PROF. OJOWU SHOULD LEAVE ABOUNU, ABBA YARO ALONE
By Odeh Ageh
Our attention has been drawn to a public letter by Prof. Ode Ojowu, in which he has alleged of Deputy Governor Benson Abounu and APC state chairman, Abba Yaro, wanting to dictate the outcome of the ongoing selection process of first class chief in Igede.
Ordinarily, we did not want to respond to the letter. We believe the issues raised in it are such that as someone who has unfettered access to Engr. Abounu and Yaro, the professor was supposed to have called the two leaders for resolution of whatever reservation he has over the process of selection of traditional chiefs.
Unfortunately, he did not toe that line. Instead, he chose to make a damning public statement. He did not stop at that, he published it on the social media. read more
So, we have no option than to respond, to straighten some gray areas in his statement. More so, if we, from Igede angle do not respond, it would be misconstrued to mean that we have consented to what he has levelled against the deputy governor and the party chairman, whereas we have not, hence this reaction.
The public should not be confused by Prof. Ojowu’s statement, but would clearly know that the deputy governor is only trying to ensure that things are done properly, the very reason he called the Igede stakeholders and had a meeting with them just as he previously did with stakeholders in other intermediate areas in Idoma land.
It is, therefore, from that angle that we want to respond to some of the issues Ojowu raised in the public letter.
Ojowu in the letter particularly accused the Deputy Governor and the party chairman of interfering with Igede chieftaincy matters. We want to ask, how?
Prof. Ojowu is an erudite scholar and well informed, so we are disappointed at his write up, for not knowing that Engr. Abounu is a deputy governor for the whole of Benue State.
Given his position, what then is wrong if he holds a meeting that will bring peace to his immediate constituency?
Engr. Abounu held a meeting with the entire Idoma at the Och’Idoma’s palace. Thereafter, he held meetings with the four intermediate areas of Apa/Agatu, Otukpo/Ohimini, Ado-Okpokwu-Ogbadibo and lastly Igede, with a view to harmonizing the process of the implementation of the chieftaincy laws of the state.
Is Prof. Ojowu saying that the deputy governor does not have any right to call such meetings?
The meeting with the Igede stakeholders was held in Benue People's House, Makurdi in a free and fair manner. Everybody freely aired his view.
The Omi’Ny Igede, which is the apex Igede socio-cultural organization insisted that they were the right group to implement the local government chieftaincy law for the Igede intermediate area council, but the Deputy Governor advised that it was not within the purview of socio-cultural organizations to implement government policies and laws, which was also echoed by His Excellency Governor Samuel Ortom the previous day in a meeting with Benue South Senatorial zone, in an answer to a question asked by a participant on the role of socio-cultural organisations in the process of the selection of traditional chiefs.
Is the erudite professor now saying that the government law should be implemented by socio-cultural groups? Is he indirectly telling us that he made that arrangement for Omi’Ny Igede led by Ode Enyi to hijack the process and intimidate the elders and chiefs as alleged in the meeting by prominent elders and chiefs?
Is the professor saying he is one of the elders who arranged the kangaroo meeting in Abuja to impose a candidate on Igede people as alleged in the meeting?
What then is the sin of the Deputy Governor? The erudite professor has surely failed to mention what Abounu’s sin is, and that of the state APC chairman. What did they do wrong?
Prof. Ojowu should be more specific on the roles of the duo of Abounu and Yaro for why he said they should allow Igede to have unfiltered selection process.
The professor happily made a reference to the fact of Tiv’s chiefs successful selection process, and we want to ask: is it Mzou-Tiv the Tiv socio-cultural organization that does the zoning and execution of the government programmes and policies or the law pertaining to the
selection of the Tiv traditional chiefs? Or is it Opia to ha K'Idoma that is leading the selection process in Idoma land?
Prof. Ojowu should get his fact correct. Let him tell us where on earth socio-cultural organisations implement government policies and laws.
Contrary to what Omi’Ny Ígede is doing, Nzou-Tiv did not hijack or take over the process of implementing government laws, rules, regulations or policies in the Tiv area.
In Idoma land, when clarifications needed to be done, Och’Idoma met with the government - a fact even mentioned by the professor - and the clarification was done.
Now, is the professor owing up to the allegation against the Abuja group as pointed out by the people who remarked during the meeting that Abuja people had hijacked the selection process and brought a commissioner of police to impose on Igede people?
For, if that has not been the case, one wonders how the professor came with the commissioner of police in the first place to the second meeting where it was alleged that they were going to adopt the commissioner as the consensus candidate, and it was only him and the commissioner of police that came that day, despite the fact that there were other contenders.
Prof. Ojowu recently went with the commissioner of police to introduce him to Sen. George Akume, to accept him and it was based on that that Akume counselled him that the selection of chiefs is not a one-man affair, and that the professor should try and meet with stakeholders across board to make the selection process peaceful.
Was that not the point at which Prof. Ojowu started calling other stakeholders apart from his cohorts for a meeting?
His public statement has the proclivity to mislead the people especially the young ones because from the statement one can say that the professor is one of the persons that probably have been misleading the youths in Igede to a wrong belief on our position that the right thing should be done over the Igede first class chief.
Prof. Ojowu and his co-travelers in Igede have misled the Igede people to a mistaken belief that Igede have nothing to do with Idoma traditionally because they have been given a first chief, which is not true.
This is because, there are four first class stools in the Benue south senatorial zone and of the four Igede has one and it is under the rulership of Idoma paramount ruler.
Every time they make the remarks that Igede people are now free? Were, or are, Igede people under any bondage in Idoma? With or without the first class, if it is time for the Igede people to rule Idoma, they will take their turn as the intermediate area from the Idoma-East.
That was what gave Och’Idoma, Abraham Ajene Okpabi the slot when it was the turn of his Igede people to rule Idoma. The Igede picked the crown and will still pick it when it is time for us to do so.
Until Igede people are given paramount rulership by law, we cannot say we are independent of Idoma traditionally. The likes of Prof. Ojowu should stop misleading the young generations.
They try to explain the above to a contrary and they use the social media to attack and abuse the people indiscriminately.
We are not slaves to anybody; we are all part of the Idoma paramount leadership.
Again, if he Prof. Ojowu is not playing to the gallery of the social media boys then he would have placed a call to the Deputy Governor and party chaairman to iron out the issue instead
of writing and putting it on the social media. It is higly uncalled for, as the first attempt for him to write this and place it on the media of social communication means he has ulterior motive and that goes a long way to expose him as one of the brains behind all the manipulations in the process of the selection of traditional chiefs especially the first class chief.
One would ask: why is it now that Prof. Ojowu knows that the right thing is being done that he is coming out to write. Why did he not write all this while?
All along Prof. Ojowu had been parading his candidate. Now that a leveled playing field is being ensured, he fears it may not favor his candidate, which is why he is probably writing to blackmail the deputy governor and the chairman of the governing party. What has the ruling party chairman got to do with selection of chiefs?
Did the deputy governor say Igede people should go and pick any particularly candidate? Did he say that we must do it the way the Idoma or the Tiv did theirs? No.
He said we should go and do the right thing in line with the law, the tradition and culture of our people.
When in Igede did social-cultural organizations pick chiefs? In fact, when did this socio-cultural organization come into being? The law is
very clear. So, why should you be manipulating things and blowing grammar over things that are not necessary?
Prof. Ojowu should stop misleading the youths. He should not bring politics into this thing.
Every time, they give the impression that PDP is this and that. The so-called selection or the committee put in place by Omi’Ny Igede, is
the chairman of the selection committee not a standing PDP ex-official, North-Central, and the secretary of the committee not a PDP leader under Ali Modu Sheriff faction of the party?
Ode Enyi that has been parading himself as the Omi’Ny Igede president, ordinarily, Igede people could not have given him the position of president general. It came to him by accident after the demise of the substantive president. Even at that, he is on acting capacity.
They wanted to intimidate the people and force them to accept their candidate.
The so-called committee allocated to itself what to be done.
They wanted to intimidate and force the people to accept their candidate for first class.
Also, the Acting president general of Omi Ny Igede was supposed to be an umpire, but he was promised a slot for third class chief for Igede Ariri to play along. They even brought in the Director of Chieftaincy Affairs at the Bureau for LG and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr. Ijoko Ogbu, to intimidate the chiefs.
If not, how come the so-called Omi Ny Igede committee did not go to Oju/Obi to conduct a public hearing on the matter of the zoning and selection process? Instead, they sat in Makurdi and unilaterally wrote a report that was preplanned.
This is the report that Prof. Ojowu wants the people to accept and the Igede people to believe, because the Deputy Governor says the right thing should be done in line with the law.
Ojowu should stop deceiving and inciting Igede people against their Idoma brothers. The people are not against Idoma and the Idoma are not against Igede. We are brothers, neighbors and together in the Idoma kingdom.
On the issue of the allegation that Ojowu took a bribe of N4million, either so or he gave out, does not concern Igede people. Certainly, Ojowu is not one of the people that give money. He is egocentric. I do not think he has given out a dime outside his family.
He said that he has interacted with all the contestants in Igede, why then, at his level is he supporting a candidate above others or causing a dislocation of due process by parading one candidate?
Igede people are wiser than what he thinks they are now.
Prof. Ojowu should always be calm, as a leader that he is, leave the Deputy Governor and the party chairman alone and follow due process.
Ojowu is not the only professor that has paid his due in Igede. There are many others. In fact, Igede has enough professors to form a league.
*Ageh is Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Benue State.
By Odeh Ageh
Our attention has been drawn to a public letter by Prof. Ode Ojowu, in which he has alleged of Deputy Governor Benson Abounu and APC state chairman, Abba Yaro, wanting to dictate the outcome of the ongoing selection process of first class chief in Igede.
Ordinarily, we did not want to respond to the letter. We believe the issues raised in it are such that as someone who has unfettered access to Engr. Abounu and Yaro, the professor was supposed to have called the two leaders for resolution of whatever reservation he has over the process of selection of traditional chiefs.
Unfortunately, he did not toe that line. Instead, he chose to make a damning public statement. He did not stop at that, he published it on the social media. read more
So, we have no option than to respond, to straighten some gray areas in his statement. More so, if we, from Igede angle do not respond, it would be misconstrued to mean that we have consented to what he has levelled against the deputy governor and the party chairman, whereas we have not, hence this reaction.
The public should not be confused by Prof. Ojowu’s statement, but would clearly know that the deputy governor is only trying to ensure that things are done properly, the very reason he called the Igede stakeholders and had a meeting with them just as he previously did with stakeholders in other intermediate areas in Idoma land.
It is, therefore, from that angle that we want to respond to some of the issues Ojowu raised in the public letter.
Ojowu in the letter particularly accused the Deputy Governor and the party chairman of interfering with Igede chieftaincy matters. We want to ask, how?
Prof. Ojowu is an erudite scholar and well informed, so we are disappointed at his write up, for not knowing that Engr. Abounu is a deputy governor for the whole of Benue State.
Given his position, what then is wrong if he holds a meeting that will bring peace to his immediate constituency?
Engr. Abounu held a meeting with the entire Idoma at the Och’Idoma’s palace. Thereafter, he held meetings with the four intermediate areas of Apa/Agatu, Otukpo/Ohimini, Ado-Okpokwu-Ogbadibo and lastly Igede, with a view to harmonizing the process of the implementation of the chieftaincy laws of the state.
Is Prof. Ojowu saying that the deputy governor does not have any right to call such meetings?
The meeting with the Igede stakeholders was held in Benue People's House, Makurdi in a free and fair manner. Everybody freely aired his view.
The Omi’Ny Igede, which is the apex Igede socio-cultural organization insisted that they were the right group to implement the local government chieftaincy law for the Igede intermediate area council, but the Deputy Governor advised that it was not within the purview of socio-cultural organizations to implement government policies and laws, which was also echoed by His Excellency Governor Samuel Ortom the previous day in a meeting with Benue South Senatorial zone, in an answer to a question asked by a participant on the role of socio-cultural organisations in the process of the selection of traditional chiefs.
Is the erudite professor now saying that the government law should be implemented by socio-cultural groups? Is he indirectly telling us that he made that arrangement for Omi’Ny Igede led by Ode Enyi to hijack the process and intimidate the elders and chiefs as alleged in the meeting by prominent elders and chiefs?
Is the professor saying he is one of the elders who arranged the kangaroo meeting in Abuja to impose a candidate on Igede people as alleged in the meeting?
What then is the sin of the Deputy Governor? The erudite professor has surely failed to mention what Abounu’s sin is, and that of the state APC chairman. What did they do wrong?
Prof. Ojowu should be more specific on the roles of the duo of Abounu and Yaro for why he said they should allow Igede to have unfiltered selection process.
The professor happily made a reference to the fact of Tiv’s chiefs successful selection process, and we want to ask: is it Mzou-Tiv the Tiv socio-cultural organization that does the zoning and execution of the government programmes and policies or the law pertaining to the
selection of the Tiv traditional chiefs? Or is it Opia to ha K'Idoma that is leading the selection process in Idoma land?
Prof. Ojowu should get his fact correct. Let him tell us where on earth socio-cultural organisations implement government policies and laws.
Contrary to what Omi’Ny Ígede is doing, Nzou-Tiv did not hijack or take over the process of implementing government laws, rules, regulations or policies in the Tiv area.
In Idoma land, when clarifications needed to be done, Och’Idoma met with the government - a fact even mentioned by the professor - and the clarification was done.
Now, is the professor owing up to the allegation against the Abuja group as pointed out by the people who remarked during the meeting that Abuja people had hijacked the selection process and brought a commissioner of police to impose on Igede people?
For, if that has not been the case, one wonders how the professor came with the commissioner of police in the first place to the second meeting where it was alleged that they were going to adopt the commissioner as the consensus candidate, and it was only him and the commissioner of police that came that day, despite the fact that there were other contenders.
Prof. Ojowu recently went with the commissioner of police to introduce him to Sen. George Akume, to accept him and it was based on that that Akume counselled him that the selection of chiefs is not a one-man affair, and that the professor should try and meet with stakeholders across board to make the selection process peaceful.
Was that not the point at which Prof. Ojowu started calling other stakeholders apart from his cohorts for a meeting?
His public statement has the proclivity to mislead the people especially the young ones because from the statement one can say that the professor is one of the persons that probably have been misleading the youths in Igede to a wrong belief on our position that the right thing should be done over the Igede first class chief.
Prof. Ojowu and his co-travelers in Igede have misled the Igede people to a mistaken belief that Igede have nothing to do with Idoma traditionally because they have been given a first chief, which is not true.
This is because, there are four first class stools in the Benue south senatorial zone and of the four Igede has one and it is under the rulership of Idoma paramount ruler.
Every time they make the remarks that Igede people are now free? Were, or are, Igede people under any bondage in Idoma? With or without the first class, if it is time for the Igede people to rule Idoma, they will take their turn as the intermediate area from the Idoma-East.
That was what gave Och’Idoma, Abraham Ajene Okpabi the slot when it was the turn of his Igede people to rule Idoma. The Igede picked the crown and will still pick it when it is time for us to do so.
Until Igede people are given paramount rulership by law, we cannot say we are independent of Idoma traditionally. The likes of Prof. Ojowu should stop misleading the young generations.
They try to explain the above to a contrary and they use the social media to attack and abuse the people indiscriminately.
We are not slaves to anybody; we are all part of the Idoma paramount leadership.
Again, if he Prof. Ojowu is not playing to the gallery of the social media boys then he would have placed a call to the Deputy Governor and party chaairman to iron out the issue instead
of writing and putting it on the social media. It is higly uncalled for, as the first attempt for him to write this and place it on the media of social communication means he has ulterior motive and that goes a long way to expose him as one of the brains behind all the manipulations in the process of the selection of traditional chiefs especially the first class chief.
One would ask: why is it now that Prof. Ojowu knows that the right thing is being done that he is coming out to write. Why did he not write all this while?
All along Prof. Ojowu had been parading his candidate. Now that a leveled playing field is being ensured, he fears it may not favor his candidate, which is why he is probably writing to blackmail the deputy governor and the chairman of the governing party. What has the ruling party chairman got to do with selection of chiefs?
Did the deputy governor say Igede people should go and pick any particularly candidate? Did he say that we must do it the way the Idoma or the Tiv did theirs? No.
He said we should go and do the right thing in line with the law, the tradition and culture of our people.
When in Igede did social-cultural organizations pick chiefs? In fact, when did this socio-cultural organization come into being? The law is
very clear. So, why should you be manipulating things and blowing grammar over things that are not necessary?
Prof. Ojowu should stop misleading the youths. He should not bring politics into this thing.
Every time, they give the impression that PDP is this and that. The so-called selection or the committee put in place by Omi’Ny Igede, is
the chairman of the selection committee not a standing PDP ex-official, North-Central, and the secretary of the committee not a PDP leader under Ali Modu Sheriff faction of the party?
Ode Enyi that has been parading himself as the Omi’Ny Igede president, ordinarily, Igede people could not have given him the position of president general. It came to him by accident after the demise of the substantive president. Even at that, he is on acting capacity.
They wanted to intimidate the people and force them to accept their candidate.
The so-called committee allocated to itself what to be done.
They wanted to intimidate and force the people to accept their candidate for first class.
Also, the Acting president general of Omi Ny Igede was supposed to be an umpire, but he was promised a slot for third class chief for Igede Ariri to play along. They even brought in the Director of Chieftaincy Affairs at the Bureau for LG and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr. Ijoko Ogbu, to intimidate the chiefs.
If not, how come the so-called Omi Ny Igede committee did not go to Oju/Obi to conduct a public hearing on the matter of the zoning and selection process? Instead, they sat in Makurdi and unilaterally wrote a report that was preplanned.
This is the report that Prof. Ojowu wants the people to accept and the Igede people to believe, because the Deputy Governor says the right thing should be done in line with the law.
Ojowu should stop deceiving and inciting Igede people against their Idoma brothers. The people are not against Idoma and the Idoma are not against Igede. We are brothers, neighbors and together in the Idoma kingdom.
On the issue of the allegation that Ojowu took a bribe of N4million, either so or he gave out, does not concern Igede people. Certainly, Ojowu is not one of the people that give money. He is egocentric. I do not think he has given out a dime outside his family.
He said that he has interacted with all the contestants in Igede, why then, at his level is he supporting a candidate above others or causing a dislocation of due process by parading one candidate?
Igede people are wiser than what he thinks they are now.
Prof. Ojowu should always be calm, as a leader that he is, leave the Deputy Governor and the party chairman alone and follow due process.
Ojowu is not the only professor that has paid his due in Igede. There are many others. In fact, Igede has enough professors to form a league.
*Ageh is Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Benue State.
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