person. One gets the uncomfortable feeling that Alia thinks that there is nothing for him to learn because he is wiser than everyone else in the state. We also tried to cut Alia a slack given the enormity of the problems he inherited from Ortom’s demonic leadership. We equally counseled ourselves that it was too early to make a definitive judgement on Alia’s performance.
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The first test of a good leadership is the ability to articulate a viable vision. That vision must then be sold to underlings and the public at large. Next is the ability to hire those with capacity and experience to help actualize the vision. It took Alia an inordinate amount of time to hire those who would help him deliver on his mandate. Worst of all, he hired advisers without the foggiest idea of what advice to seek from them. There was no rhyme or reason in the manner in which his cabinet was composed. Lopsided appointments in which some local government areas were overrepresented while other local government areas were completely left out made a mockery of his ability to select well.
For some unfathomable reasons, Alia seems ignorant of the doctrine of separation of powers in a representative democracy by appointing Speaker Dajoh to executive committees. This probably was what led Martin Terna Gyado to humorously coined the moniker, Executive Speaker, to describe Dajoh. Dajoh has no business serving on executive committees. Alia has no business appointing him to serve on executive committees. Dajoh’s primary task is legislating for the good governance of Benue. Dajoh is doing very little of that. His other important task is using the legislative assembly to keep an eye on the executive branch through the constitutional mandate of checks and balances. Dajoh is doing none of that. These fundamental tasks do not seem to interest Speaker Dajoh. He prefers to speak less and court publicity more.
The in-fighting among Alia’s top officials along with Speaker Dajoh over a leadership tussle in a private organization, the NURTW, is bewildering. Even more perplexing is the revelation that the officials nearly turned Government House into a pugilistic arena. Are these officials so bereft of worthwhile tasks that they would prioritize resolving a private organization’s leadership tussle over and above the many public issues calling for swift resolution in Benue? We got to know of the spat among SSG, the governor’s Chief of Staff, Speaker Dajoh, and Iyoo Igbondo, the special adviser to the governor on Labor through a press release in the name of “Cabinet Office.” Does that mean that Alia chose the medium of a press release to publicly excoriate his appointees? If these officials fo not see eye-to-eye on a mundane matter involving the NURTW, how can they help Alia to administer Benue well?
In any case, were the officials at loggerheads because Alia has not given them worthwhile tasks to accomplish or were they at loggerheads to seek Alia’s attention? Some of us had thought that it was a good thing that as a Catholic priest, Alia was not married and could devote all his attention and energy to resolving the knotty issues bequeathed to him by Ortom’s awful leadership. Maybe the fighting officials seek to have Alia pay the attention that a married Alia, would have paid to his wife, to them.
Maybe the problem is that Alia loves the ceremonial aspects of the governorship, but he is not enamored of the actual tasks of governance. It could as well be that in doing what Ortom sadistically refused to do for eight years, viz, paying salaries and pensions’ benefits, Alia thinks that he has solved all of Benue’s most nagging problems. No, he hasn’t. Benue’s schools are still in shambles. Infrastructure is still practically nonexistent. Healthcare is in crisis. Hunger and poverty still stalk Benue. Alia has not touched, let alone, made any efforts to come to grips with the many sordid consequences of Ortom’s disastrous leadership. Now, he has his feuding officials as an added distraction to his already legendary inattention to critical issues.
Ordinarily, some of us would pay to watch effete high-ranking officials duke it out. Unfortunately, we in Benue cannot afford that luxury. Feuding officials merely add to our woes and embarrassments.
At this rate, probably the most charitable thing that one can say about Alia at the end of his tenure of four years is that he is not as evil as Ortom. That would be a personal tragedy for a man on whom millions of Benue people placed their hopes, their aspirations, and their goodwill.
During the gubernatorial campaign, some critics charged that if elected, Alia would run Benue like a Catholic parish where no one challenges the priest and everyone says, yes, Father. I wish Alia would turn on that mode. The mode that says “I am in charge and no one would take Benue people for a ride anymore.” Alia must run a tighter ship. He has too many tinpot dictators strutting about making oral decrees and feeling that they are untouchable.
If what we are seeing is a peek into the future, we can say categorically that the future looks cloudy. Alia must take charge and concentrate on the nitty-gritty of governance. Speaker Dajoh cannot find subjects on which to legislate. Neither can he find obnoxious Ortom-era laws to expunge from our law books. Let Alia help him find his legislative bearings. Let Alia send Dajoh executive bills to legislate on. Unless Alia turns on a new leaf and devotes a greater commitment to actual, rather than ceremonial duties, we would be forced to chant, No, Father, No.
