ORTOM'S 100 DAYS 'RECONCILIATION' AGENDA AND TAHAV AGERZUA'S HAWKISH MEDIA POSTURE. By Bemgba Iortyom.

Shortly after assuming office as governor of Benue State in May this year, Samuel Ortom had stated that he would make 'reconciliation' his main agenda within the first 100 days of his administration. By such declaration, many had assumed the governor intended to reach out to people of the state across all divides, with the primary aim to fostering peace and harmony which are necessary prerequisites to development and prosperity.

On practical evaluation, this choice of initial agenda was not only logically sound, given the rather raucous manner of his emergence as governor, from the primary stages to the general election, but such a choice was even more profoundly cost effective given that it entails little or no capital outlay to execute.

However, with just a few days running to the 100 days mark, it is difficult to count what gains Gov. Ortom has made in this area of his outlined objective of reconciliation. During this period Ortom has initiated an amnesty programme which seeks to retrieve firearms illegally in the possession of unauthorised persons, and has met with a number of people, by way of what could be deemed as efforts in the pursuit of the reconciliation agenda. But at any rate, the public perception of the success or failure of the governor's efforts in this regard is the responsibility of his media team which ought to have picked the gauntlet to buttress and properly package his reconciliation drive for public consumption.

Headed by veteran journalist, Tahav Agerzua, Gov. Ortom's media team is expected to have been smart enough to have seen a golden opportunity in making significant image capital for the governor in his reconciliation agenda, and should have therefore, been in the vanguard of emphasizing gains being made by the governor in his rapprochement with people across the state. With the right game-plan and approach, Tahav Agerzua could have successfully downplayed the grey areas in the governor's relationship with people, while emphasising the gains being made, thereby laying indisputable claim to having delivered on the targeted objective of achieving reconciliation in the governor's first 100 days.

However, in this first 100 days, Benue people have heard more of Gov. Ortom's differences with leaders in the state than they have heard of his reconciliation efforts. Within this period, the tone of the Ortom media structure has been quite abrasive and vitriolic with Tahav Agerzua leading several attacks on a number of elders and leaders in the state, the latest of them being Abubakar Tsav whom the government spokesman has called all manner of names in the media, and even went as far as advocating for his removal a Federal Commissioner of the Public Complaints Commission for Benue State.

But much more insidious and injurious to the reconciliation efforts of Ortom is Tahav Agerzua's covert and nocturnal sponsorship and usage of a number of characters, mostly on the cyberspace and also in the regular media, to run down notable figures in the Benue society, particularly those opposing the governor, usually by accusing them of going to the governor to beg for one favour or the other. It has become a favourite strategy of these hirelings of Tahav Agerzua that whenever anyone opposed to Ortom is seen around the governor, such a person is quickly taken to the media pillory and lampooned as having gone to begfor ha douts from the governor. Such treatment was given to immediate past elected chairman of Makurdi LGC, Godwin Donko, and recently Publisher of Alternative Newspaper, Maurice Tsav and now former governor, Gabriel Suswam.

The situation has become such that it is no longer considered safe by leaders or even ordinary people in the state to go near Ortom, especially those who are known to be critical of his administration. Even the few private visits and rapprochement which have taken place between the governor and some persons usually filters to the public domain in the form of publications targeted to humiliate such persons as beggars. Curiously, in the face of all these, there has never been a single reprimand issued from the administration against such actions or the actors.

Yet, in the face of all of these, Tahav Agerzua has on on a number of occasions on the social media averred that so long as such conduct does not bear his official imprint it is not the business of the Ortom administration, yet it is pertinent to note that such conduct is increasingly exerting a direct bearing, albeit a negative one, on the fortunes of the administration which is witnessing diminishing returns in terms of the public's perception of its actions and motives.

As a matter of fact, the Gov. Ortom's sincerity with his reconciliation agenda has been put to serious question on account of a number of his actions such as his failure to attend the burial of slain PDP chieftain and elder statesman, Chief Atoza Ihindan, while he has within the same period been present at the burials of persons less significant in status than the late PDP chieftain. The governor's brazen marginalization of the Ihyarev block from the composition of the power fulcrum of his administration has also not helped his reputation as being inclined towards any genuine reconciliation.

Yet, all of those loopholes could have been plugged by the systematic and concerted placement of emphasis on the friendliness and welcoming disposition of the governor, by his media team. In this wise, a visit by Godwin Donko would have been hailed as a gain for the governor, and his meeting with his predecessor, Gabriel Suswam, a few days back would have used as a media leverage to establish the governor as being on an high-ground and in command control of his reconciliation agenda.

As it is presently, it appears the reconciliation agenda was a mere platitude useful only for the moment for the sake of saying it, and was forgotten about as soon as it was voiced out by the governor. Or worse still, his media team did not believe in it as worth taking seriously enough for it to serve as a basis for focused and deliberate administrative action.

So after 100 days in office, the Ortom administration may not be able to deliver on even such a simple objective as 'reconciliation', and on critical analysis, this would have been largely due to the fact that the governor was not helped much by a media team which has been given more to hawkish inclinations than to moderation and bridge-building.