Your Excellency, Chief (Dr.) Samuel Ioraer(nyi) Ortom, good day, sir.<\/p>\n
This is another Open Letter, from your friend, brother, loyal subject and
\ndedicated party man, Citizen Simon Imobo-Tswam. So, since I am a Family
\nMember, I mean no harm.<\/p>\n
Sir, since we are in mourning because of Fulani killings and betrayal from
\nour so-called leaders, permit me if I skip vain pleasantries, and go to
\nthe meat of the matter.<\/p>\n
I desire to know what would you would want to be remembered for when your
\ntenure is over in 2019? What? What is your real mission in Government
\nHouse, Makurdi (GHM)? What is your vision as a governor? I ask all these
\nbecause of the many ugly skeletons that are walking out of GHM, and are
\nintroducing themselves to shocked Benue residents as: “Mr. Fraud. Chief
\nBetrayal. Hon. Hypocrisy, Dr. Traitor, High-Chief Samaila etc, etc.<\/p>\n
It seems because you wanted to prepare the ground to carve out Benue to
\nFulani people, you set out early to condition our minds for this morbid
\neventuality. You accordingly started calling them “Indigenous” Fulanis!<\/p>\n
And you proceeded, thence, to execute the biggest betrayal against the
\npeople you swore to defend and protect – a betrayal so unfathomably vile
\nthat until now, no Benue man thought that it was within the realms of
\npossibility to imagine that it could enter the heart of a native to think
\nit was possible to sell his people to strangers. But this is what you have
\ndone.<\/p>\n
Sir, you assured us that Benue doesn’t have land for cattle-grazing, but
\nyou quietly sent a Fulani\/Cow Protection bill to the House of Assembly and
\nwithdrew the Prohibition of Open Grazing bill you had earlier sent there.
\nThis is a bill that seeks to legally transfer our Commonwealth to
\nstrangers! And you did it while mouthing your slogan: “In God we trust!”<\/p>\n
The common name for this kind of immoral, hypocritical and sinful act is
\n419! But who am I to suggest that my governor, a pastor, is a 419 kingpin?
\nLet those who were not raised or properly brought up use that type of
\ncoarse word on their governor: not me. I will simply say: your action,
\nsir, has left much to be desired. In other words, you are consolidating
\nyour standing in Benue state as: Another Hope Betrayed!<\/p>\n
Benue people are not cattle-farmers. The very few inductees into Fulani
\naristocracy via Fulani cows, like you and our distinguished leaders, have
\nranched their cattle. So, if you turn Benue, as you plan, into a big
\ngrazing reserve, would Fulani people give your people farmlands in Sokoto,
\nKano, Katsina, Kebbi etc?<\/p>\n
Why, sir, are you even over-concerned about giving lands to Fulani people
\nmore\u00a0 than even their governors in their home-states? Why are you more
\nconcerned about “Livestock protection and promotion”\u00a0 and not “Crop
\nProtecton and promotion” when your people are majorly farmers?<\/p>\n
Is this grand betrayal part of the pre-condition for pre-election support
\nfrom Abuja or elsewhere? Who has turned you against your people? What do
\nyou want to be remembered for? What?<\/p>\n
I knew you were running your government on three gears: the Blame-gear;
\nthe Excuse-gear; and the Slogans-gear! Today, you have given me cause to
\nhesitatngly add the Fourth-gear: Grand-Betrayal! I want to weep, but even
\nmy tears are frozen in my lachrymal glands – too shocked to flow!<\/p>\n
Your Excellency, Sir, you have thoroughly abused Alh. Abubakar Tsav, on a
\nnumber of occasions, for being a “stranger”…from Kano! And two things
\nhave qualified him for such executive excoriation: his faith and name:
\nAlhaji…Abubakar….<\/p>\n
Flowing from the above, I find it most strange that you would see
\nstrangers from Kano, with the same “strange” names: Abubakar, Ahidjo,
\nAhmadu, Abdulrahman, Abdullahi, Sorondinki.., and proceed to
\nenthusiastically make them ‘Indigenous” Benue state indigenes!<\/p>\n
Your Excellency, some of these Abubakars that you have “indigenously”
\nindigenised while simultaneously disowning the native Abubakar, they are
\nnot even Nigerians from Kano or Kebbi or Sokoto – they are from Niger,
\nMali, Senegal etc (source: NGF)!<\/p>\n
When these “indigenous” strangers kill Benue people, you call for prayers!
\nWhen survivors run to an IDP camp, you go there with photographers to make
\nspeeches and give them indomie! And when you go to Abuja, you downplay the
\non-going genocide against your people as “herdsmen\/farmers’ clashes!”<\/p>\n
Sir, Benue doesn’t share any boundary with Fulani people! We are not
\nneighbours with them. So, when people leave Sokoto, Kano and Kebbi or even
\nMali and the Sahara, and they come and\u00a0 attack us in our state…in our
\nlocal governments…on our ancestral land…to “steal, kill and destroy!
\n(your own words) and, consequently dispossess us – is the appropriate word
\n“clashes” or\u00a0 genocide?<\/p>\n
In another place, where public officers have more\u00a0 honour than shame;
\nwhere integrity counts over and above ambition, you all would have
\nresigned by now i.e. you and your commissioner for justice; you and your
\nfellow-conspirators in the House of Assembly – conspirators against Benue
\nstate and all the ethnic nationalities that share in the Benue
\nCommonwealth!<\/p>\n
But I don’t kid myself: there is no honour among public officers in
\nNigeria; and government is increasingly looking more like organized crime,
\nwhere “the best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate
\nintensity!”<\/p>\n
Meaning? You will not resign. You will not even think about it – that
\nwould be asking too much!<\/p>\n
But, sir, I ask what is within the realm of possibility.<\/p>\n
Are you going to address the Benue people on this monumental scandal, this
\ngrand betrayal, this abuse of office and this hypocritical\/sanctimonious
\nposturing – a quatro-liability that is bound to echo or reverberate for a
\nlong time to come?<\/p>\n
Would you confess your sin, ask for forgiveness tomorrow\u00a0 (Saturday) so
\nyou can go to Church on Sunday with the weight of this grand-betrayal
\nlessened or would you just “bone face” as the acclaimed Tse-pati and carry
\non in the spirit of an executive governor? Or would you keep quiet and add
\nthis heavy burden, this Fulani-gate, to your inverted pyramid of burdens:
\ngross under-performance, the salary albatross, the wage bill padding, the
\ncontract scandals, Gana-gate, Ikyange-gate, the Okefe-gate, the
\nbailout-gate, Agatu-gate etc?<\/p>\n
If you choose not to address us or ask for our forgiveness, what can we,
\nthe people, do? NOTHING! After all, is that not your name: IORAERNYI?
\n(Translation: What can the people do?)! But Your Excellency, sir, THERE IS
\nGOD! And He rules in the affairs of men!<\/p>\n
Lastly, what would you would want to be remembered for, sir? Gov. Paper
\nAku gave us Lobi Bank, Makurdi Modern Market, Taraku Mills, Otukpo Burnt
\nBricks, Idah Sanitary Wares, Benue Breweries, Paper Aku Stadium, State
\nSecretariat… Fada Moses Adasu gave us Benue State University (BSU) in
\nhis interrupted tenure of less than two years! And while Gov. Akume gave
\nus the College of Health Sciences as well as Judges Quarters, Dr. Gabriel
\nSuswam’s bold legacy stands him out as Mr. Infrastructure!<\/p>\n
Your Excellency, sir, you are completing your second year shortly, with
\nnothing on the ground to show that you are in office. Do you desire to
\nmake up this deficiency by entering history as the governor who sold his
\npeople and their Commonwealth to agents of native imperialism?<\/p>\n
Chief (Dr.) Samuel Ioraernyi Ortom, the choice is yours. But as the Owelle
\nof Onitsha, Chief (Dr.) Rt. Hon. Nnamdi Azikiwe, once said: “History will
\nvindicate the just, but God will punish the wicked!”<\/p>\n
Thank you, Sir.<\/p>\n
Imobo-Tswam, a pastor and public affairs analyst, writes from Abuja. He
\ncan be reached @: simonpita2008@yahoo.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n