At last we are getting down to brass tacks. With the May 24 deadline for the primary elections for gubernatorial elections for political parties just around the corner, it is clear that the boys are gradually being separated from the men, even if through a zoning process which, though not the best option for the emergence of candidates in a truly democratic environment, remains a necessary evil in Nigeria’s peculiar circumstances which necessitates a delicate balancing act between contending geo-political forces.
In Benue State, the prevailing situation has exposed the soft underbelly of some political parties and so called governorship ‘aspirants’.
Political experience in the State over the years has shown that when it comes to governorship of this unimaginably endowed State, any body who can print a 10 x 20 banner fancies himself a Governor and proceeds to prance around advertising him or herself as one.
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With the current unimaginable mess into which the current administration of Samuel Ortom has reduced the State, it is no surprise that the struggle for Government House Makurdi this time around has been even more desperate and quixotic. Out of every rabbit hole in the State has crawled forth all manner of characters clamouring for the exalted position. The logic has been simple: if a garage boy without a classmate in the whole wide world could get there somehow, why in the name of 10 devils not me?
This mentality led to the emergence of a coterie of aspirants – the rich, the young, the old (who should be grateful to God and be content just to be alive); bare faced criminals, ‘mumus’, those who would betray God’s celestial calling for the lure of worldly pleasures! They all trooped out to the political arena to try their luck. Even those who do not know the exact number of council wards in the State’s twenty three local governments were desperate to be counted among aspirants! It’s really been a bazaar gone crazy!
At the height of this madness, the two major political parties boasted more than 100 characters of all shapes, sizes and reputations ‘aspiring’ for the governance of the State between them! That is the unseriousness to which State affairs have been reduced in the food Basket State.
Thanks however, to the ‘ya – na- angbian’ principle, some sanity has taken over and the chickens are finally coming home to roost.
Even though the final candidates have not been arrived at, the picture is gradually becoming clearer. The confirmation of Speaker Titus Uba as PDP’s candidate after a protracted power tussle between its national Chairman Dr. Iyor Chia Ayu, testimony of a clash of egos (a tragedy foretold!) between the party’s national leader, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, ironically recruited by his local champion, the State Governor Ortom,b in a vainglorious, ill fated misadventure ostensibly calculated to checkmate a genuine God given leadership in the person of Sir George Akume is mere confirmation of the party’s looming catastrophe as no serious politician in Benue today considers Uba, who is more of a boy to Benue’s First Lady Mrs. Eunice Ortom. It is widely known that he calls the First couple Daddy and Mummy! It is obvious that Uba is no match to even the least APC aspirant.Obviously, the party is destined to self-destruct after the crushing defeat that is sure to come in the 2023 governorship election, a sad but deserving victim of its own bad belle and poor performance!
The APC, on its part, threads more carefully as it sieves through the remaining six aspirants from Vandeikya local government to which the party’s guiding fathers, in their infinite wisdom, zoned the governorship – Prof. Terhemba Shija, Arch. Bernard Yisa, Terrumun Ikya, Rev. Fr. Hycinth Alia, Surv. Godwin Ityoamin and Jeff Kuraun.
Of these six gladiators, only the politically naive or incredibly diehard would fail to see the obvious choice in one who stands head and shoulders above the rest of the pack.
From a humble beginning, Prof. Terhemba Shija, who many have taken to calling ‘The Professor of Destiny’, is a man who has lived a life of tenacious struggle, and exhibited amazing resilience, patience as well as humility. A member of Nigeria’s House of Reps at 32, the charismatic Shija, amiable and easily approachable, has been a persistent contributor to the Benue story. He was at various times a speech writer to a military administrator as well as two-time commissioner in the State.
Despite this high profile, he continues to live a humble yet socially active life.
Loved by all, especially the youth, many of whom he has helped through one scholarship, job placement or the other, Shija is famous for his courage in speaking out and confronting evil.
Respectable and despising injustice, he is known to have handed over his senatorial nomination to Prof. Daniel Saror when he felt that the elderly gentleman had been shabbily treated and unfairly deprived of his party’s senatorial ticket.
Shija did not hesitate in offering the senatorial nomination which he had won in his own party to the elderly gentleman. He then proceeded to serve as the Professor’s Campaign Manager, leading to the urbane Professor’s two term tenure at the upper Chambers of the national assembly!
Shija later also served as campaign manager to George Akume, mercurial political leader of the middle belt, during the latter’s governorship election campaigns. In the course of the campaign, he was involved in a ghastly motor accident, breaking his arm. In spite of this, he refused to be admitted in hospital and continued to lead the campaign and eventually won victory for his candidate!
Shija again displayed this amazing humility and magnanimity when he again sacrificed his own political ambition to serve as campaign manager to Gabriel Suswam in his re-election bid in 2011!
One can only appreciate Shija’s humility and sense of sacrifice when one remembers that Suswam was still hustling the streets of Lagos as a graduate way back in 1991/92 when Shija was in the House of Reps! Remarkably, it was the same Suswam who in 2015 frustrated his first attempt at Benue’s governorship.
This same it was who later led the onslaught to hound Shija out of the PDP, a party fof which he had risked his very life.
From the foregoing, it is clear that Shija has long paid his dues by serving political apprenticeship for both Sankera (Zone A) and Jemgbagh in Zone B.
Hey! This amazing phenomenon even supported power shift to the southern part of Benue State (Zone C) when he backed the highly revered retired Federal Perm. Sec. Mike Onoja for Benue’s governorship.
Having thus paid his political dues to all zones of the State, Shija today, it is the unanimous decision of political leaders in Benue State that Shija’s time has, indeed, come.
He stands head and shoulders above any other contender both physically and metaphorically speaking in not only Vandeikya, but in any party or zone in the State.
His ‘Benue Rebuild Agenda’, a well thought out blueprint for the development of Benue State, is unmatched.
On the home front, Prof. Shija maintains his moderate lifestyle. He is married to the delectable and we’ll cultured
Theresa Mimi Shija, a Justice of the Peace and they live happily with their three children.
Highly cerebral, this academic guru can hold his own anywhere. There are those who are of the opinion that it is indeed a sign of disrespect (‘cihi’) for any Benue born to contest the Benue governorship with this Professor of Destiny.
Today Shija looms menacingly on the horizon, an implacable avenging angel, armed with justified righteous anger, to consign the PDP to the pits of hell, and rebuild Benue State and elevate it’s people to its rightful place in Nigeria and the world stage. Which would be, as they say, poetic Justice.
– Adzegeh is Director, Media & Publicity, Prof. Terhemba Shija Gubernatorial Campaign Organization.
Disclaimer: This article is entirely the opinion of the writer and does not represent the views of The Whistler.
Opinion. Please Mr. Sam Adzege, it’s very unfortunate that your view of all other aspirants even within your political party the APC except your principal as devils have expressed more deciete to your credit than your solicited trust,as many Benue sons and daughters from the 3zones do not know your principal to be a SAINT niether do we know him to have carried out most of what you have stated here on his behalf except for the attested fact that your boss is a desperate politician who would always be at the corridors of power, the more reason he was receiving those appointments which according you were below his status. If truely he is a man of respect he should have a ‘standard’ to his integrity. collecting unworthy assignment here and there, rather than advising appropriately to signify his interest and support to the recipient would have made him most respectable and outstanding in our society than selling his birthright for a morsel of bread.
Secondly,for you to classify the rest of the other aspirants with insultive and demeaning description as if your principal is superior to them also calls for a rethink especially when you are already proving to be power drunk by referring to other fellow aspirants of your boss as “CIHI” in contesting the same ambition with your boss is completely a point for another discussion.
Finally, let me remind you about that boy in the Bible called ‘David’ and how God decided his emergence on the throne. Instead of praying for your principal, you are busy destroying him. Who told you that is the type of Governor, Benue people are anticipating to get.?