Benue State Governor Alia
By Lanre Adewole
The Bible has a gold standard for governance; leaders must lead with the fear of God, meaning, righteous and not riotous conduct in the discharge of the mandate held in trust for their people. Righteousness, for genuine children of God, regardless of professed religions, is being in right alignment with God’s Will.
Proverbs 29:2 measures it by the prevailing mood of the governed per time. The Word of God through the unmatched-wise ruler, Solomon, also establishes a spiritual connection between leading and following. It says, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn”. I’m reaching for the Word of God today to speak to a man of God that he may not begin to see himself as god of man, despite the tendency for office holders in our clime to wear a god-complex as an armour of valour once graced to be in custody of collective public trust..
For decades, Benue people have had little or nothing to rejoice over. A state under siege can’t merry. When the Syrians besieged Northern Israel (known as Samaria) for just three years (from 725 to 722 BC), mothers boiled their womb-born children for food. Two terrible Assyrian leaders, Shalmaneser V and Sargon II, cut the besieged city off essential existential needs, particularly food production and supply chain, resulting in the heart-wrenching cannibalism. Benue and its neighbouring Plateau have almost become Aceldama, the field of blood (see Acts of the Apostles 1:19), from the barrage of murderous attacks on them by barbarians masquerading as land entitlers and claimants.
What a people desperate for survival and emancipation need is compassion. God had it on Israel and sent a seemingly impossible prophecy of a 24-hour turnaround through Elisha. The dramatic abundance came; God, working it in His own way. He is a miracle worker. What is impossible to men is possible with Him.
King Jehoram of Israel was helpless while the siege lasted. When one of the son-eating women called on him for help, he made a profound statement, saying, “If the Lord will not help you, how shall I help you?”.
Since its formation on 3rd January 1976, Benue state has exchanged hands of 17 leaders, plus the incumbent Governor Hyacinth Alia. Alongside a predecessor and co-ecclesiastical sojourner in politics, Rev. Fr. Moses Adasu (now late), Alia is the second cassock-wearing governor of the state, but unlike his predecessor’s truncated tenure, the people are definitely not rejoicing. Sure, it would be poor politicking to blame the incumbent governor for the incompetence and criminal connivance of the military in tackling the raging extra-judicial murdering in Benue State by Fulani invaders, but the governor, like his recent predecessors, particularly the immediate man, has also shown minimal capacity in protecting his people. And he topped his poor understanding of their pains when he lined the street, in torrential rain and biting weather, with children of wailing parents to welcome the president, who was visiting the state as “baba isinku” (chief mourner) in June. In the area of security, Alia isn’t better than King Jehoram; helpless and bereft of how to ameliorate his people’s pains..
How did I come to this conclusion? In his 27 months in office, his people have largely mourned on a daily basis and are still mourning. That would not automatically make him a wicked leader in applying God’s governance principle. It simply means he is effete. Yes, the central government, especially since Buhari, has kept shoving it in governors’ faces that there are titular chief security officers of their domains, and despite the governors’ gra-gra, they have been unable to throw off this yoke.
Even where the Constitution says the appointment of the Inspector General of Police is their joint prerogative with the President, they still have little or no input as members of the nation’s police council. Femi Falana, Senior advocate, has shouted self hoarse, encouraging the governors to embrace this legal empowerment to secure their states, but they have chosen to remain distant onlookers who are always called in for ratification after the president must have unilaterally done what they should have done collectively. Participating at the appointment stage would have afforded troubled states like Benue a deal from the outset to further secure their people from the modern-day Assyrians, but most of the time, the state chief executives are always too preoccupied playing local lords, with zero influence at the national level, where the fate of their states is mostly decided.
While fighting insecurity could be understandably draining, it won’t and should not be the reason every report from a beleaguered state should be crimson. Even if insecurity is making the people to mourn, there are other areas of governance a governor can put a smile on the faces of his traumatised people. It is called compassion and expected from a “son” of God. How does one now fit this in with everyday stories of wanton spending, bribery, looting, vague accountability, opaque administration of public funds, and cruel/crude politicking to cover corruption tracks and paper trails, all directed at the governor and his team? It must be clearly stated that no case has been proven by a competent court of law against the man of God and his orbit, but Yoruba will say “bi oba aye ko mu e, Oba orun nwo e” (if earthly authority is yet to apprehend you for your crimes, God, the heavenly King, is seeing all hidden).
It is a poorly concealed fact that Alia has split from the godfather of state politics and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, also a gubernatorial predecessor. That isn’t the concern of this piece, though it can be morally reprehensible to gnaw at the finger feeding you fat. Alia wasn’t Akume’s original choice for the APC ticket that miraculously became a jackpot, but an Alia patron whom Akume couldn’t say No to, pled for the ticket for his zone and “his” boy, and pronto, the “altar boy” became the state’s biggest boy.
That is how God answers those He has chosen for mercy, and the governor definitely knows the race is not for the swift. I’m not a fan of godfatherism, and recent history has shown that adults in politics would always clash when interests are tangential. But one must not poke the eye of a helper, thinking that once he destroys the shed that sheltered him in a rainstorm, he would port elsewhere cooler. The new hosts won’t be that stupid not to know the fate of the original helper in your hands awaits them. Alia should be grateful that a certain Wike is not his benefactor. By now, he would be on sabbatical (fun fact).
While the triangular issue among Alia, SDP (or is it ADC now) and Akume isn’t that concerning since political dogfights are expected to dominate this season, the allegations of massive corruption levelled against the governor by the state House of Assembly under the former speaker, Aondona Dajoh, for which he was going to be served with impeachment notice, are very troubling. N117 billion? When the whole state budget for 2025 is just a little above half a trillion?
Alia reportedly masterminded Dajoh’s ouster last Sunday after allegedly realizing the assembly under Dajoh would not back down from holding him accountable. In a yet-to-be-signed impeachment notice made available, a 42-count charge of impeachable offences bordering on alleged corruption by the governor and close aides was levelled. The issues are mostly about alleged “gross abuse of office and of due process”. Gibbers isn’t a court of law, affirming guilt or discharging and acquitting, but as much as the new speaker, Alfred Emberga is obviously the governor’s “boy”, those issues raised in the assembly petition against the governor must not be glossed over.
If the new leadership’s IOU to the governor would stand in the way of probity, accountability and transparency, concerned stakeholders in and from the state, should get the anti-corruption agencies involved. The facts put together by the assembly under Dajoh are too detailed to be cock-and-bull, without discounting that the motive could be political. I’m personally concerned that the governor is making the cassock, his ministerial calling (if he was actually called), title, and ultimately, his mantle, look as if soaked in sewer. God forbid that any probe would unearth maggots. That would not be fair to the Body of Christ and the kingdom of heaven, which Governor Alia represents first, ahead of other earthly callings. He would become an ex-governor someday, but I pray the mercy of God he won’t become an ex-champion of the Cross.
A certain N2billion was allegedly spent to oust Dajoh and bury the impeachment probe. Jesus says there is nothing hidden that won’t be made known. I’m sorry to be preaching to a pastor, but he is certainly not behaving like his Rev. Fr. compatriot and predecessor with fond memories; Adasu, who famously said, “I am in politics to baptize politics and make it pure”.
Can Governor Hyacinth say the same of himself?
- ADEWOLE is a columnist with Nigerian Tribune. (First published by the Sunday Tribune on August 31, 2025)
