Although over ten political parties are jostling for governorship seat in Benue State, the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Labour Party (LP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) (in alphabetical order) are the ones in the race with popular candidates with realistic prospect of eventually producing a governor after the March 18 polls.
National Record’s Amos Aar, in this report x-rays the chances of the contenders – PDP’s Titus Uba, LP’s Herman Iorwase Hembe and APC’s Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia.
RIGHT Honourable Titus Uba, the incumbent Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly who is flying the PDP’s flag has a number of advantages to leverage upon to achieve victory at the poll. As Speaker of the State Assembly, Uba is a household name in Benue. He may enjoy the support and solidarity of his colleague lawmakers especially PDP members who currently dominate the House. Apart from his fame, Uba has the backing of the PDP National Chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, who hails from Benue State.
It’s also noteworthy that the PDP remains in control of Benue State until May 29, 2023 and this connotes a tremendous influence in favour of Titus Uba before and during the election. Some people in the state believe strongly that Uba will sustain the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law, 2017 enacted under his speakership to end herders versus farmers crisis.
However, Uba is not having the support of majority of the Benue masses who dislike him for the alleged abysmal performance of the Assembly under his speakership. Many in Benue describe Uba as a ‘rubber stamp Speaker’ and a ‘borrowing app’, having allegedly approved every loan request from Governor Ortom for programmes order than development.
Thus, those not comfortable with Uba’s candidacy therefore deem him generally unfit to govern the state on the grounds that he is a weakling who will serve as a puppet in the hands of those imposing him.
In addition to these noted weaknesses, there is also a school of thought that sees Uba as of unsound scholarship in addition to his recent health challenges, all of which pose him as a risk to the heavy burden of leadership.
For Honourable Herman Iorwase Hembe, the incumbent member who has represented the Konshisha/Vandeikya federal constituency consecutively for 16 consecutive years, is LP’s governorship candidate.
Hembe, who would have been a formidable force in the race if a Catholic priest had not happened on the Benue political scene, remains a force that will sway some votes. He is seen as a monumental achiever who has penetrated rural areas with constituency projects which are speaking for him in all nooks and cranny of his constituency.
What counts very much in favour of Hembe is the perception that he is a stand-alone candidate who is not yoked with any political godfather and has over time banked on the masses as his strength and structure that had persistently given him victory at the polls. Many are convinced that Hembe will make a good governor judging from his antecedents and having not had the affliction of a godfather that will distract him from performing well if elected governor of the state.
But Hembe lacks a pan-Benue structure to beat either the PDP or the APC that have supporters and stakeholders in all parts of the state. Although he says the people are his structures, it was observed in the just concluded presidential and National Assembly elections that political parties that lacked structures were not well represented at some polling units especially in villages as they did not have agents there to protect their votes.
Hembe’s major challenge is the perception in some circles that he is rude to both elders and young stakeholders in the state, and without which it will be impossible for a candidate to succeed in an election.
There are those who argue that Hembe is not good at providing ‘stomach infrastructure’ for people to be alive to enjoy the social amenities he provides for them. These issues, they expressed pessimism that will deny Hembe the guber seat even as no one has doubted his ability to perform creditably if elected the next governor of Benue State.
Reverend Father Hyacinth Iormem Alia of the APC, like the other two candidates, has both strong and weak points in the sight of political analysts and the entire Benue citizenry. 80 per cent of the Benue electorate opines that Fr. Alia, being a Catholic priest, will liberate Benue from all the shackles of underdevelopment.
There is the broad belief that he will work just like the second civilian governor of Benue State, Rev. Fr. Moses Orshio Adasu, of blessed memory. Alia has made a name for decades as a result of his healing Eucharistic Mass that many testified had saved their lives.
The famous cleric is also enjoying the strong backing of an APC leader and former governor of Benue State, Senator George Akume, who is the current Minister of Special Duties and Inter-governmental Affairs.
Akume, whose political influence binds on the entire Benue State with concrete structures, played a significant role in the emergence of Fr. Alia as APC’s guber candidate. He had insisted that the direct mode of primaries be adopted rather than indirect mode which was said to have been agreed upon and would have provided a conducive platform for money bag politicians to hijack the process to clinch the ticket unchallenged. It will therefore not be an overstatement to categorically state that that was the very day Akume made Fr. Alia the next Governor of Benue State.
From the political trends since his emergence, there has not been any doubt that Alia conspicuously remained the choice of Benue people, only that it looked somewhat impossible that he was going to get APC’s ticket until Akume’s intervention.
Since he exited Government House in 2007 as a two-term governor of Benue State, Akume has never lost glimpse of the state as a political leader having planted his two successors, Gabriel Suswam and Samuel Ortom and there is every likelihood that he will do it again for the Catholic priest.
Notwithstanding his bright chances to win the race, Fr Alia has some issues to contend with. The entire Benue South (composed of the Idoma), is alleged to have vowed not to support Fr. Alia’s candidacy. They are said to be aggrieved that Alia’s godfather, Akume, forcibly imposed Sam Ode as Alia’s running mate against the conventional zoning arrangement of the Benue South people that Apa and Agatu local government areas should produce the next deputy governor.
This argument is premised on the fact that the incumbent deputy governor, Engr Benson Abounu, hails from Otukpo LGA, the same place as Ode, hence the need for the position to rotate to another part of Idomaland.
Alia also has to contend with another nagging issue of intra party squabble and battle against him. Almost all the political heavyweights in the APC are against Alia for the reason that he came into politics as a novice in 2022 and emerged the party’s guber candidate within the year to floor them.
The fight by the aggrieved gladiators may affect Alia in places where they have strongholds now that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) is said to have failed and some political parties are boasting to grab the mandate by hook or by crook.
Nevertheless, Fr Alia remains the popular choice of Benue people unless fate decides otherwise at the polls.
