This is the second part of Governor Samuel Ortom’s interview with DAILY POST Editor, Adoyi Abah Ali. In this segment of the interview, the Benue State Governor speaks extensively on the face-off with a former governor of the state, Senator George Akume, the presidency’s role in the incessant attacks on Benue people by herdsmen, the Benue anti-grazing law, his readiness for 2019 and why he took the decision to return to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
If you missed the first version of the interview, you can read it here:
Excerpts…
Are the attackers of Benue people ordinary herdsmen? What do they really want and what are their demands?
…I tell you the truth, this is not about rearing of cattle in Nigeria. Recall that Fulani Nationality Movement, FUNAM, a Fulani organization, issued a statement, saying they were going to kill and that they would mobilize people to go and kill. It was there in the press. If you check on social media, you can get it. They issued that statement and said it is about occupation and that this land belongs to them; that Nigeria is the only country given to them by God and so Benue land belongs to them and they are here to take over the land and that is why when you hear from the presidency careless statement that it’s either you give your land or you get killed so that you allow cattle to move about, you wonder which country we are. This is why when we were burying the Rev. Fathers that were killed, I was asking myself, ‘which country are we?’ Is this the giant of Africa that they call us? Is that how we want to show that we are giant of Africa?
So you can see a big vacuum. You see a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; because he’s a Fulani man, he is only concerned about Fulani people, herdsmen and cattle. He will come and say that when you block cattle road, it is like you are blocking water and that water will find a way to go out. A Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who is supposed to protect this country made that careless statement and no one has cautioned him, no one has sanctioned him. They said it’s because of the anti-grazing law that attacks are going on in Benue. How about Adamawa, how about Plateau, how about Kogi, how about Delta, Edo and even Ebonyi. I can go on and on. The South West is not spared. What is going on? But people are keeping quiet, and not saying anything? For me, I will continue to talk until I get justice for my people. That is why I was elected, so I cannot keep quiet. It is not right, let’s get it right.
I have challenged Nigerians, I have challenged the herdsmen and Miyetti Allah and any Fulani man who thinks that there is a better option and alternative to what we have done, bring it on the table, let us debate it.
This is getting to three years and it has been challenging. I have challenged anyone who has opposed this law to bring alternative, then we can debate on it. I can call the stakeholders that there is a better option we can follow. But I tell you, this law was researched properly. We were not in a hurry. We took our time, even though Government House was occupied for 5 good times by the people of Benue State who were trying to hurry us to pass the law but we said look, let us follow the due process, this is a sensitive matter, this is a new thing that is coming, let us work with it. The House of Assembly was occupied for seven good times. In fact, at a point, old women and children came here with mattresses, some with wrappers and women pulled their wrappers and blocked the Government House that they would remain with us until the Anti-Grazing Law was passed. It took us time to appeal to them, to convince them to go back, to give us time. So we have done our best and we think this is the best way to go and so far, no one has come out with a better option.
So we pray that God will help us. Like I keep saying, all of us that are leaders today are on oath with our people to do the right thing. I believe that those who are responsible for giving us justice if they don’t do it, the day of reckoning is coming when God himself will give us justice.
In 2015, you took a shocking decision of decamping to the APC shortly after the PDP primaries and, now a year before another national election, you have taken another decision by moving back to the PDP. Are you under any form of pressure?
I am not under any form of pressure. As a Christian, I believe all power belongs to God and He gives it to whoever He chooses. A man can receive nothing except it is given to him from above. It is God that directs the steps of a man. That is why I have a testimony of defecting two days to APC when injustice was meted on me in PDP then and I got the nomination ticket to becoming the governor I am today.
Now, politics is a game of interest, no permanent enemy and no permanent friend. We only have permanent interest and that is why you can see that my style of politics is different from many others. My style of politics is politics without bitterness.
There is no violence the way I conduct myself. If you go round Benue State, you don’t see thuggery again. I have completely eliminated thuggery in the state. Your political enemy today can be your best friend tomorrow. Your best friend in politics today can be your political enemy tomorrow, so you leave room for reconciliation to come back and get things done together and that is it. Above all, is the interest.
I went to APC because I needed a platform, APC in Benue needed me because they needed to win the election and I had the people and so they embraced me and we won the election. But I have discovered that we are not birds of the same feather, so we cannot flock together. The agenda is different, my own interest is to protect my people, it’s to protect the constituency that gave me the mandate. Other people’s interest is different. It is selfish! It is about themselves. I discovered that I was a foreigner in that party. I did not fit in. I was not allowed to play any role and contribute my own quota. So when PDP came out with an apology to Nigerians and that was including me, I decided to go back to the party that I was a bonafide member and had contributed much to build in Benue State. I succeeded in building it with my strength as state secretary of the party for 6 years in Benue State. I was a deputy chairman of the party for one year and National Auditor of the party for 3 years; then I became a minister under the PDP-led administration. It means I have built the party very well.
The structures that we established are still there. So when PDP came to apologise to Nigerians especially members that were unfairly treated and offered that they will rebrand and ensure that impunity is no more in the party, and when I couldn’t have access to the APC as a foreign member, I said instead of staying there to fight dirty because those people are prepared to fight dirty and I wasn’t prepared, I said quietly that my interest is no longer there, let me go to where my interest is and that is why you find me in PDP where my interest is.
In 2015, all was well between you and Senator George Akume. Right now, it appears all is not well. What is happening?
Of course, all is not well between us. We could not agree on basic things, the issue of governance, the issue of development, his style was not my style. You settle people, you settle him and all of that. I have also helped people in my political career over 30 years, I’ve helped people, but I have not been godfather to anyone, and nobody should be godfather to me. For the current democratic experience to work in Nigeria, we must eliminate godfatherism. Yes, it has to be eliminated.
The fact that I support you today to be somewhere doesn’t mean that I should be your godfather and I don’t have any godfather in this world. My godfather is God Almighty and it is the same God that made me governor. The circumstances that I became governor in 2015 made everybody to testify. Several people came and said Ortom, this God you serve is true and we believed you. Because from day one when I came out contesting, I wrote on my poster that “In God we trust” and by the grace of God, I will be governor. I did not say that ‘in Akume I trust’ and ‘by the grace of Akume’ I will be governor. Nobody should play God to me and I told him this in the face; you cannot be a burden on me, the burden was too much. I have endured it for three years and cannot bear it any longer. In the end, it is my government, you have been governor before but 2015-2019, it’s Samuel Ortom. The people will hold me accountable and not you, so leave me alone and so that was the point of our departure. They were talking of non-performance and all of that, but you have seen some of these things yourself. In the midst of all the challenges, we have something to offer, we have put something on the table and the people appreciate it. So we don’t need to tell lies.
We have to bring the truth to the people and the people appreciate it. It may interest you to know that the same people who are castigating me today were the same people who were there in the state congress of the APC and made me the so-called sole candidate of the party. It was me that said this is democracy, you cannot allow this impunity to continue. I fight for injustice, I want the right thing to be done. If I’m contesting under APC, allow me and allow others to also test the ground. The same people were on the table where they sang all praises on me for conducting myself well and providing for the people, but today, they say all kinds of things against me. Let’s test our popularity in 2019.
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