By Amos Aar
DISAPPROVING reactions have greeted the emergence of the Speaker, Benue State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Titus Uba, as the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) consensus candidate for the Tiv-speaking area of the state in the forthcoming 2023 general elections.
Findings by National Record indicate that some prominent personalities in the state, including members of the PDP and even those from Vandeikya Local Government where the Speaker hails from, are unhappy over the party stakeholders’ decision which they described as an imposition on the masses against their various choices and sensibilities.
Many people who expressed grievances in interviews with National Record but did not want their names in print, based their disapproval on what they described as Hon. Uba’s abysmal performance as Speaker of the State’s 9th Assembly.
In fact, some media handlers have issued statements on behalf of their principals who are governorship aspirants, kicking against the consensus reached on Easter Sunday, 17th April, 2022 at Government House, Makurdi.
Former DG, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Dr Paul Tavershima Angya, and the immediate past Commissioner of Education in the state, Prof. Dennis Ityavyar, have been quoted in the media on their intentions to meet in the field for primaries.
A media Coordinator for Dr Paul Angya Campaign Organisation, Mr Clement Tsar, who took to Facebook to bare his mind on behalf of his boss wrote: “A CALL FOR CALM AS DR PAUL ANGYA RESPONDS TO THE PDP CONSENSUS ARRANGEMENT.
“The frontline governorship contender in Benue State on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Paul Angya has expressed his continued bafflement at the emerging scenario regarding the announcement of the consensus candidature.
“Dr. Angya said the process that produced the consensus candidate in Benue State is being examined to address the issues of merit and tenets of democracy which are expected to be enshrined in the process in order for it to reflect the wishes of the generality of the party membership.
“He therefore called for calm among his teeming supporters and appealed for time to respond appropriately to a process that appears to be opaque and not as transparent as required of the need to provide quality leadership for the State.
“He said apart from the purchase and submission of his nomination form, his commitment and passion to ensuring quality leadership is not in doubt given his pedigree and campaign through out the state and beyond. Reiterating that the New Deal Project is still on course untill victory is achieved”.
It’s been rumoured that while Uba is the preferred candidate of the national Chairman of PDP, Sen. Dr Iyorchia Ayu, Prof. Dennis Ityavyar is believed to be Governor Ortom’s chosen candidate. But as the struggle of who produces the consensus candidate lingered and almost culminated in a war between the duo of Ayu and Ortom, it is learnt that the latter simply allowed the former to have his way but he (Ortom) might indirectly encourage Prof. Ityavyar to opt for primaries where he may be favoured through the governor’s manipulations as many people have described him as a shrewd political schemer.
A former Chief of Staff to the governor, Hon. Terwase Orbunde, who resigned his juicy and powerful position to jostle for governorship, is also said to have refused to back out of the race even as he was not favoured by zoning which was given to Jechira bloc and was further narrowed down to Vandeikya local government.
Although Governor Samuel Ortom was quoted in Premium Times of Saturday, 16th November, 2022 as expressing little hope for a Governorship Aspirant from Benue-South comprising mainly the Idoma to win 2023 governorship election, some people are of the opinion that his Deputy, Engr. Benson Abounu (an Idoma man) who is the consensus candidate for the zone may likely be an eventual PDP flagbearer in the state if the Tiv PDP consensus would contend with the Idoma consensus. They predicted a block vote from zone C to a divided vote in zone A and B from the Tiv area.
