MESSAGE TO MY BENUE FRIENDS: Wake Up In 2016, Please!

By Franc Utoo

First of all, introduction: My name is Franc Fagah Utoo. I am an Activist by nature, a Politician by motivation and a Lawyer by training. In the next couple of days, by my next birthday, by God's grace on January 12 to be precise, nature will admit me fully into the club of the adults. If I don't act wise I'll remain a fool forever (you know what I mean?)

I am Tiv, I am 101% Benue. I am a husband and father to a Benue wife and two Benue kids. My dad is from the Utoo family in Yelewata, Nyiev Ward of Guma LG while my mum is from the Bai family of Modern Market Ward in Makurdi LG. If the current geographical entity known as Benue state is divided into 10 states tomorrow I'll still belong to the one that'll be called BENUE! Therefore, nobody can claim to be more Benue than me - that's the point!
I am 100% APC. I joined the party, officially, as the second person to be registered in my Ward on the first day of the Party Membership Registration in February 2014. I was in the APC at a time that my 4 biggest benefactors in life, viz: Governor Suswam, Comrade Abba Moro, Dr.Samuel Ortom and Dr. Jerry Agada, were chieftains of the PDP in Nigeria. I was in the APC at the same time my dear wife was a Personal Assistant to a Minister in the PDP government. But I believed in the vision and ideology of the APC and holistically abided by the letters and spirit of her founding documents and her Constitution even when the so-called party elders or acclaimed founders could not even live by the example of what they themselves drafted and/or ratified. So, in principle nobody can claim to be more APC than me - that's another point!
But the greatest point is, my own party has won elections and is in charge of governance in my own state, and I, therefore, have a veritable locus to speak words of truth! And truth is, we swam to victory on the tide of change, not that any of our APC leaders in Benue is better than the leaders of the PDP in Benue. They are one and the same, and they still are. Benue has become a large political game played by the same players using the same tactics and producing the same results. Those that prefer to be different are dubiously pressed down. Little wonder, 7 months into our ‪#‎Change‬ administration, I can't still figure out a semblance of light at the end of the tunnel. Yes, 7 months may be too early but we ought to have seen more of action and a clear policy direction and less of lamentations.
Governance has taken a nose dive into centuries past - akin to the pre - colonial era where feudal kings held sway. Check it: we have reduced governance to empty praise singing and canonisation of the leadership; holding carnivals and parties at Government House everyday; 'decamping' people everyday; attending all kinds of events with all the apparatchiks of government; evaluating, re evaluating and re-re evaluating the work force at all times; everyday appointment of people as SA, SSA or GM's with no result based mandate- people whose biggest feat is Gossip, Thuggery and Blackmail; celebrating payment of salaries and making a huge molehill out of it; buying and re branding of cars, ceaseless propaganda, et al.
Real reason for all these shenanigans is because we built our government on faulty lines. You can't build anything good on nothing or weak or erratic foundation. Bail out monies and loans are used to service personal aggrandisement, individual ambitions and perversion of justice. Gross acts of persisting impunity, treachery and naked wires were laid as foundation for our present political structure but we remained passive because it is not 'Us' and yet we expect not to feel the long term electrocution? Much more of public funds will be used to sustain and repair the faulty lines. Nothing good can foreseeably happen until we set our priorities right and tell ourselves the truth. However, the greatest tragedy is that sixteen years into the 21st century and for 17 years of our democratic process, our youths are still in a state of mental slavery, and until we emancipate ourselves from psychological bondage and look at everything from the prism of objectivity, truth and trust as equal stakeholders, our society shall remain stagnant and murky.
Furthermore, Nigeria look up to Benue at all times. We are the most educated state in the North, with the first State university in the North and the highest number of Professors in the North. Politically, we are the BUCKLE of the Middle-BELT that binds Nigeria together. We are the Nigerian dream. Yet the Benue youth, the custodian of Nigeria's future, have been pitched against each other, manipulated, groomed to hate, taught the culture of established impunity and treachery, lied to and asked to defend lies and illegality with all their strength and might. And our reward is a life of BMW - "Beer, Meat, Women" (apologies to Pastor Dave Ogbole)
2016 is here. The 21st century, software age, is already growing old, we must rise up, see the truth and speak the truth and act like our mates from other parts of the world. Be the change you want to see and stop being a 'daddy or mummy dummy' hanging around and gossiping your life away waiting to be compensated for evil. No country attain greatness via that medium. As for me, I am still on the struggle to entrench the right system for our state and our nation. God help me!
My Dear Friends, Let's Get Our Senses Reprogrammed To The 21st Century And Act Likewise...
Wake Up, joor!