By Sufuyan Ojeifo<\/p>\n
Joseph Tarka lived for only 48 years. His life and times were eventful.
\nHe defined his eon with the magnitude of his individuality and politics.
\nHe produced and offered to the Benue people a visionary, pragmatic,
\ninspiring and focused leadership. Since his demise on March 30, 1980, no
\nBenue politician of Tiv ethnic stock after him has been able to command
\nthe kind of reverence, public approbation, sympathy and support that he
\nenjoyed in the political space of Benue.<\/p>\n
Tarka left behind a legacy of loyal and committed leadership. He was
\nloyal to his followers and sensitive to the yearnings of his people. It
\nis arguable whether any Tiv politician has been able to surpass
\nTarka\u2019s record of accomplishments that were packed full into his short
\nexistence. Except David Mark from the Idoma ethnic stock that had been
\ngovernor, minister and senator (senate president), no other Benue
\npolitician towers above Tarka in terms of strategic public offices
\noccupied.<\/p>\n
By the time Tarka died, he had been a minister for commerce and a
\nsenator in the second republic.\u00a0 He died while in the senate. Today, the
\nonly Tiv politician that is set to surpass Tarka\u2019s record of occupying
\nstrategic public offices is George Akume who had been governor of Benue
\nfor eight years, senator for twelve years and has just been appointed as
\na minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Barnabas Gemade, another Tiv politician, had only been a minister and a
\nsenator. A former governor of Benue, Gabriel Suswam, had been a member
\nof the House of Representatives and now a senator. The incumbent
\ngovernor, Samuel Ortom, had been a minister. Akume\u2019s impending
\nministerial voyage places him ahead of them all of Tiv ethnic
\nextraction. That also positions him strategically to appropriate
\nBenue\u2019s political leadership, depending on how well he can deploy his
\nministerial position to utilitarian performance in service delivery.<\/p>\n
Indeed, Akume\u2019s political cruise has been phenomenal. He had taken the
\nBenue political scene by storm as governor between 1999 and 2007 on the
\nplatform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). His brand of politics of
\ninclusiveness and accommodation resonated well with the vast majority of
\nthe people. He ensured the economic empowerment of men and women in the
\nstate and democratized the dividends of democratic governance while in
\nthe saddle as governor.<\/p>\n
He was very popular among his people. To be sure, Akume has enjoyed rare
\nreciprocal and episodic gestures from the people who have always
\nrewarded him with their massive votes during elections. While he won the
\nelection to the senate in 2007 as an outgoing governor, his move in 2011
\nwhen he dumped the PDP for Action Congress (AC) in the Senate and went
\nahead to win his re-election was remarkable. It simply showed that his
\npopularity among his people and influence on them were not a fluke. He
\nworked hard to achieve their trust, confidence and goodwill.<\/p>\n
Apparently, Suswam as governor was going to deny him the senate ticket
\nin the PDP. It was a battle of wits and grits. Akume proved that he had
\nthe people on his side. It was in 2015 that his politics and politicking
\nblossomed and became prodigious. His planned re-election to the Senate
\nwas a foregone conclusion. He did not really campaign. But he was rather
\nengrossed with his plan to produce a successor to Suswam as governor of
\nBenue state.<\/p>\n
While Suswam denied Samuel Ortom the PDP ticket and gave it to his
\ncrony, Dr Tehemen Tarzoor, Akume had, single-handed, paved the way for
\nOrtom to cross over to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and rewarded
\nhim with the governorship ticket of the party.\u00a0 He ensured that Hon.
\nEmmanuel Jime, who was favoured to clinch the ticket, was pacified with
\na federal appointment. That was sheer political dexterity that paid off
\nhandsomely.<\/p>\n
But in the build-up to the 2019 general election, the relationship
\nbetween him (Akume) and Ortom had become conflicted, resulting in their
\nparting of ways. Ortom returned to the PDP where he sought for
\nre-election and won. Akume could not ensure the victory of Jime who was
\nthe party\u2019s governorship standard bearer in the election. And, in a
\ncontroversial circumstance, Akume who had become a household name in the
\npolitics of Benue Northwest Senatorial Zone, was \u201cdefeated\u201d in the
\n2019 election.<\/p>\n
A former member of the House of Representatives, Emmanuel Yisa Orker-Jev
\nwas deployed by the PDP leadership guard in the contest against him
\n(Akume). The scenario was tantamount to a fight between an elephant and
\na cow. Akume was understandably over confident and dropped his guards in
\nthe belief that he was going to overrun Oker-Jev even without
\nelectioneering.<\/p>\n
In fact, on a good day and in a free-and-fair election, Oker-Jev would
\nnot be an obstacle to Akume\u2019s victory in the political cosmos of Benue
\nNorthwest zone, but by the time the other camp was done with its
\nshenanigans, Akume discovered too late that he had been electorally
\nundercut and manipulated out of victory path and celebration. But to be
\nsure, Oker-Jev, who is not half as popular as Akume in the political
\nspace of Benue, was a proxy in the witty and gritty battle of supremacy
\nand survival.<\/p>\n
The philosophy of survival of the fittest as exemplified in the theory
\nof Social Darwinism continues to underline political interactions in
\nBenue State. The leadership question was about to resolve itself to the
\ndisfavour of Akume and possibly to be thrown open for contestation and
\nappropriation by the likes of Ortom and Suswam, when providence beckoned
\non him (Akume) to commence his second missionary journey in the
\nexecutive arm of government but, this time round, at the federal level.<\/p>\n
That gives Akume national visibility. He becomes effectively entrenched
\nand reinforced as the leader of the APC in Benue.\u00a0 He remains a
\nformidable hub around which a viable opposition against Ortom and the
\nPDP revolves in the State.\u00a0 In fact, it goes without saying that he
\nseamlessly fits into his providential role as a leader of his people.
\nSignificantly, oiling of APC political machinery in Benue becomes easier
\nahead of the 2023 general election.<\/p>\n
With his cosmopolitan disposition to politics, having traversed both the
\nPDP and APC terrains as an influential leader, Akume\u2019s capacity to
\nstep in the driver\u2019s seat of the vehicle of political leadership is
\nnot in doubt. As a minister of the Federal Republic, the burden is on
\nhim to provide political leadership to the entire State of Benue.\u00a0 He is
\nto minister to their needs as well as to the needs of the entire nation
\nin whatever portfolio he is saddled with.<\/p>\n
Certainly a great step ahead of Ortom as a three-time senator and
\ntwo-term governor, his ministerial voyage offers the opportunity of a
\ncountervailing force to Ortom and PDP\u2019s antics in Benue. Indeed, Akume
\nis in a good stead to convince Benue people that the question of
\npolitical leadership in the state should be resolved in his favour. The
\ncoast is clear for Akume, whom the other camp thought it had damaged
\npolitically, for the ultimate battle for leadership, thanks to President
\nBuhari who nominated and appointed him as a minister.<\/p>\n
\u00b7\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0OJEIFO CONTRIBUTED THIS PIECE FROM ABUJA VIA Sufuyan Ojeifo Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android [1]<\/p>\n
\nOJWONDERNGR@YAHOO.COM<\/a><\/p>\n
\nEditor- in- Chief
\nThe Congresswatch Magazine
\n+234 8034727013\u00a0 \u00a0 +234 8023024800<\/p>\n