In Benue, Suswam/PDP victory raises uneasy questions
But contrast the picture of a failure with that of success, and you will discover, as the 7-Up advert used to say some time back: the Difference is clear. For whereas failure is an orphan, success is a community. If you excel at what you do, hunting, money-making, politics, the world celebrates to the high […]
But contrast the picture of a failure with that of success, and you will discover, as the 7-Up advert used to say some time back: the Difference is clear. For whereas failure is an orphan, success is a community. If you excel at what you do, hunting, money-making, politics, the world celebrates to the high heavens. And the celebrant is happy: for the man is not yet born who despises public adulation or popular acclamation. This is why even the most hated dictators arrange for crowds to sing their praises whenever they venture out so as to sustain the illusion of mass following.
Which is why in Benue state, it is oddly surprising that despite Gov. Gabriel Suswam’s strange declaration as the re-elected governor of the state, there are no cheers, no songs and no dances. What pervades now is the silence of the grave-yard. But it did not start today: it started the evening that Suswam was declared the winner by the Resident Electoral Commissioner the 27th April, 2011.
Instead of celebrations as happened elsewhere, it was protests that greeted the purported Suswam’s victory. Many who marched from Wadata to High Level, and from Wurukum to Judges Quarters, carried placards with inscriptions like: “We did not vote for Suswam,” “Jega, our votes were not counted,” and “Governor Ugbah must reclaim our mandate.”
Had the camp of the ACN governorship candidate, Professor Steve Torkuma Ugbah, who beat Suswam resoundingly, not calmed the restive crowds, Benue would have burnt.
Although Makurdi, the state capital, is not a bustling metropolis, even in jolly times, on that ill-fated day of INEC’s ill-fated announcement, residents went to sleep at six pm. And although on that day, NEPA was gracious, in most homes, the TV sets were quiet. Concerning Radio Suswam (sorry, Radio Benue), which started announcing Suswam’s “victory,” long before the REC, Alhaji Nasir Ayilara, made public his voodoo results, it largely broadcast to a Government House, Makurdi (GHM) audience.
But even the majority of Benue voters, who were robbed of electoral victory via an evil collaboration of PDP thugs, compromised INEC elements and unscrupulous security personnel, were not prepared for what followed from Suswam’s Government House.
The following day, citing “anti-party activities,” a euphemism for not being to contain “the awesome Ugbah phenomenon,” he sacked the Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs Ntol Unongo wife of Second Republic Steel Development Minister, Wantaregh Paul Unongo, who hails from Kwande. He also sent packing his Special Adviser, Conrad Weghgba (Ushongo).
Between then and now, the “victorious” Suswam has vented his anger on more aides. They include the Chairman of State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) , Anshongo Agaku (Guma); Special Adviser (Projects), Mrs. Veronica Kwaghshir (Vandeikya), Chairman of the State Civil Service Commission, Joseph Orngudwem (Gboko) as well as former Head of Service and member of the Judicial Service Commission, Dr. Fidelis Anweh (Gwer-West).
Not wishing to suffer the same humiliation, the Permanent Secretary (Local Government Pensions Board), Mr Akange Audu (Makurdi), voluntarily resigned.
Right now, there is trepidation in Benue as more commissioners, Special Advisers and other political appointees will either resign or be forced out of office. Among those who have started packing their belongings from their offices are: Special Adviser (Media) Cletus Akwaya), who hails from Vandeikya; and his Commissioner for Works, Dr Eugene Alegba. His dilemma is what to do with the Director-general of his Campaign Organisatiion, Dr. Terhemba Shija ( a faded political star from Vandeikya, and the Speaker of the State assembly, Hon. Samuel Tsumba (Buruku), who lost his seat to a new comer, as well as his Permanent Secretary, Government House Administration (GHA), Mr. Tivlumun Nyitse (Guma).
The gale of sacks now has opened up a plethora of questions, many of them embarrassing. If Suswam is sacking everybody in his government for not delivering their local governments, how come he is prancing about as governor-elect? If those he depended upon could not deliver their local governments, with which votes did INEC declare him as “winner?” Was his announcement as winner based on special arrangement with INEC and possibly security operatives? If he did not win as he himself knows that all Benue people know, is this wholesale sack of aides an indirect confession? Or did he tell INEC to announce him anyway, believing that the litigation process is cumbersome, and while it lasts, he will continue his wholesale looting of our patrimony? If so, does Suswam know that the Electoral Act has been amended, and no pretender-governor can now drag the litigation process forever? But these are rhetorical questions; he does not need to provide answers: let him simply commence writing his hand-over notes. We ask no more and no less.
Tor-Ifyer, who wrote in from 16, Demekpe Road, Makurdi, can be reached at [email protected]