PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI'S VISIT TO BENUE: A ONE CORNER DANCE

Prior to winning the March 28th 2015 presidential elections, the name Muhammadu Buhari was a household name in Nigeria loved mostly by the masses and the middle-class, though hated by the elites. He was perceived by many as the one man that will provide the long awaited change Nigerians have yearned for years long- mass recruitment of graduates, massive infrastructure development, total security of lives and properties, socioeconomic growth and development, revaluation of the Naira, fight against corruption and nepotism, improved healthcare delivery services, promotion of national unity and integrity, life-changing agricultural loans for farmers etc. to mention but a few. He was the Messiah the people were waiting for. Regrettably, he has failed to live up to the hopes and expectations of the people of Nigeria.
In his acceptance speech after he was declared winner of the fifth quadrennial Presidential elections to be held since the end of Military rule in Nigeria in 1999 by the Professor Attahiru Jega's led INEC broadcasted on the 1st of April 2015, PMB made a strong statement that his appointments were going to reflect what he had gotten from the ballot meaning he was going to consider first, the people, zones or States that gave him massive votes that helped him prevailed over his old nemesis, The PDP and Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan but this promise turned out to be a "flat lie" from the President. What a common man refers to as "promise and fail".
I mean no harm, disrespect and discrimination against my Idoma speaking fellow citizens, but in Benue, it was the Tiv People that gave the Oldman the massive votes that prevailed him over Jonathan both in the State and at the Middle-Belt Geopolitical Zone of Nigeria. Evident to the above, the APC swept all the National Assembly seats in the Tiv speaking area while the PDP won with the Mark-Morro  (M2) effect in the Idoma and Igede  speaking areas. The APC in Benue gave Buhari more than 70% of the total votes cast in the March 28th elections with credits to the "winds of change" that swept across the two Senatorial Zones in the Tiv speaking areas.
On the 28th of May, 2015 (Democracy Day), after PMB was sworn in as the fifth democratic elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and fourth President in the 4th Republic, the Oldman gave a mind blowing and peaceable inaugural speech with the popular phrase "I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody" which later, was enmeshed in plagiarism scandal which Mr. President was accused of stealing the famous quote from the Late Charles de Gaulle.
The Oldman's Presidential journey started with himself, Asiwaju, Ameachi and "the famous cabal". It took President Muhammadu Buhari more than four months to constitute the Federal Executive Committee  (FEC). In over four months, PMB was unable to get 37 persons out of 187 million Nigerians to be appointed into various Ministerial Offices. This lame action by the President was later melt with the worst Economic Recession ever witnessed in the country since the period of the Civil War of 1967-1970. The hardship brought by the recession is still felt in many Nigerian homes and families.
The Tiv People after overwhelmingly voting for Buhari's change, the thank you they got from him was the sacking of Dr. Paul Botwev Orhii as the DG-NAFDAC. The sacking of Dr. Orhii was however interpreted in the language that he was appointed by the PDP led administration. At the home front, Professor Steve Torkuma Ugbah and Chief Michael Kaase Aondokaa were touted as possible Ministerial Candidates. Unfortunately, when President Muhammadu Buhari's list was announced, no single one of them or any other Tiv personality made the much awaited Ministerial list. An Idoma man, Chief Audu Ogbeh who did not even participated in the said election as it was claimed that he had lost his Permanent Voter's Card (PVC) was nominated and subsequently screened and confirmed by the Nigerian Senate as Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Federal Republic of Nigeria. Chief Ogbeh's appointment and the sudden negligence of the Tiv People contravened PMB's statement broadcasted on the 1st of April 2015 in his acceptance speech were he started clearly and strongly that his appointments were going to reflect what he got from the ballot. But it was a big lie from the Messiah, 'Mai Gaskiya', 'Or U Mimi', 'Sai Baba'! He continued to melt heavy injustice against the Tiv People, the fourt largest Ethnicity in Nigeria. The same ethnic Tribe that voted for him overwhelmingly. This negligence meant that for the first time in the fourt republic the Tivs would not be represented at the FEC meetings.
After marginalizing the Tivs and dismissing their presence at the National level, Buhari's Fulani Herdsmen invaded the Benue valley with assorted armoury killing thousands in Agatu, Guma, Logo, Buruku, Ukum, Katsina Ala, and other Tiv settlements in Nasarawa and Taraba States. The incessant killings were even escalated after Governor Samuel Ortom went to Agatu with Governor Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State and commissioned open-grazing route in Agatu and his subsequent declaration of Fulani herders as "indigenous Fulanis". Our dear Governor, instead of providing the necessary security apparatus, law and order to help with the herdmens menace was busy playing "cargo politics" with lives and properties of Benue Citizens with the signing of different MOUs with Nasarawa State Government and some selected persons in Agatu. 500 million naira was said to have been shared among stakeholders in Agatu and the Benue People's House to allow Fulani cows to graze openly on Agatu farms. The herdsmen suddenly, started migrating from Agatu to other Local Governments in the State, killing our children, youths, parents and raping our women. It took the combine wisdom and efforts of the Civil Societies in Benue State under the umbrella of Movement Against Fulani Occupation (MAFO) to propound a long lasting initiative that will put an end to herders and farmers clashes. An Anti-Open Grazing Law was well written, prepared and Submitted to the Hon. Terkimbir Ikyange led Benue State House of Assembly. Disappointingly, it took the Benue State Government over a year to assent to the bill. A bill that has become Gov. Ortom's salvation. All these senseless and barbaric herdsmen killings would have been prevent if only our Governor and BNSHA did not play "hide and seek" with the Agatu massacre.
Mr. President, irrespective of all the atrocities melted on my dear Benue State by your kinsmen, I still summoned the courage to say welcome to Benue State.
My Dear Governor Ioraer Ortom, my Father and my Leader, please tell Mr. President that "a broken friendship maybe soldered but it can never be sound again". Advice him to listen to the growing voices calling on him not to run for a second term come 2019. He should retire to his home town of Daura to recuperate himself. I mean no offence your Excellency Sir, but the same advice goes to you as well. Pls, quit after this term to save us more trouble.
"A Wiseman changes his mind, a fool never will". Don't choose to be the later Sir! Just quit.
Mr. President, you are welcome to Benue, "a great state, a great solitude".
#FulaniMustGo.
#IStandWithMAFO
Sincerely Yours,
Comrade Samuel Allen Zenke