Your Excellency, Chief (Dr.) Samuel Ioraer(nyi) Ortom, good day, sir.
This is another Open Letter, from your friend, brother, loyal subject and
dedicated party man, Citizen Simon Imobo-Tswam. So, since I am a Family
Member, I mean no harm.
Sir, since we are in mourning because of Fulani killings and betrayal from
our so-called leaders, permit me if I skip vain pleasantries, and go to
the meat of the matter.
I desire to know what would you would want to be remembered for when your
tenure is over in 2019? What? What is your real mission in Government
House, Makurdi (GHM)? What is your vision as a governor? I ask all these
because of the many ugly skeletons that are walking out of GHM, and are
introducing themselves to shocked Benue residents as: “Mr. Fraud. Chief
Betrayal. Hon. Hypocrisy, Dr. Traitor, High-Chief Samaila etc, etc.
It seems because you wanted to prepare the ground to carve out Benue to
Fulani people, you set out early to condition our minds for this morbid
eventuality. You accordingly started calling them “Indigenous” Fulanis!
And you proceeded, thence, to execute the biggest betrayal against the
people you swore to defend and protect – a betrayal so unfathomably vile
that until now, no Benue man thought that it was within the realms of
possibility to imagine that it could enter the heart of a native to think
it was possible to sell his people to strangers. But this is what you have
done.
Sir, you assured us that Benue doesn’t have land for cattle-grazing, but
you quietly sent a Fulani/Cow Protection bill to the House of Assembly and
withdrew the Prohibition of Open Grazing bill you had earlier sent there.
This is a bill that seeks to legally transfer our Commonwealth to
strangers! And you did it while mouthing your slogan: “In God we trust!”
The common name for this kind of immoral, hypocritical and sinful act is
419! But who am I to suggest that my governor, a pastor, is a 419 kingpin?
Let those who were not raised or properly brought up use that type of
coarse word on their governor: not me. I will simply say: your action,
sir, has left much to be desired. In other words, you are consolidating
your standing in Benue state as: Another Hope Betrayed!
Benue people are not cattle-farmers. The very few inductees into Fulani
aristocracy via Fulani cows, like you and our distinguished leaders, have
ranched their cattle. So, if you turn Benue, as you plan, into a big
grazing reserve, would Fulani people give your people farmlands in Sokoto,
Kano, Katsina, Kebbi etc?
Why, sir, are you even over-concerned about giving lands to Fulani people
more than even their governors in their home-states? Why are you more
concerned about “Livestock protection and promotion” and not “Crop
Protecton and promotion” when your people are majorly farmers?
Is this grand betrayal part of the pre-condition for pre-election support
from Abuja or elsewhere? Who has turned you against your people? What do
you want to be remembered for? What?
I knew you were running your government on three gears: the Blame-gear;
the Excuse-gear; and the Slogans-gear! Today, you have given me cause to
hesitatngly add the Fourth-gear: Grand-Betrayal! I want to weep, but even
my tears are frozen in my lachrymal glands – too shocked to flow!
Your Excellency, Sir, you have thoroughly abused Alh. Abubakar Tsav, on a
number of occasions, for being a “stranger”…from Kano! And two things
have qualified him for such executive excoriation: his faith and name:
Alhaji…Abubakar….
Flowing from the above, I find it most strange that you would see
strangers from Kano, with the same “strange” names: Abubakar, Ahidjo,
Ahmadu, Abdulrahman, Abdullahi, Sorondinki.., and proceed to
enthusiastically make them ‘Indigenous” Benue state indigenes!
Your Excellency, some of these Abubakars that you have “indigenously”
indigenised while simultaneously disowning the native Abubakar, they are
not even Nigerians from Kano or Kebbi or Sokoto – they are from Niger,
Mali, Senegal etc (source: NGF)!
When these “indigenous” strangers kill Benue people, you call for prayers!
When survivors run to an IDP camp, you go there with photographers to make
speeches and give them indomie! And when you go to Abuja, you downplay the
on-going genocide against your people as “herdsmen/farmers’ clashes!”
Sir, Benue doesn’t share any boundary with Fulani people! We are not
neighbours with them. So, when people leave Sokoto, Kano and Kebbi or even
Mali and the Sahara, and they come and attack us in our state…in our
local governments…on our ancestral land…to “steal, kill and destroy!
(your own words) and, consequently dispossess us – is the appropriate word
“clashes” or genocide?
In another place, where public officers have more honour than shame;
where integrity counts over and above ambition, you all would have
resigned by now i.e. you and your commissioner for justice; you and your
fellow-conspirators in the House of Assembly – conspirators against Benue
state and all the ethnic nationalities that share in the Benue
Commonwealth!
But I don’t kid myself: there is no honour among public officers in
Nigeria; and government is increasingly looking more like organized crime,
where “the best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate
intensity!”
Meaning? You will not resign. You will not even think about it – that
would be asking too much!
But, sir, I ask what is within the realm of possibility.
Are you going to address the Benue people on this monumental scandal, this
grand betrayal, this abuse of office and this hypocritical/sanctimonious
posturing – a quatro-liability that is bound to echo or reverberate for a
long time to come?
Would you confess your sin, ask for forgiveness tomorrow (Saturday) so
you can go to Church on Sunday with the weight of this grand-betrayal
lessened or would you just “bone face” as the acclaimed Tse-pati and carry
on in the spirit of an executive governor? Or would you keep quiet and add
this heavy burden, this Fulani-gate, to your inverted pyramid of burdens:
gross under-performance, the salary albatross, the wage bill padding, the
contract scandals, Gana-gate, Ikyange-gate, the Okefe-gate, the
bailout-gate, Agatu-gate etc?
If you choose not to address us or ask for our forgiveness, what can we,
the people, do? NOTHING! After all, is that not your name: IORAERNYI?
(Translation: What can the people do?)! But Your Excellency, sir, THERE IS
GOD! And He rules in the affairs of men!
Lastly, what would you would want to be remembered for, sir? Gov. Paper
Aku gave us Lobi Bank, Makurdi Modern Market, Taraku Mills, Otukpo Burnt
Bricks, Idah Sanitary Wares, Benue Breweries, Paper Aku Stadium, State
Secretariat… Fada Moses Adasu gave us Benue State University (BSU) in
his interrupted tenure of less than two years! And while Gov. Akume gave
us the College of Health Sciences as well as Judges Quarters, Dr. Gabriel
Suswam’s bold legacy stands him out as Mr. Infrastructure!
Your Excellency, sir, you are completing your second year shortly, with
nothing on the ground to show that you are in office. Do you desire to
make up this deficiency by entering history as the governor who sold his
people and their Commonwealth to agents of native imperialism?
Chief (Dr.) Samuel Ioraernyi Ortom, the choice is yours. But as the Owelle
of Onitsha, Chief (Dr.) Rt. Hon. Nnamdi Azikiwe, once said: “History will
vindicate the just, but God will punish the wicked!”
Thank you, Sir.
Imobo-Tswam, a pastor and public affairs analyst, writes from Abuja. He
can be reached @: simonpita2008@yahoo.com