Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State is a no nonsense man. He is a dogged defender of his people, the people of Benue State, and he does not make any pretence about it. Ortom is an unrepentant critic of the injustices being perpetrated to his people.
Samuel Ortom is audacious. He is bold. He is fearless. He is courageous. He is outspoken. He is not afraid by the size of the enemy, how powerful he may be, even the federal government. He is prepared to take them headlong, to challenge them to a duel, to an open debate or fight.
On several occasions they had tried to break his neck, to strangulate him, to decimate him, but Samuel Ortom was unmoved. He was undaunted. He was not cowed. He was not intimidated. He was not bowed. He refused to keep quiet, or to keep his mouth shut. He continued to talk, to attack and to criticize the injustices being done to his people: the several killings, the invasions of their land, the burning down of houses and farmlands, etc.
The red line between Samuel Ortom and the federal government was drawn far back in 2017, when the Governor got members of Benue State House of Assembly to pass an anti-open grazing law, prohibiting open grazing of cattle in the state. Those whose interests were adversely affected by the new law got angry. They became restless and decided to vent their spleen on the people of Benue state, and to wage war against them.
Terrorists, masquerading as herders, had on several occasions, launched attacks on many villages in Benue State, killed people in their hundreds and burned down their houses.
Ironically, the federal government, whose primary responsibility is to protect lives and property, would not do anything. They would look the other way, while the killings, the burning down of entire villages and destruction of farmlands were going on. They would pretend as if they did not know what was happening.
Samuel Ortom was not happy. He was annoyed about the conspiracy of silence by the federal government and its security agencies. He began to think that perhaps, the federal authorities were surreptitiously abetting or supporting these criminals who were massacring his people. He began to criticize and to attack them for their criminal silence and inaction.
Samuel Ortom was a student of history. He cast his mind back to the early 1960s, when the Islamic-Fulani expansionists had tried to subjugate his native Tivland, with the aim of imposing their religion and their emirate system on the people. But the Tiv people would have none of it. They fought back and halted the invaders. That was the so-called Tiv Riots of 1962, when the Balewa led federal government drafted the military to the area to quell the insurrection.
Ortom felt therefore that the ongoing herders attacks on his people were the continuation of that age long desire of the Fulani to take over Benue State, and he rejected it
In a recent television interview, Samuel Ortom accused the Buhari-led federal government of providing cover for Fulani herdsmen who were responsible for the wanton destructions and killings in Benue State within the last few years. He further alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari was trying to “Fulanise” the country, particularly as a result of the recent approval by the President to review 368 grazing reserves across 25 states in the country.
But the Presidency, through Garba Shehu, was not comfortable about that allegation by Samuel Ortom, and they decided to hit back. They described Governor Samuel Ortom as “undistinguished,” and accused him of stirring a Rwanda-like ethnic campaign against the Fulani.
Governor Ortom would have none of that accusation. He would not keep quiet. He fired back, and accused the Presidency of abandoning the message and going for the messenger. He insisted that he had spoken the minds of most Nigerians on specific areas of failure of the Presidency and its complicity in the heinous crimes committed against citizens by armed Fulani herdsmen and other terrorists.
He restated that no amount of blackmail and media attack would discourage him from speaking against the injustice and pain the present government had caused Nigerians. According to him, the agenda of the present administration was to “Islamize and Fulanize Nigeria”, and urged the people to call the Presidency to order before it destroyed the country.
He warned: “If nothing is done fast to avert the impending disaster, armed herders, bandits and other terrorists will one day take over Aso Rock Villa and those occupying the Villa at the moment will willingly surrender to them and flee from the country.
“No day passes without reports of herdsmen and other terrorists killing defenceless Nigerians in parts of the country. The number of displaced people has risen to millions, yet, the Presidency wants everyone to remain silent while the country burns,” and emphatically stated that he would “never keep mute!”
While aligning himself with the immortal of Dr Martin Luther King jnr, who once said: “If peace means accepting second class citizenship, I dont want it. If peace means keeping my mouth shut in the midst of injustice and evil, I dont want it. If peace means being complacently adjusted to a deadening status-quo, I dont want peace. If peace means a willingness to be exploited economically, dominated polically, humiliated and segregated, I dont want peace,” Samuel Ortom unapologetically declared: “Let it be on record that while the Presidency deliberately destroys Nigeria, someone spoke against the evil.”
Dons, a veteran journalist, lives in Enugu, Southeast Nigeria
