By Iorliam'Amo Shija
-Anwar Sadat
On 30th September 1979, one can only imagine what was going through the mind of this young military officer as he prepared to hand over power and leave. At the relative young age of 38, the German trained pilot had risen so tall in his profession and acquired a lot of experience, but he probably had been overwhelmed by his short spell as Chief Executive of Benue State from 1978-1979.
This was Group Captain Adebayo Lawal who, as the then military administrator of the newly created Benue State, was tasked with the duty of supervising the Transition Programme from Military to Civilian Rule during the Mutala/ Obasanjo era in the state .
He was on this day, maybe not only crossing the t's and dotting the i's of his hand over notes, but also looking back at the records of his predecessor , his modest efforts in the last year and the potentials , promises and challenges that laid before his successor.
When Benue State was created in 1976, it was his predecessor, Col. Abdullahi Shelleng who was appointed by the then military regime as its first Chief Executive. Judging from what he met on ground and the fact that he was just in office for only two years , one could conclude that Shelleng started the foundations of the new state on a very promissory note.
Working closely with budding indigenous civil servants as his Permanent Secretaries like Mr Anthony Hammation, who was his Permanent Secretary, Establishment, Mr Ason Bur, Internal Affairs, Information and Research, Mr SJI Akure, Divisional Administration, Mr SM Onekutu , Finance and Economic Development, Mr PA Osayi, Education, Mr Oga Okwoche, Works, Lands and Survey and of course commissioners like Mr Suemo Chia, Mr Ignitious Nomhwange, Mr M. Adah, Mr B E Omaiye and Dr. Tesemchi Makar, and others, Shelleng began to build and create an identity for the new state.
For the just created state where no facility was on ground, housing became the major concern of the Shelleng Administration . He met no government house, no secretariat no residential quarters for commissioners and other top government officials.
But in his two years, Shelleng had the following as his achievements in terms of housing: construction of Kwarara Quarters, Lobi Quarters, Ankpa Quarters and Manor Quarters. These housing estates were located in the state capital to ameliorate the accommodation challenges of government officials.
Shelleng also established boards for Radio Benue, Water Corporation and Benue Hotels amongst others. It was also to his credit that Advanced Teachers College, ATC, now college of education, Katsina Aka and another ATC at Ankpa, were established .
When he took over, Shelleng inherited only 7 Local Government Council Areas, Divisions as they were then called. These were, Ankpa, Dekina, Idah, Katsina Ala, Makurdi, Gboko and Otukpo Divisions . The time he was handing over to Lawal, he had created six more additional divisions. The new divisions were Bassa, Okpokwu, Oju, Kwande, Gwer and Vandeikya.
These and more were the landmark achievements of Lawal's predecessor. But as Lawal reviewed his activities in charge of the state in the last one year , on the eve of his departure , he knew exactly the challenges that his successor faced. He faced, not only the task of settling down and bringing development to his people, but overcoming the bad blood of the politics of his day , the especially electioneering process that produced him, first as candidate of his party and winner at the general polls.
To Lawal, he had supervised two important elections in the state so those were enough for him to infer the intentions and the minds of the leading political actors in the state and the challenges that his successor would likely face . He conducted the first election for the stool of the Paramount Ruler of Tiv, Tor Tiv.
The First and Second Tor Tiv emerged through a consensus. The elders argued and arrived at their choices, but during his tenure, politics took over the selection of the Third Tor Tiv and for the first time, a Tor Tiv emerged through a voting process . This was his first Litmust Test, and same year, following on the heels of this controversial selection of Dr Akperan Orshi as Tor Tiv, was the gubernatorial election.
Lawal definately saw the activities of the supporters of the then god father of Benue politics, Joseph Tarkaa and of course the upstart, Mr Paul Unongo. He would obviously foresee the danger and traps that such brand of politics put in the way of his successor . He saw that even within the National Party of Nigeria, NPN that won the election eventually , bad blood that had ensured. He knew that the hangover of the gubernatorial primaries would also play a part in the following years as his successor got ready to take over .
In December 1978, three people participated in the NPN gubernatorial primary. These were Mr Isaac Shaahu, Mr George Atim Atedze and Mr Apollos Aper Aku. Mr Shaahu and Atedze, to be candid to them , had more administrative experience than Aku and were closer to the then leader of the party , JS Tarkaa more than him.
Shaahu was in the House of Assembly of the Northern Region in the First Republic when Aku was just a student, he was actually the leader of opposition in the house. Later, he also served as a commissioner in Benue Plateau State and as board member of several bodies, both at the state and federal levels.
Atedze on the other hand was a seasoned Civil Servant. He had served in the Northern Regional Civil Service and Benue Plateau State in different capacities . He also once served as the Administrative Secretary of Tiv Native Authority.
Aku who won the nomination came to the race with his Anti -Corruption credentials: in 1974, he wrote a petition against governor JD Gomwalk, governor of Benue Plateau State, courageously exposing his corrupt practices . His achievements while chairman of Kwande also counted for him. The fact that amongst the other two, he was the only one who had a university degree, also put him ahead of the others. Shaahu and Atedze never took it likely with Aku that he defeated them. Atedze would actually later defect to the opposition, National People's Party, NPP.
In the General election of August 1979 under the Military Administration of Lawal , Aku, the NPN candidate, won landslide against Mr Paul Belabo of NPP and Chia Surma of Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN.
On 1st October, 1979, Aku stepped forward and accepted the responsibility to rule Benue State. He was governor from 1979 to 1983.He was only a year into his second term when the military once again took over power on 31st December 1983. The following year, Brig.John Atom Kpera was appointed as governor. Today, most analysts seem to agree that of the governors that Benue State ever had , Aku stands apart.
While delivering his inaugural speech as governor, last year, the 16th Chief Executive and the 5th democratically elected governor of of the Benue State , Samuel Ortom said, "before I end this address, let me salute the memory of our heroes and founders of modern Benue:Chief Dr JS Tarka, Chief JC Obande, Chief Apollos Aper Aku and Most Rev Fr. Moses Adasu. They were great men of vision, and we shall endeavour to build on the foundations they laid for our dear state"
Ortom is just a year and some few months as governor, has he also stepped into the shoes Aku left behind?
We shall look at Aku's five eventful years as governor, in the concluding part of this article and develop random perspectives on differences and similarities between Aku and his successors, especially, the incumbent, Samuel Ortom.
*Read the concluding parts of this series every Wednesday and Sunday.
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