By Adakole Elijah
Yesterday, the social media firmament was awash, nay, inundated with an avalanche of venomous tirades, vitriolic diatribes and unbridled invectives targeted at the immediate past Deputy Governor of Benue State, His Excellency, Engr. Benson Abounu, for his audacious, strident and statesmanlike rebuke of the unbridled, unconscionable attempt at perpetuating the longevity of electoral seats — the odious contraption known as third term in Benue South.
Most of his attackers, who were obviously gloating over the golden opportunity provided by his public commentary to denigrate him, instead of countering him with superior, empirical and intellectually impregnable narratives, predicated their positions on mundane, anachronistic, atavistic and primitive reasonings. This inglorious category of political urchins shamelessly opened that Chief Abounu’s principled stance sprouted from harboured hatred for Senator Abba Moro on account of his alleged political misdemeanour against the former Deputy Governor in the past.
Others, in their warped, jaundiced and infantile perceptions, were even more puerile in their postulations, especially when they asserted with reckless abandon that since the former Senate President, Distinguished Senator David Mark, spent twenty (20) illustrious years in the Senate, Senator Abba Moro must be allowed to spend similar years too. It is most unfortunate that some people are ignobly flaunting this vacuous line of argument. To begin with, this specious, fallacious and untenable argument wilfully and mischievously disregards the immutable law of uniqueness, wherein no two entities can be identical in every respect. The proponents of this retrogressive, reactionary and reprehensible ideology seem oblivious to the incontrovertible fact that Senator David Mark’s tenure, though laudable and legendary, is not and can never be a template for perpetuity.
In similar vein, some hirelings from the camp of the Senator flaunted their abysmal ignorance against the sacred principle of rotationality of political offices, which according to them was alien to the law of the land and probably to our cultures. They conveniently forget with selective amnesia that rotation was part and parcel of our trado-political history and anthropological heritage. For instance, our revered chieftaincy seats rotate amongst the ruling families. Why are we vociferously clamouring for the governorship of the state? Why are we complaining about the Tiv people not allowing us to taste the governorship? Why are we entrenching marginalisation, the very hydra-headed evil we have been crying against?
If we want to be taken seriously about our ceaseless cry against marginalisation, then, the most pragmatic, patriotic and philosophically sound course of action is to facilitate the rotation of the senatorial seat to either Apa/Agatu or Oju/Obi Federal Constituencies. Anything short of this will portray us as unworthy, unqualified and unfit to criticise marginalisation. That was the unassailable stance of Abounu and he is correct, categorical and comprehensive in all ramifications.
The former Deputy Governor did not solely decried senatorial third term in his epochal press conference. He decried, with prophetic indignation, the deliberate perpetuation and entrenchment of the governorship seat of Benue State exclusively to the Tiv speaking area of the state to the exclusion of the long-suffering people from the Benue South Senatorial District. But unfortunately, this patriotic plank did not catch their fancy, and therefore was not worthy of their attention. What an irony! What a paradox! What a monumental tragedy!
Some of the attackers even went bizarre, berserk and infantile by insinuating that Chief Abounu’s stance was predicated on Senator Abba Moro’s alleged scuttling of his governorship quest. But the former Deputy Governor replied with uncommon candour that the contrary was the case, as despite what the Senator did against him, he stood solidly, stoutly and sacrificially for him to actualise his second term, after which he should allow the Igede people to taste the seat. This fact remains incontrovertible, inviolable and imperishable.
Even if his stance was based on the perceived scuttling of Abounu’s ambition, what is wrong if Abounu decides to mobilise against the incumbent Senator’s third term agenda? After all, there is an ageless cliché that says, “one good turn deserves another”. By logical extension, one bad turn should also deserve another. We must be ready to reckon with the consequences of our actions or inactions. In consonance with this immutable law of retributive justice, my friend, Chief Baba Ode, will always remind me that “if a man destroyed your train, there is nothing wrong in destroying his aeroplane.”
The questions begging for answers, screaming for elucidation are: Was he wrong by his pontifical declaration of third term as evil, satanic and anti-people? Was he wrong when he said that Benue South has grown beyond the era of Senator Mark and that there was no more need for the continuation of a man to continue in perpetuity in office as if the Senate seat is his personal fiefdom and family heirloom? Was he wrong by insisting with unshakable conviction that the Senate seat of Benue South Senatorial District should at this moment be exclusively zoned to either Oju/Obi or Apa/Agatu Federal Constituencies? Was he wrong to have decried the deliberate refusal of the Benue State governorship to be rotated to Benue South Senatorial District by the majority Tivs? What was his offence? What was his sin?
In their sponsored, orchestrated and oiled attacks, some depicted him as not having the political strength to win election. Others mocked him rhetorically, derisively and disdainfully by asking “who is this one?”. Here is a man who was one of those colossuses that entrenched the People’s Democratic Party in its prime. He ensured the victory of the party when nobody saw it coming. He was a two-term Deputy Governor of undoubted capacity. Yet, it was convenient for the attack canines and political scavengers to attack his personality.
Despite the sponsored attacks, the sponsored insults and the sponsored cacophony, he has made a clarion, thunderous and epochal statement and nobody can change the fact of the matter. His statement resonates, reverberates and rhymes well with the majority of the people of Benue South Senatorial District.
Elijah, the living ancestor (Adalekwu) writes from O’EJE Fortress, Otada-Otukpo.
