Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State recently displayed unnecessary and misplaced aggression towards the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, when the latter sought to visit some Internally Displaced People, IDPs, camps in his state.
Following the renewed killings in Benue and Plateau states, Obi decided to visit the IDPs in the two states on April 13 and 14 respectively. Obi is a notable humanitarian activist both within and outside his political schedules, with particular focus on education, health and human displacement.
He was warmly received in Plateau State by the embattled Governor Caleb Mutfwang and assisted with security details to visit the Bokkos refugee camps where he also donated N7.5 million.
However, Obi’s scheduled visit to the IDP camps around Makurdi, Benue State, was met with surprising hostility, possibly because it was seen as a “political gambit”. Obi claimed that his efforts to contact the governor for a courtesy call before proceeding on his mission was thwarted by Alia and his officials who later released a statement warning that his security while in the state could not be guaranteed.
By so doing, Alia and his officials denied the hapless displaced persons the comfort of being consoled by an august visitor at the point of their need. It also deprived them of whatever assistance he could have offered them as he did wherever he visited.
We view the action of Governor Alia and his officials with shock and dismay. It was aggressive, unnecessary, immature and petty. Alia apparently listened to poor quality advice by his aides and failed to rise above political pettiness. This aggression coming from a Catholic priest and aimed at a fellow devout Catholic like Obi, is devoid of common logic.
Benue is an epicentre of Fulani herdsmen terror attacks which has claimed over 6,000 in the past ten years. The existence of dozens of IDP camps and about 20,000 displaced persons are indicators that the attackers have succeeded in seizing their ancestral communities.
The failure of the Federal Government to protect innocent and law abiding Benue indigenes has been compounded by Governor Alia’s inability to assert himself as the State Chief Security Officer. The least expected of him is to allow as many public spirited individuals and groups as possible to provide succour to people forcefully uprooted from their homelands by terrorists.
Even if Obi stood to gain any residual political capital from his humanitarian gestures, what is wrong with that? Leaders must rise above pettiness and bitterness which Mutfwang, a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Governor, displayed.
Alia’s behaviour is unacceptable!
Vanguard Editorial, April 24, 2025
