From what is happening within the All Progressives Congress (APC), Benue State Chapter, it is clear that the hitherto party structure in the state led by Senator George Akume, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), did not read and assimilate Fr. Hyacinth Alia’s manifesto for Benue State. Fr. Alia won the 2023 election as Governor of Benue State on the APC platform and was sworn in on May 29 of the same year.
Of course, from precedence, APC Benue State has shown that it is challenging for the party to manage elecroral victory. Prior to 2019, the party abruptly adopted Chief Samuel Ortom as its gubernatorial candidate. No aspirant in the party’s primary election prior to the 2019 General election was consulted: It was done by Fiat. “Leader (Sen George Akume) wanted it, and despite dissent from other aspirants, he had his way, and Ortom, the APC candidate, went on to win the 2019 Governorship election.
For the avoidance of doubt, Ortom, a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, had, before his adoption as the Benue APC gubernatorial candidate, participated in the PDP Governorship Primary election and lost to Prince Terhemen Tarzoor. It was two days to the APC Governorship election. At this point, sales of forms had already been closed.
In the lead judgment of the 2015 Benue Governorship Petition Tribunal, the Chairman, Justice Elizabeth Karatu, in passing, expressed reservations about how Ortom suddenly appeared on the APC ballot after having lost the same contest in the PDP. Justice Karatu, however, accepted the authority of political parties to decide their affairs and, in the final analysis, gave judgment in favour of Ortom and APC.
It was not long into Ortom’s administration when a crisis broke out. Dissent on appointments and other “overbearing” influences would lead Ortom to dump the broom party for the PDP in 2018. APC had lost a sitting governor and, subsequently, in the 2019 election, with Akume himself, showed the way out of elective leadership.
Then came Fr. Alia. In his manifesto, Fr. Alia stated inter alia, his seven-point agenda: Security of lives and property; agriculture and rural development; commerce and industry; human capital and Social development; infrastructure and environment; Information and Communications Technologies (ICT); and political and economic governance.
Armed with his social capital, before joining party politics, Fr. Alia commanded an intimidating crowd of supporters who never cared whether he had money to give them or not. Akume would liken him to a deified human whom people struggle to touch. “When they see him, people shout his name when they see him.”
For the first time in the political history of the state, a new kid on the block led the Presidential election campaign that saw the victory of the incumbent President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT) as president, two seats in the Senate, 11 House of Representatives seats, Governorship election and more than half the number of seats in the State Assembly.
The governor premised his campaign on the people-first philosophy, with the promise to do for the people what they cannot individually do, that which appeared impossible, and lay the foundation for good governance.
Point seven of the governor’s agenda, which the “stakeholders” ignored or failed to interrogate, is political and economic governance. They failed to interrogate what he meant by political and economic governance. The leader and his cabal apparently did not take this point into account. Unknown to them, the governor was introducing a new order: The Alia generation of politics and governance.
They endorsed it. For the first time in Benue politics, delegates were not used to determine who led the APC charge in the state – every member of the party mattered in deciding who became the candidate. They therefore adopted a direct primary mode of conducting the primary election for the nomination of candidates.
Other aspirants in that process felt it was shifting the goal post in the middle of the game. The APC superstructure in the state never cared. Dissenting voices were slammed with suspensions.
Of course, direct primary elections as a mode of nominating candidates had always been part of the country’s electoral system. However, the delegate mode had been the mode political parties adopted in nominating their candidates. It was almost like the norm until the arrival of Fr. Alia on the stage.
So, Fr. Alia, from the processes, especially the nomination process, won his party’s Governorship ticket by popular vote, going on to win the governorship at the general election, even before the ballot could be cast in one of the 23 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state.
For those who followed the campaign leading to the election, they may have noticed that the case of Fr. Alia and his party, APC, was like kerosene and water. The similarity was that, as both kerosine and water are liquids and, conversely, immiscible, Fr. Alia ran only on the APC platform and never really carried on as politicians do: he didn’t fancy the idea of “Injar mato (giving money at rallies).” It left politicians bewildered. But that’s what he did: He would go out, state his mission, and invite people to vote for all APC candidates, then step down and head to the next rally.
When he eventually won the election, it was clear that the governor was focused on delivering on his campaign promises, not minding how “stakeholders” feel. Consistently, he has been paying salaries and pensions and ensuring that those who retire from the state civil service during the life of his administration receive their gratuity as due. His infrastructure drive, particularly the construction of roads and streets, and ecological development, is intimidating. He has invested hugely in education, healthcare, agriculture, human capital development, and industrialisation.
Could this be the governor’s undoing: Doing what others are unable to do by combining welfare and infrastructural development without blinking? This new vista appears to be interpreted in some quarters as a bloody nose for stakeholders. Otherwise, what is the bone of contention that there are Fr. Alia’s APC and Akume’s APC? Curiously, this imbroglio lends credence to the question of the APC Benue State’s ability to manage victory.
The APC failed to hold its house together, leading to Chief Ortom’s exit and the temporary fall of Sen Akume in 2019. While Fr. Alia has not shown any sign of leaving, apparently for his fidelity to what he focuses on, it is not clear how soon the other faction would accept his olive branch.
The internal wrangling first came to public glare at the burial of Wantaregh Paul Unongo in 2024, not long after the 2023 electoral victory. It has festered, reaching a crescendo at last year’s Tiv Day celebration in Gboko, where the SGF walked out on the Tor Tiv, his Council, and the Tiv nation.
While Fr. Alia has for the umpteenth time extended an olive branch to the other group, some key “apostles” of the SGF vow there can’t be reconciliation between the two. It is not clear how the SGF has responded to the governor’s overtures, as the governor has never visited the Makurdi Government House when he is in the state. The stalemate continues, with followers on either side of the divide throwing punches, even as party primaries are at hand.
The planned APC Benue State meeting may end up throwing more problems than it solves, which has been thought of as the problem. Meanwhile, the sale of forms by the APC ends on Saturday, May 2.
No one should be deceived about a consensus arrangement. It is clear that it won’t work. If a consensus does not work, the Act allows an alternative: a direct primary election, which was introduced in Benue State prior to the 2023 general election.
One thing must be clear: Fr. Alia cannot give in to the pressure to change his plan for the state. Ditto “stakeholders,” who have vowed that the governor must not be forgiven for whatever sins they have accused him of.
Therefore, with the 2026 Electoral Act (as amended), which takes away the right of political party delegates to nominate candidates, it is expected that both sides will see reason to de-emphasise structure and emphasise the people.
The new Act has tacitly returned power to the people by removing the bottlenecks that made “stakeholders” see themselves as “stateholders.” All aspirants must now test their popularity in their party, and the most popular wins.
Governance is about the people. Leaders must therefore eschew their ego and personal interests in favour of the public’s overriding interests.
While we await the outcome of the Friday meeting, both sides are invited to put “the people first” as they discussed the way forward.
