Benue killings: Alia should learn from Jime 

The contumacious governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress, APC in Benue State, suspended priest Hyacinth Alia needs to ask the 2019 guber candidate of the party Emmauel Jime to share his bitter experience with him on how Benue voters treated him over his comments on herdsmen attacks in the state.

It will be recalled that before the 2019 elections, Jime described reports about the Benue killings as mere propaganda. To please President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC hierarchy, Jime said he did not believe that the attacks were from Fulani herders, even as the people of his community were sacked from their ancestral homes and were in IDP camps. Jime called the media reports “mere propaganda” by the State Government. He went on to dance pajanga at campaign grounds and at a point even went to one of the IDP camps to campaign for votes without giving the displaced people a single carton of indomie.

Jime’s utterances and actions angered Benue people to the marrow. The people bit their fingers and waited for the right moment to repay Jime for his act of betrayal. That time eventually came and Benue voters massively voted for Governor Ortom who had stood strongly with them. Ortom set a record as the first Governor to win a second term with the highest margin of victory ever in the history of the state.

Alia needs to learn from Jime’s painful but deserved experience. No one insults the sensibilities of our people and goes free. He has commenced campaigns on the same lane that sank Jime and his case will not be different. He will also sink. He will be rejected by the people. His case is even worse because he has no experience in politics. Jime who is a long standing politician right from the early 90s couldn’t summort the tsunami that hit him. He lost woefully to Governor Ortom.

Alia should know that by saying the herdsmen attacks are mere propaganda, he has entered the bad book of our people. No one enters that book and comes out unscathed. He is in bed with our enemies like Kaduna Governor Nasir El-Rufai and Katsina Governor Bello Masari who are said to be sponsoring him so he would hand Benue lands to Fulani, if he is elected. His romance with such individuals who represent an evil agenda against Benue state is enough to nail him.

Fulani oligarchs have tried to impose a Governor on Benue state previously but they failed. They will fail again in 2023! Alia is a desperate man. He wants to become governor by all means and is going to any extent to achieve his goal. But what he doesn’t know is that power has moved to the people and in 2023, no amount of vote buying can help him. The N5 billion that the three northern Governors gave him won’t save him from humiliation.

Benue is not for sale!

Another bigot and hater of our people that we are watching keenly is Atiku Abubakar. Atiku has insulted our people again. He said the other day (by implication) that unless Fulani are given lands to occupy in Benue state, there will be no peace. We will respond to him at the polls next year, the same way we will respond to Alia.

By Joseph Nashima