Television Nigerian

I was not surprised that Nathaniel Ikyur, the newly appointed Chief Press Secretary to Gov. Samuel Ortom Adorogo, was quick to respond to my anger that Ortom’s poor leadership has turned Benue into an Afghan-like society.

I am bemused at the contents of Ikyur’s response. Maybe because he was in a mad haste to reply my trenchant criticisms of how badly Ortom has led Benue for the past six and half years, Ikyur had the audacity a well-honed liar used to deceiving the public, to deny the obvious.

Ikyur had the arrogance of a man cocooned in odious lies to claim that Ortom pays salaries promptly. As I shall show in this rejoinder, Ikyur lied several times in his response. I shall also demonstrate that to liken Benue to Afghanistan is to understate the enormity of the weight of suffering, pains and poverty which the utterly wicked administration of Samuel Ortom has imposed on Benue.

Afghans could legitimately be offended that I equated their country with the worst state in the Nigerian federation. As unacceptable as the insular and human rights-violating Taliban regime in Afghanistan is, I was generous enough not to have argued that Ortom’s Benue is worse than Afghanistan in many respects.

First, Ortom himself has claimed that there are 1.59 million Internally Displaced Persons in Benue. By all accounts, this figure is highly suspect. It is most probably a figure conjured from a magician’s hat of tricks, but for the sake of an argument, let me give it to Ortom. Let’s admit without conceding that Benue has 1.59 million IDPs. Benue’s war which has been intensified since Ortom unfortunately became the governor of the state, began during the era of his predecessor, Gabriel Suswam. Even, by January 2018, after Ortom had been in office for almost three years, the Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) enumerated only 80,000 IDPs.

Now, even with the de-escalation of the conflicts that have resulted in creating IDPs, Benue’s IDP figure has jumped twenty times the 2018 population. That is, 80,000 versus 1,590,000 people. That means that a staggering 38 percent of Benue’s population are displaced persons. There is no comparable figure anywhere else in the entire global system. Even at the height of Nigeria’s Civil War, no such outlandish number of people were uprooted from their homes.

Benue’s IDP population figure is like salary figures under Ortom. Workers die, resign, or retire and they are not replaced with new employees. Yet, salaries keep ballooning. What is worse, the Ortom administration is petrified of revealing the actual salaries paid every month. I call that Ortom’s magical abracadabra mathematics. You reduce the crisis that creates IDPs and yet the number of IDPs magically increases.

The only reason why 38 percent of Benue’s population consists of IDPs is that it is in someone’s political and other interests to have explosive figures for IDPs. The Talibans are human rights violators, but they do not give outlandish figures for their IDPs. They have a higher degree of morality than to engage in making unsubstantiated claims about displaced Afghans.

By contrast with Benue, Afghanistan has been at war since the Soviet invasion of December 1979. So, Afghanistan has been at war, a war that has resulted in Afghan refugees fleeing to neighboring states and those unable to get out of the country fleeing to other parts of Afghanistan. The total number of IDPs in Afghanistan is 570,482. The total population of Afghanistan is 38.93 million people. Proportionally, while 38 percent of Benue’s population is made of IDPs, only 1.5 percent of Afghans, despite their 32 year-war are IDPs. Even if we add the 2.2 million Afghan refugees to the 570, 482 IDPs as the total number of those uprooted by the war, only 7 percent of Afghans have been forced out of their homes and villages.

The corresponding figure for Benue under Ortom is 38 percent and yet, Ikyur was miffed that I likened the dire conditions in Benue to Afghanistan? Afghans, not Ikyur or Ortom, ought to be the ones taking umbrage at me for comparing their country to Nigeria’s worst-governed state, Ortom’s Benue.

But it does not stop there. Look at the pictures below. Take a close look at a highway in Afghanistan and compare it with picture showing a road in Ortom’s Benue. If Benue’s citizens were to ply Afghan roads, they would think they had died and gone to heaven. It should be noted that much of Afghanistan is in a very difficult and mountainous terrain. Yet, its roads are passable. Benue’s roads on the other hand, are impassable, even for Ortom whose motorcade got stuck in a mud during the last rainy season.

Like the Talibans, Ortom has led a consistent and relentless attack on education. While the Talibans make no secret of their opposition to girls receiving education, Ortom does not discriminate against school attendance by gender. He just creates impossible conditions for anyone, boy or girl, to receive a decent education. Compare the picture of the Afghan classroom with the crumbling infrastructure of a primary school in Ortom’s Benue. In the Twenty-first Century, some Benue students sit on the bare floor in their dilapidated classrooms. Many of the schools have no windows or doors and when it rains, teachers and pupils are drenched from leaking roofs.

The Talibans pay their teachers, very handsomely, by Benue’s miserly standards. The lowest teacher salary in Afghanistan is $324 or approximately 186,300 Naira per month. The highest paid teachers in Afghanistan receive $995 each. Changed to Naira at the current exchange rate, that’s 572,125 Naira a month. I bet many Benue teachers would swoon and fall to the floor if they were to receive such a huge salary. No Afghan teacher, despite receiving huge salaries by Benue’s standards under Ortom, is owed any salary arrears. Yet, Ikyur, ensconced under a canopy of wickedness and odoriferous lies, was angry that Agbese likened Benue to Afghanistan? The Talibans, their antediluvian perspectives on education notwithstanding, would be aghast at the horrible conditions under which Benue’s children try to learn.

Ikyur’s greatest lie in his lie-saturated rejoinder is this strange line: “Even at that, the Ortom administration is prompt in payment of workers salaries while also working tirelessly to find ways to clear the salary arrears and end the pension crises…” Ortom is prompt in paying salaries and but today is November 8. Where are June, July, August, September and October salaries in Ortom’s salary terrorism. Ortom is yet to pay Benue civil servants and most teachers their September salaries. October salaries are now overdue, but Ortom would prefer to mock Benue teachers by dancing and sadistically laughing at the hunger and poverty ravaging workers and retirees in Benue. Workers in Benue have gone without salaries for more than ten months and in Ikyur’s peculiar counting, that counts as prompt?

I have read references to Ikyur as a pastor. I hope that’s his Nollywood appellation. No pastor who preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ would be so cavalier with respect to the welfare of workers. If Ikyur is a real pastor and not a Nollywood actor playing a pastor, he would be familiar with biblical passages admonishing governments in particular to pay their workers their wages. As detestable as the Talibans of Afghanistan are, they pay their teachers and civil servants. We guess even the demons of Afghanistan can teach Ortom a few lessons on human decency.

No Nigerian should have the misfortune of being considered notches below the Talibans in human decency and respect for the human rights of others. Ortom’s nonchalant attitude to the well-being of the Benue people makes Ortom worse than the mullahs and religious terrorists of Afghanistan.

I shall return again to address any other issues raised by the Ortom’s administration in my classification of Benue under him as the Afghanistan of Nigeria.

Bye for now.

Chief Philip Agbese, LLB(Middlesex University London ), MBA ( University of Chichester UK), LLM ( Middlesex University London ) is an aspirant for the House of Representatives, Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal Constituency on the platform of the All Progressives Congress ( APC).

The Centre for Africa Advancement and Democracy (CAAD) has expressed satisfaction with the combined efforts of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) during the Anambra governorship election.

The centre made this known in a preliminary report released on Monday, compiled by its observers at different stations across the state.

Recall that INEC on Sunday night declared the poll as inconclusive, scheduling a supplementary election in 362 polling units in Ihiala Local Government Area on November 9.

However, the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room declared the exercise as “generally peaceful” unlike previous elections.

No fewer than 5,000 NYSC members were deployed to the state for the election.

And according to Director-General, Brig-Gen Shuaibu Ibrahim, these young Nigerians are the real heroes who have written their names in the annal of history.

In the report signed by its Executive Director, Dr. George Lumumba, while admitting the late arrival of election materials in some parts, the centre said INEC officials performed credibly well in ensuring the credulity of the polls.

The centre said it is particularly impressed with the NYSC members deployed across the state, noting that the visit of the NYSC DG proved to be a morale booster.

According to the centre, the NYSC has again demonstrated to be an integral part of our democracy with its critical role in Anambra.

The Centre for Africa Advancement and Democracy congratulated the NYSC DG for his exemplary conduct, manifest in his presence.

While also hailing the security agencies, the group recommended the NYSC approach in conducting future elections in Nigeria that saw the presence of its DG on the ground in Anambra state.

Read full report below:

Executive Summary

The Gubernatorial election in Anambra state was conducted on 6 November 2021 and had political parties fielding candidates for the polls. There were widespread concerns across the country over the conduct of the elections due to insecurity and other factors that might impede the credibility of the electoral process.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) expressed its readiness to conduct the elections. The security agencies also affirmed their readiness to ensure the safety of lives and properties. Various stakeholders urged voters to come out in numbers to vote for their preferred candidates.

The Centre for Africa Advancement and Democracy consequently deployed a special election observer team to Anambra State to monitor the elections pursuant to its core mandates.

The Issues

The Anambra Gubernatorial elections were indeed a litmus test for the advancement of democracy in Nigeria. Consequently, issues were surrounding the credibility of the elections. The elections were essentially between three strong contenders from the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the All Progressive Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), as well as other political parties that fielded candidates for the elections.

One of the main issues in focus in the buildup to the elections was the sit at home order issued by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). This order was later cancelled, yet, some stakeholders expressed concerns with voters apathy during the elections, and efforts were made to sensitize the populace to come out and exercise their electoral franchise.

There were also concerns about violence during the elections due to the prevalence of security threats in southeast Nigeria in recent times.

The Role of INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission deployed elections materials to all local government areas in good time, but for a few places that experienced late arrival of electoral materials.

In our assessment of the elections, INEC performed creditably well in ensuring the credulity of the polls. Aside from the fact that accusations were levelled against INEC by some political parties, stating that INEC was systematically working for the electoral success of a particular political party. Our team of observers deployed across the various local government areas and the INEC office in Anambra state could not verify this allegation.

We observed the presence of political party agents at various polling units, observing the electoral process. In some areas, there was palpable tension. However, it didn’t escalate into violence due to security operatives handling strategic places around the ballot box area designated for voting.

The Role of Security Agencies

A combined team of security operatives from the various security agencies guaranteed the safety of lives and properties during the electoral process. The security agencies were able to neutralize attempts to disrupt voting in some wards. It suffices to add that there was an active collaboration between INEC officials and the security operatives at election venues.

The Role of Critical Partners such as NYSC

The NYSC played a critical role in the overall success of the elections. We observed the presence of the Director-General of the NYSC in Anambra state, with other top management staff. The essence of his presence was linked with the fact that Corp members were deployed at all polling centres across the state, conducting elections.

This has been the trend over the years and in previous elections. It was expected that corp members deployed stayed aloof of political considerations during the elections. In some of the polling centres where the NYSC DG visited, he applauded the conduct of Corp members. He reminded them of their critical role in ensuring the credibility of the process.

Corp members were excited to see the DG at their polling units and without notice. It served as a morale booster for the corp members who expressed delight at such a visit by the DG.

The Role of Political Parties

The various political parties were at loggerheads before and after the elections. The candidates of the three major political parties expressed their acceptability to the electorates and urged voters to vote their conscience. This fact played a critical role in voters turnout. This is aside from the fact that a candidate of one of the three major political parties alleged INEC was working to succeed a particular political party, which somewhat caused some unrest in some select areas.

This almost pitched party agents against one another, but for the intervention of stakeholders that cautioned candidates not to incite violence in the state.

Conclusion

The Centre for Africa Advancement and Democracy concludes in this preliminary report that the Anambra Gubernatorial election was credible in all facets. The conduct of INEC officials was satisfactory. The security agencies were also exemplary in the discharge of their duties.

Recommendation

The Centre for Africa Advancement and Democracy recommends the NYSC approach in conducting future elections in Nigeria that saw the presence of the NYSC DG on the ground in Anambra state.

It is our considered opinion that such action goes a long way, and we reckoned with the NYSC as an institution for the critical role it played in the success of the Anambra gubernatorial election. The NYSC has once again demonstrated to be an integral part of our democracy.

The Centre for Africa Advancement and Democracy commends the conduct of corp members during and after the elections in Anambra state. We also congratulate the DG of the NYSC for his exemplary conduct, manifest in his presence in Anambra state, as it went a long way in boosting the morale of Corp members deployed during the elections.