OPINION By Aondoakaa Tersugh Daniel There is a way a drowning man behaves before the water finally closes over his head. He stops fighting for the shore he can no longer reach and starts scrambling for whatever straw is still within grasp. That is precisely what is unfolding across Benue Northeast today, and only the willfully blind would fail to read it for what it is: Governor Hyacinth Iormem Alia has begun a systematic withdrawal from the local government areas he already knows he cannot win, and is, redirecting every scrap of political patronage toward the few pockets he still believes he can hold. Konshisha is the clearest casualty so far. The sack of the Pioneer Vice Chancellor of the University of Agriculture, Science and Technology, Ihugh, and the relocation of that office to Ushongo, was not an administrative decision. It was a confession. Ushongo, the home base of Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa SAN, the PDP governorship candidate who has become Alia's most persistent nightmare, has now absorbed not one but two major appointments in a matter of weeks. Kwande tells the same story, only with more bitterness attached. This is a people who watched Alia deny them the Secretary to the State Government slot, then compound the injury by publicly branding Professor Joseph Alakali a thief. Turan has not forgotten the interference that cost them the chairmanship seat, nor the questions that still hang over the death of the late TUDA president. And when the Zone A senate ticket came up, Alia looked past Kwande entirely and threw his weight behind Chief Gabriel Suswam instead. Now the punishment continues. The ALGON Chairman, a Kwande man, has been forced out of his position, which has since been relocated to Katsina Ala. The Assembly Majority Leader slot is reportedly next to go. Meanwhile the pattern of patronage sharpens elsewhere. Ushongo and Sankera have become the new centre of gravity, and the reasons are transparent. In Ushongo, Aondoakaa remains the threat Alia cannot outrun. In Katsina Ala, the rising profile of Rt Hon Jonathan Agbidye is beginning to eclipse Hon Prince Wombo, forcing the governor to pour in reinforcement. In Ukum, the proposed siting of a military barracks conveniently lands in the home territory of Senator Emmanuel Udende. None of this is coincidence. It is triage. Here is the arithmetic that should worry every strategist in the Alia camp. A governor seeking a second term who already counts more than two of the seven local government areas in his own senatorial zone as certain losses has not merely lost a few council areas. He has lost his home zone. And a governor who loses his home zone in Benue has lost the argument for his own re election before the campaign has properly begun. * Readers' reactions welcome - Editor

Posted: 2months ago

Author: Editor in Chief

Current date: 18 October 2026