GOVERNOR Samuel Ortom of Benue State is not a happy man. He is a very good example of a man in a fix. To use his own words, he is confused. Politically, he is a man between the rock and a hard place. By my humble estimation, he is between the devil and the deep sea in the build up to the 2023 presidential election. Here’s why: Governor Ortom is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where he ran to in July 2018 when his people were being massacred by herdsmen and bandits. The governor and the people of the state felt that the All Progressives Congress (APC) government was barely moving a limb while his people are being mowed by armed herdsmen.
He and his people have been at the mercy of killer herdsmen and vicious, unrelenting bandits. If the APC, the party in power in Nigeria, cannot help a state in its control to curb the raging killers, then it is better to leave APC for another political party and seek refuge. There he can also speak out on his plight in Benue State rather than keep undignified silence as a good party and watch the unrestrained slaughter of his people. To him, it is no use staying in the same political party with a president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces that cannot be of any help to him and his people. That is, if the deity cannot save me, it should rather not make me worse.
He left the APC for the PDP not just to show his displeasure and anger at the disposition of the party towards Benue State, but also to satisfy the yearning of the people of the state who wouldn’t want anything to do with the party and its government. Angry Ortom and the disillusioned people of the state have been crying that the Federal Government is slapping their identifiable tormentors on the wrist. There were protests during one of which youths of the state blocked the government house in anger. They said “we don’t have land to donate for ranching.” The protesters reportedly “stopped Ortom from travelling to Abuja to attend a scheduled meeting with the national leadership of the APC.” Spokesperson of the protesters of July 25, 2018 in Makurdi, Terrence Kuanum, told Ortom: “We are not prepared to remain in a party where its leaders would prefer to look the other way while armed herdsmen kill our children, pregnant women, the aged and our defenseless people. That is why we are saying no to APC, a party that allowed bloodbath in Benue.”
While Ortom cried and cried, the powers that be didn’t look in his direction or that of the Benue people. At best, and while ensconced in their cozy abodes in Abuja, they would regurgitate the mantra of ‘hunting down’ the killers and ‘bring them to book’. In reality however, it is known that the disposition of the powers that be is like that which you have in the case of a foolish dog that is barking at the air. Meanwhile, Ortom is not alone in the predicament, only that the others are either too engrossed with being politically correct or are afraid of the powers wielded by the oppressive powers. Perhaps, Governor Bello Matawalle would serve as a spur and inspiration as kidnapping for ransom, killings, cattle rustling continue in every part of the country.
Ortom won a re-election in 2019 as a member of the PDP. He is still a member of the party. He didn’t keep quiet afterward winning the election. He is still ringing loud, speaking out at every opportunity and raging against the siege of terrorists tormenting his state. He is like a soldier who has found himself isolated in a front at one of the fronts in Verdun. Recently, he spoke again, this time as an unhappy member of the PDP. Now, added to his worries is the direction his PDP is heading in 2023. The delegates of the PDP at their convention settled for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, a cosmopolitan Fulani man, as the party’s presidential candidate. It must be a sense of déjà vu for Ortom because from his experience, utterances, disposition and outlook, he has ceased to be a fan of the Fulani. From the experience of his people in the APC and as (former?) supporters of President Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani too, there is also a sense of ‘we’ve been there before’. The emergence of Atiku Abubakar as the standard bearer of the PDP must have triggered a sense of déjà vu for both Ortom and his supporters, but is it the same for people like Ayu?
Post-convention, the party asked him and 16 others to carry out some assignments on the impending presidential election. They were to identify those who could be nominated as the running-mate of their presidential candidate. He did that assignment and while at it he must have carried his Benue brother, Iyorchia Ayu, the national chairman of the PDP, along. Atiku settled for Dr Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa, the governor of Delta State. He did not go with Governor Ezenwo Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, whom Ortom said was the overwhelming choice of his committee. The choice of Atiku’s running mate has also triggered another outburst by Ortom. Isn’t this as a result of a feeling of déjà vu?
The Benue governor said he and others rooted for Wike. He reasoned that Wike would be a balance in the Nigerian political configuration already unfairly tilted to favour certain regional and ethnic interests. He revealed that “some of us rooted for him. I was amongst the 17-member committee that was set up by the candidate himself and the party; and some of us said that, for the vice presidency, for those of us in PDP, we needed Wike to be the vice president so that he can bridge the gap.” From what he said and what he did not say, Governor Ortom only took a bite out of the many issues that are welling in him and the others. There are more in the “bridge the gap” than we heard.
He has no problem with Okowa as the PDP running mate, but he would have preferred Wike for stated and unstated reasons. “Okowa is a nice man; he is my friend and I have no problem with him. But if we’re in a democratic era, 14 people out of 17 said that it should be Wike and he (Atiku) in his wisdom gave it to Okowa, I expect more explanation. I expect him to talk to Wike first that we’re supporting. I expect him to even reach out to some of us so that together, we can work as a party. But the bottom line is that for me, I’ve gone into hibernation and I’m praying, and at the end, whatever God directs me, I can assure you that I will do it.”
Why is he confused? Why has he resorted to prayers? Why should he go hibernating? Is Ortom laying the foundation for negotiation? Is the governor paving the way for his departure from PDP? Should he decide to leave the PDP, his most likely destination is the APC which he left while in painful tears and deep anguish. What would that portend for PDP? On another plane, is Ortom tilting to a sissy or we are dealing with a once bitten twice shy situation? In analysing Governor Samuel Ortom’s dilemma, there are lessons which draw one to a Twi saying that “one should learn from a near miss.” Ortom has shown that he isn’t one afraid to bite the bullet. We await Ortom out of hibernation and the next line of action.
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