- By Leonard Karshima Shilgba
For some time, a new phraseology, “pro-regime” has been used in Benue politics by apparent opposers of Gov. Alia to mock literature or submissions that highlight the positive outcomes of the decisions of the Alia administration. Gradually, the phrase assumed an extended usage, being used to describe persons perceived to support Gov. Alia or his administration. Furthermore, the phrase “pro-regime” is being used these days to describe people who have been labeled as “anti-SGF”.
It is not uncommon for certain supposedly “enlightened” elites of Benue State to needlessly expend time and energy debating who between Gov. Alia and SGF Akume influenced the appointment of an indigene of Benue State by President Tinubu to a national office. Besides belittling the beneficiaries of such appointments, those debates sadly reveal a poor understanding of the import of national service. National service is not about “kwagh yan” (pecuniary interests), but about sacrifice and vision for the improvement of society. Sadly, again, instead of eliciting joy, presidential appointments of Benue indigenes by President Tinubu are being abused by certain cheerleaders in Benue State as occasions to display supremacy by both sides of this crude divide: “Pro-regime” Vs “Pro-leader”. Is Benue cursed?
Benue elites and politicians whose vision has been impaired by the “Pro-regime” or “Pro-leader” syndrome (the PRS or PLS) need some form of therapy. After political elections is the time for governance until the next ritual of elections. Let the PLS elites allow Gov. Alia some concentration on governance while proposing ideas for improved governance in critical sectors of the Benue economy. In equal measure, the PRS group should allow the SGF to serve with focus the President and Commander in Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The instigators of the “war” which they have disingenuously contrived and projected as the “SGF-Alia” supremacy contest, with the “Pro-leader” group every so often dropping the name “Tinubu” just to fuel their belligerent machine, will soon be needing another war to ignite. This shameful “war” has made some of the Benue elites, who don’t have the needed courage for open confrontation, to hide out of sight, withholding whatever ideas for improved governance in Benue State, for fear of being labeled “Pro-regime” or “Pro-leader”. I encourage such elites to remember this: “The fear of man is a snare, but whosoever puts his faith in the Lord is safe.” I learned some years ago that one regret people often have at the point of death is that they lacked the courage to speak the truth in their heart. A songwriter penned those memorable words in the 19th century: “Only the truth that in life we have spoken, only the seeds that on earth we have sown; these shall pass onward when we are forgotten. Fruits of the harvest and what we have done…Only remembered by what we have done.”
Here is the real concern and tragedy:
Let me address the Tiv politicians and elites, in particular. Hardly will you find a multi-billion naira business owned by a Tiv indigene of Benue State without the owner having present or past links to political patronage or offices. It is difficult to find in our generation business entrepreneurs in the class of the Denen Tofis, Akaazua Muemues, or Tilley Gyados of those days when entrepreneurship thrived (in agriculture, commerce, education, manufacturing, construction, and craft). In those days, a Tiv man would ask someone, “Ka hen awe mye mtse ye?” to convey a message of self-reliance. Today, many of our Tiv politicians are not concerned that they have disengaged Tiv people from their self-reliance culture to now follow after them simply for the bestial pleasure of control. Those politicians allow adults to become hangers-on around them while being given handouts only! One of such dehumanized political lackeys (a university graduate) told me one day, “Prof., the politicians have kept us on life-support, every now and then handing us twenty thousand naira.” It is not unusual to go to the house of those “big Tiv politicians” and see adult hangers-on loitering around, watching television, gossiping idlly until food and drinks are served. Then, they eat and drink, and gossip some more before retiring for the day to repeat the ritual the next day. Do we think of the man-hours that are being wasted: hours for skills-training, entrepreneurship, and service? Poverty is being propagated by this chimerical new political culture that is so alien to the Tiv culture of self-reliance, bravery, and industry. Our people need skills and capital support for entrepreneurship, not hero-worship of politicians in exchange for handouts. Our people need hands-up, not hand-outs.
In those days when Tiv people had self-respect, and their elders spoke truth from the heart instead of the qualified and priced truth that our elders, traditional rulers, elites, and politicians speak today, the content of conversations among the Tiv was dominated by the outcomes of their entrepreneurial engagements: how large their farms or planned farms were; how large their farm harvests were; what preparations they made for “ihimbe” (a traditional practice of enlisting non-monetary assistance with farm activities among neighbors), etc. Our contemporary politics without entrepreneurship and industry is a recipe for insecurity, crime, and massive material poverty.
It is time for introspection among our politicians and their cheerleaders.
