“There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.”
—Ronald Reagan
By Omoniyi Salaudeen
The governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, caught the attention of the media last week following the unguided remark he made about the presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, during a dinner organized in honour of the G-5 governors at the Government House, Makurdi, the state capital.
His counterpart in Rivers State, nay the arrowhead of the Integrity Group, Governor Nyesom Wike, had led other members, including Governors Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Enugu State, and Seyi Makinde, Oyo State, to the state for the flag-off of the PDP governorship and parliamentary campaigns.
As the chief host, the responsibility lies on Ortom to present the blueprint of the action plan of the candidates vying for the various elective positions.
But the distraught governor went beyond the call of duty and digressed to the mind-boggling issue of incessant killings of innocent citizens by suspected marauding Fulani herdsmen.
Ostensibly overwhelmed by emotions, he threw caution into the wind, spewing out unrestrained vituperations against Atiku, who by accident of birth belongs to the belligerent Fulani extraction.
For making life unbearable for the Benue people, he vowed never to have anything to do with any Fulani man whatever his ambition is worth.
In a video that went viral, Ortom was seen saying: “To hell with Atiku and anyone supporting him. They should go and tell him. You want me to be a slave for a Fulani. It is better that I die.
“Anybody supporting Atiku is an enemy of Benue. I will never support a Fulani man becoming president. If there is another person who is ready to work with me and ensure the security of my people, I will work with him.”
Though the remark may be harsh, caustic, and uncouth, it was a reaffirmation of the position of his Integrity Group which has been at the forefront of an endless search for justice within the PDP.
It was the spur of the movement and rightful indignation against the mindless killing and maiming of innocent citizens by bloodthirsty Fulani herdsmen.
Ortom saw it as an auspicious occasion to again vent the anger and frustration he has had to contend with as a result of the endless shedding of blood in the state.
Among the 36 states of the federation, Benue has had its fair share of incessant clashes between farmers and Fulani herdsmen.
The trend became escalated when the state House of Assembly passed the “Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law 2017,” to end open grazing and rearing of livestock in the state.
According to Ortom, 12 out of the 23 local government areas of the state have been under siege by the Fulani herdsmen.
As reports say, since 2017 when the bill was passed into law, herders-farmers clashes have claimed several hundreds of lives in Benue, while many communities are in disarray with residents seeking refuge in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps across the state.
It was to complement the efforts of the security agencies in curbing the menace of Fulani aggression that he established the Community Volunteer Guards to fight against terrorists and criminals wreaking havoc in the state in August 2022 and promised to equip them with AK-47 and AK49 rifles.
Yet, the trend of senseless killing is not ebbing. In the latest round of attack, no fewer than 23 people, including a policeman were said to have been killed in separate communities in Logo and Ukum local government areas of the state as local and herders lock horns.
One cannot but empathise with Governor Ortom for the ugly trend of wanton killing that seems to have become the order of the day in the state. Still undaunted by the security challenge and the threat to his life, he said the incessant attacks by cattle herders and their blackmail would not stop the enforcement of the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law in the state.
However, the outburst against Atiku was, for all intent and purposes, a misdirected anger and an unnecessary transfer of aggression. And he will continue to rue the day he made the wrong declaration of war against his presidential ambition.
To be sure, Wike and his allies, including Governor Ortom, have been at loggerheads with the party after the conduct of the PDP presidential primary. The recalcitrant group is demanding the resignation of Iyorchia Ayu as national chairman and has pulled out of the party’s presidential campaign. Several reconciliation moves have failed, but have not foreclosed the possibility of an amicable resolution of the protracted face-off.
Thus, by declaring anybody in support of Atiku’s candidacy as an enemy of the state, Ortom has demonstrated an absolute lack of capacity to control his emotion.
And that is unbecoming of a man in that highly placed position because such an intemperate outburst is capable of misleading the public on how to handle anger and frustration. Whatever leaders say or do in any given circumstance has a great deal of influence on the way ordinary people react to issues. By condescending to the level of verbal abuse, he has wittingly and unwittingly succumbed to the dictate of his emotions.
To be a good example to others, you don’t let your emotions control you, you don’t let your emotions speak for you, and you don’t let your emotions manipulate you. As an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist, Warren Buffett, rightly said: “True power is sitting back and observing things with logic. True power is restraint. If words control you that means everyone else can control you.”
In this case, Ortom lost control of his emotions and took Atiku to the cleaners for no reason other than his Fulani origin.
Yes, lately, Fulani herdsmen have assumed notoriety for everything wrong, for kidnapping, raping, and banditry, there is no evidence linking the former vice president to any form of criminalities ever committed by these arsonists.
Regardless of the political differences between him and the Integrity Group, he has a legitimate and constitutional right to aspire to be the president of the country. And no one has the power to dictate to the electorate who to vote or not to vote for; after all, sovereignty belongs to the people, not to any leader.
Already, he has tendered an unreserved apology for the unwarranted vituperation. But again, the tone of his apology is enough to suggest that he might not be aware of the full weight of his words. Hear him: “That was not what I meant when I was captured saying that. But all the same, I know it will amount to a logical fallacy if people have taken it the way I did. I want to say to those who I have offended by my remarks I don’t mean that, I’m sorry about that.”
Without pre-empting the reaction of concerned individuals, Ortom should prepare his mind for possible vengeance, if Atiku eventually wins the 2023 presidential election.
True to his nature, the Waziri Adamawa will take his pounds of the flesh as he is allegedly doing with the Bauchi State governor, Bala Muhammed, who ran against him in the presidential primary of the PDP. Samuel Ortom was a Minister of State Trade and Investments in Nigeria during the tenure of former President Goodluck Jonathan. He was elected governor of Benue State as a member of the All Progressives Congress in 2015, but he later defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on which platform he contested and won his second term. He is the leader of the so-called Integrity Group which is bent on seeing Ayu’s back as the National Chairman of the party. Though in the final laps of his administration as Wike, he has a higher stake in the party, having secured the ticket to contest for a Senate position in the coming presidential and National Assembly elections.
Therefore, he will need to tread softly as they continue to search endlessly for justice in the party.