Will Ortom’s endorsement be game changer for Obi in Benue?

By Uche Nnorom

The long awaited Presidential election is here. And there’s no doubt that lots of efforts must have gone into making sure that the polls are held as scheduled. Assuring of its preparedness, the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in Benue state, has declared that every modalities have been fine tuned to ensure a hitch free polls. According to the Commission’s spokes person in the State, Terkaa Andyar, over 6000 adhoc staff have been adequately trained to man the over 3000 polling units in 276 wards in the State. He explained too that, they have trained their Staff in the handling of the electronic device, Bimodial Voters Accreditation System, BVAS to enhance its functionality.

On the part of the political parties and their gladiators, they have campaigned vigorously, traversing the length and breadth of the state to canvass support for their presidential, governorship and other candidates.

Like in some other states, The presidential election in Benue is expected to be a three-horse race between Peter Obi of the Labor Party, LP; Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP and Ahmed Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC.

The popularity of the three frontline candidates in the state has been too close to call, almost running neck to neck. One reason that has been adduced for this development is that fact that the governorship flag bearers of their parties are in their individual respect men who are backed by those that control the political temperature of the state except for the LP candidate.

For instance, it’s an open secret that the APC candidate, Rev. Father Hycenth Alia is being backed by former Governor and Minister of Special Duties, George Akume while the emergence of PDP’s Titus Uba was purely attributed to Governor Samuel Ortom. But for Herman Hembe, the LP candidate, his current wave can be attributed to the rising popularity of the party at the national level as no godfather can be clearly identified with him.

Though contestable, some analysts believe that Peter Obi enjoys a considerable large followership in Benue State especially amongst the business class and youths. To them, the Labor Party is seen as the third force that will salvage the nation from the shackles of corruption, underdevelopment and economic strangulation.

But many also believe that Obi is being overrated in the state as the candidates of the APC and PDP which have become traditional political parties in the state, having produced the chief executive one time or the other, are still standing very strong.

However, the recent endorsement of the LP presidential candidate by Governor Samuel Ortom who is of the PDP may have sent a message that the candidate may do well in today’s electoral outing.

Analysts in the state have agreed that Governor Ortom has never hidden his passion for Obi who defected from the PDP before its presidential primary in 2022 to the Labor party. Ortom was reported to have said on several occasions without mincing words that he is rooting for Obi whom he felt had competence as a result of sterling performance as Governor of Anambra State to lead the country. Besides, the governor was often reported to have asserted that it should be the turn of the South East to produce the president of Nigeria in 2023 in order to address the sing song of marginalized by the geopolitical zone. According to him, that is the only way to guarantee fairness, justice and equity in a pluralistic nation like Nigeria.

Accordingly, when Obi left the PDP and a Southern could not win the party primary(though he was the Chairman of the Zoning Committee), he alongside four other aggrieved governors of Southern extraction left the party and constituted themselves into the famous G-5 Integrity Group.

Prior to his official endorsement last week, Obi had severally visited Ortom in Abuja and Makurdi to solicit his support. The LP candidate, no doubt, visited Benue more than any of the other presidential candidates. And each time he visited, the governor mobilized sufficiently for him, sending signal a political marriage was waiting to be consumated.

It was then no surprise when on Thursday 16th February,2023, Governor Ortom convoked a town hall meeting to further galvanize support for Obi. It was at the event, that he publicly endorsed Peter Obi as the most competent and experienced candidate to lead the country. Four days after, precisely on Monday 20th February at the Government House, Makurdi during the visit of Igbo community to him, the governor declared his readiness and willingness to shelve his senatoriaI ambition to ensure the emergence of Obi as president if such a sacrifice was needed.

However, the governor’s comment pitched him against prominent chieftains of the ruling PDP in the state most of whom viewed it as anti-party position. Speaking at a town hall meeting, former Minister for Interior and senator representing Benue South District Sen. Patrick Abba Moro countered Ortom’s endorsement, insisting that Atiku remains the most experienced amongst the presidential candidate to clinch the number one plum seat of the nation. He averred that the G-5 have already collapsed, maintaining that those of them working against Atiku, have their lifeline at stake. Moro castigated Obi saying, “how can someone claim he left billions of naira in a State coffers when he failed to address the problem of the people before exiting office. He further argued that Obi lacked the structure in the state to win the poll. Hear him, “for you to win an election, you must have structures like national Assembly members, State Assembly members, local government chairmen Labor party does not have any of these”.

The same opinion was shared by one time Minister for Works and Power Prof.

Iyorwuese Hagher who also, argued that Benue needed to vote for Atiku to right the wrong of President Muhammadu Buhari, positing that the state cannot afford again not to be in the mainstream of politics and decision making in the country. Hagher who is a member of the Atiku campaign Council from the state noted that an Atiku Presidency will be greatly beneficial to the state to the extent of improved infrastructural development , adding that the PDP candidate will put an end to incessant killings by marauding herdsmen. Hagher who was also Nigeria’s Ambassador to Canada and Mexico likened Atiku to the brazen serpent in the wilderness in the days of the Israelites who were instructed by Moses to look up to it and were saved from snake bite, alluding that Benue people should look up to another Fulani man to be rescued.

Another PDP staunch supporter in the State and Convener, Zege Mule U Tiv Vision, Evang. Mati Acka had berated Ortom’s support for Obi, stressing that it will not have any effect on how the people will vote. Evang Acka maintained strongly that the grassroots in the state will vote overwhelmingly for Atiku who will liberate them in all aspects of their desires.

Conversely, a chieftain of Labor Party in Benue State Kengkeng Ati lauded the Governor for Obi’s endorsement, noting that it is consistent with their calls to Nigerians that Obi’s presidency is a journey to rescue Nigeria from the pangs of corruption, bloodshed and criminality as well as bad economy.

He further said: “We have always called on people to go beyond party lines. We want to encourage him to endorse our Senatorial candidate Mark Gbillah for Benue North West Senatorial District and Governorship candidate Iyorwuese Herman Hembe because Labor Party has presented the best array of candidates. We are hoping to have Obi pick this election on first ballot but peradventure this does not happen, then it will be Obi and one other in the rerun. The young people have spoken and even elder Ayo Adebanjo has backed us in the West. Labor party has destroyed structures of other parties and performed beyond every expectation. The other parties are scared and have shown us that we have done well. We look forward to a landslide victory. Labor Party is the only party that is in this election with it’s foot on the throttle. We will be beneficiary of the crisis and factions in PDP and APC. As divided as they are, they cannot cast aspersion on our candidate, they have no power to reduce our vote, they have no energy to fight us on the ballot box. There are many bedroom Obidients in the two (2) political parties that will vote for Labor Party in this election”.

While some politics watchers in Benue believe that the governor’s official support would make Obi to carry the day in today’s exercise, quite a number of others say Ortom has simply jumped into the bandwagon in order to claim credit for the outcome or the election having seen that the LP flag bearer was already good to go.

According to these analysts, the endorsement by the governor, coming so late in the day when voters had already made up their minds would not in any way add to the fortunes of LP in the presidential election.