28 November 2008
Lagos — If recent, some politicians appear to be working hard to touch down the relationship between the former governor of Benue state, George Akume and his successor Gabriel Suswam.
Those encouraging the conflict are the very persons that drew a battle line between Akume and the former national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Barnabas Gemade.
The supremacy battle between Akume and Gemade went to the level of nearly becoming a state war as political office holders became divided along primordial lines.
Arsenals were deployed in such a manner that development programmes almost came to a standstill. Not long ago, the very people that fired the embers of disaffection between the two political giants nearly drew Governor Suswam into the problem when they made the NKST Church Fund Raising Ceremony for the University of Mkar a theatre of war.
Since Suswam assumed office as governor of Benue state in 2007, the politicians that benefited so much from the Akume/Gemade feud have been itching to make himhave a head-on collision with Akume.
Even as they knew that Suswam became governor through the support of Mr George Akume, they traced external problems to the governor's inability to govern the state.
In May 2007, Akume and Suswam carefully shared out the posts in government in such a way that the equation was balanced.
With this arrangement, Suswam's administration took off smoothly. It did not however take long before the imbroglio in Kwande local government started with the councilors complaining about the high-handedness of the chairman, Mr Terlumun Akputu.
When Akputu was finally suspended, idle politicians alleged that Suswam removed him because he was a Akume's loyalist. They did not know that it was the Kwande elite who were involved in the Kwande crisis of 2002 that encouraged the councilors to write against Akputu to the State House of Assembly.
After Akputu, the problem of Gboko local government where Mr Simon Abua was alleged to have stopped the salaries of 700 staff over alleged irregular employment surfaced.
After stakeholders and elders of the PDP as well as the government advised Abua to restore the salaries of the affected staff pending the outcome of the staff screening exercise conducted by the state government and he refused, the Benue state chapter of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) gave him a seven day ultimatum.
As the seven days were elapsing, the House of Assembly which had earlier advised him to clear the salaries, became worried that Abua was adamant.
The insinuation was that Abua was adamant because he was Akume's loyalist. Abua was Akume's special assistant on Crucial Matters but there is no proof that Akume had hand in the matter.
The idle politicians tried to weep up sentiments by spreading the rumour that Suswam was daring Akume by removing Abua as a result of the staff audit which was necessitated by the local government reform introduced by him.
Baby politicians did not know that Akume and Suswam have been together since 1999 when they went to the Government House and the National Assembly respectively.
Since then, both personalities have been in the PDP, practicing politics together. Suswam sees Akume as his mentor while Akume sees Suswam as his close associate.
In fact, Suswam calls Akume and his wife daddy and mummy respectively.
Before Suswam became governor, the arrangement was that an Idoma from the Benue South Senatorial District should replace Akume. When it became obvious that there was no consensus among the gubernatorial candidates from the Idoma speaking area, Akume decided to support Suswam by fully sponsoring his campaign.
This is not to say that Akume did not manipulate the candidates from the Idoma area. He gave strong promises and resources to each of them and assured that he would, in the spirit of the agreement reached during his second term campaign, hand over power to the winner.
It must be stated that Akume was not alone in the "conspiracy" against Idoma people as a prominent politician from the Tiv speaking area had declared thus : "How can we give power to an Idoma man when we are not yet satisfied with what we have?".
Be that as it may, the accord reached between Akume and Suswam during the 2007 gubernatorial election was signed and sealed. Those thinking that Suswam would dismantle Akume's political structure so as to establish his own should forget it.
While commissioning projects at Fidei Polytechnic,
Gboko recently, Suswam did not mince words when he said he would support the institution the way his predecessor, Mr George Akume, did.
To show the degree of familiarity between the present first family and the former first family, Mr Rgeina Akume, JP, who represented Senator George Akume at the occasion said her contribution of N200,000 towards the development of the school would be paid by Governor Suswam.
It would appear that long time ago, God had put Suswam and Akume together. When Akume made Rev Fr Chris Utov, the proprietor of Fidei Polytechnic, Gboko, the chairman of the Benue State Christian Pilgrims Board, he did not know that Suswam who was Utov's brother from Logo local government was going to become governor.
Recently, Suswam reconstituted boards of some government establishments including that of the Benue State University. He has appointed commissioners, special advisers and special assistants. The elders that supported Akume to succeed are still in Benue state, so, Suswam would have no justification for not establishing his own political structure. He is the chief executive of Benue state.
Suswam does not appear to have any problem; those having problem are the political office holders who do not know that the present governor of Benue state is Mr Gabriel Torwua Suswam.
For Suswam not to yield to the pressure of being at daggers drawn with Akume, he must detach himself from the cold war between Akume and Gemade. For him not to be accused of witch-hunting Akume's loyalists in his government, Suswam must endeavour to clarify issues that constitute threat to the cordial relationship between him and the former governor.
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