For whatever reasons, Mr Jonathan Modi, Mr Ormin Torsar, and Mr Maurice Orwough currently look more like it when it comes to leadership at the local government level in Benue State. Call it show-off or paparazzi, one thing is that the trio appear to have shown they understand the challenges their people are facing, and, with all things being equal, they can push for solutions.
Arguably, the worst hit Local Government Area (LGA) in Benue State in terms of insecurity is Ukum LGA. Yes, Katsina-Ala, Guma, Gwer West, Makurdi, Agatu, Kwande, Logo, and Otukpo LGAs have long been in the news for security concerns. Ukum LGA has known no peace for over three decades. Ukum is also home to vicious local militia leaders and, therefore, grapples with both internal and external factors that fuel insecurity.
Whereas in Guma, Makurdi, Gwer West, Ogbadibo, and Kwande, the major cause of insecurity is attacks by the armed wing of cattle owners, in Ukum, like Agatu and Otukpo, insecurity is caused by both external and internal forces, with attendant humanitarian needs. Although there are no Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in Ukum, they dot the landscape in Guma and Gwer West LGAs.
This is the situation Mr Modi, Mr Torsar, and Mr Orwough faced, as did their counterparts in the other affected LGAs, upon assuming office as the Chairmen of the Ukum, Gwer West, and Guma Local Government Councils (LGCs), respectively.
The difference between the three is that while Mr Orwough and Mr Modi once served as leaders of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Mr Torsar has never been one. They have similar problems and have demonstrable commitment to encouraging their people to “challenge their challenge.”
Both Mr Orwough and Mr Modi, no doubt, utilised their earlier positions in ALGON, Benue State, as Chairman and Secretary, to push for the rapid deployment of security personnel in their local areas. Although killings did not immediately cease, locals had their first opportunity in decades to visit their homes. More people are returning home, depleting the figures of those in IDP camps.
This is where the trio has been exceptional. Fighting insecurities is not a job for the faint-hearted. As you fight them, they put up resistance by fighting back. Some of the perpetrators have connections as far as tables where decisions are made. So that even for investigators, there are warning notes, like on this mission: “You are getting too close.”
Most of the insecurities experienced today, but the menace of primitive cultists, is fueled by economic reasons. Are they herdsmen’s attacks? Is it kidnappings, market day raids by armed gangs, and the arson in Sankera? The common factor in all of these is resources – getting a share of the limited resources.
Fighting to end insecurity implies fighting to end the means of livelihood for some people. They will definitely not sit back, fold their arms, and watch you stop the flow of their bread. It is a complex thing, sometimes with insiders playing key roles that tend to frustrate efforts at curbing the menace.
Mr Modi got his first baptism in the fight against insecurities when he first served as Secretary to Ukum LGC. That phone call was in the public domain. In unmistakable terms, the caller (apparently a local ring leader) told him what awaited him in the pursuit of the reforms the council was introducing.
He did not back out. Instead, he contested in the election that followed and was elected chairman, a position he holds to this day. As Chairman, Mr Modi ensured the deployment of federal troops to Ayati, one of the worst-hit local areas in Ukum LGA, and to other communities.
Ayati, like Akpuuna and Gbagir, have lost dozens of souls in one fell swoop. Residents fled to locations as far as Makurdi and even beyond the borders of the state. Sankera, the LGA headquarters, saw sudden population growth. Also, Katsina-Ala, Gboko, and Wannune are straining resources and social life in those locations.
While these three may not have met expectations, they have demonstrated a commitment to returning those who are willing to their communities. They are almost always the first responders to arrive at the scene, if not for anything else, to give assurance that they are with their people and stand with them in their difficult situations. They deserve support.
With the greatest respect to those who are standing up for their communities, personnel deployed to our local communities are often abandoned. The thinking that they are paid to do the work is incongruous. There is no crime if locals feed federal troops deployed to protect them. Remember, your community is not host to a military barracks or base, and so troops have no business there. They are there because of the need, and it is incumbent on you to cooperate with them to better serve you.
Mr Modi, Torsar, and Orwough, or any leader for that matter, have ensured the deployment of troops to your community. You, too, can help by providing the logistical support that you can afford. That way, personnel morale may be boosted. But you see them and behave as if they don’t eat, they don’t smoke, they don’t like good things, that is how they will look the other way, when danger comes, provided that no one opens fire on them. When that appears to be the case, lamentation that your enemy has bought the personnel over becomes rife. The question, however, should be why your enemy could buy someone in your neighbourhood.
Mr Orwough has a challenge that is not his fault or making. He is one of those struggling young men we are all familiar with, his smallish stature. Perhaps his stint in journalism gave him the guts to dare. And he found favour to be Chairman of one of the biggest LGAs in the state, and to think that he became “ALGON” may have been his greatest undoing for the generation before him and his peers.
However, purge yourself of the thinking and characterisation of success, and the tendency toward success, that have come to be the standard for politics in our clime; get close, and listen to Mr Orwough. He communicates hard facts. He visits the front lines, where the fire burns, never reporting to “Facebook security experts” but to state agents whose duty it is to maintain law and order and defend the people against aggression.
Clearly, Mr Orwough has demonstrated the can-do spirit of a Benue man. No impeachment threat. There are no crises in the executive council, and there has been no open altercation with the many powerful men of Guma whom he now oversees as council chair.
Torsar carries his matchet when going into the thick. It passes a message. If you walk into the rain without carrying an umbrella, you can be sure to get soaked in the rain.
Oftentimes, local farmers fell, not to the bullets of the killers but from machete wounds. A machete is a close-contact weapon. A man carrying your type of weapon may have to think twice before attacking you.
In their “little ways,” therefore, Mr Modi, Mr Torsar, and Mr Orwough are serving their people in ways more than meets the eye. They should be seen as commanders who encourage their troops to the point that they feel they can walk through fire and come out unhurt. They are passing wake-up calls.
For too long, the people have been on the run. It is time to stand off the open and look back at what is pursuing the people. It could be that the killers are carrying only matchettes. A people united by a common purpose may raise unarmed men to disarm killers. If you doubt, read the story of former Governor Samuel Ortom and the robbers who snatched his car at gunpoint.
Unfortunately, time has caught up with the three. They are counting months till the expiration of their tenure. Would they “Waka or stay?” Only time will tell.
