Ortom shoots himself while fighting Atiku Abubakar
Mr. Samuel Ortom, the outgoing Benue State governor, has obviously shot himself while fighting a battle that is not originally his. He has miscalculated and fought a wrong battle.
The governor started the war when he covertly opposed the emergence of Mr. Iyorchia Ayu, a Benue State politician, from becoming the national chairman of the People’s Democratic Party. Mr. Ortom might not know that time that he’s actually digging his own political grave.
The ex vice president, Atiku Abubakar, believed that with Ayu as the national chairman, his bid for the ticket of the PDP would be easy. He is ambitious, but the Benue State governor would rather prefer another person to steer the affairs of the party.
Ortom started his subtle opposition to Mr Iyorchia Ayu who feigned ignorance of issues within Benue State PDP. Then, the party started preparing for the primary elections.
A faction…or group within the party started calling for zoning of the presidential ticket to the southern region of the country. The Benue State governor gave his voice to the agitations perhaps because of the issues his State has with the armed herdsmen.
As the primaries were drawing nearer, the division became more obvious and glaring. The ex vice president picked up the nomination form along with Bauchi State governor Bala Mohammed, Aminu Tambuwal. Meanwhile, Mr. Nyesom Wike is leading southern agitations in the PDP.
Atiku Abubakar secured the ticket of the party and the full-blown crisis started in the party. A group of five aggrieved governors emerged. They didn’t want both the presidential candidate and the national chairman to come from the same (northern) region.
The governors insisted that Iyorchia Ayu must go. But the chairman isn’t their target. They wanted to use all means to pull down Mr. Atiku Abubakar. Surprisingly, Samuel Ortom, who is from Benue State as Ayu, is among the governors.
They used fora, campaign rallies, radio and television interviews to launch attacks on the presidential candidate and the party as well. Whereas the governors are running for one post or the other or rooting for some candidates using the PDP.
Samuel Ortom might think, possibly ignorantly, that fighting Atiku doesn’t mean fighting the PDP. The Benue State governor lost the senatorial district election. He was defeated. That was the first reality that came in to him.
Mr. Titus Zam of the All Progressives Congress beat him in the Benue North West Senatorial district election. The candidate of the APC polled 143,141 votes. The incumbent governor, who wanted to retire at the National Assembly, had 106,882 votes.
Ortom was among the seven governors who lost their bid for the upper chamber of the National Assembly. He should have realized his mistakes that time. He might not know that his success hinged on Atiku’s performance.
To add salt to the injury, the PDP’s governorship candidate in Benue State, Titus Uba lost the poll. He was anointed and endorsed by the incumbent governor. It’s a norm for the outgoing governors to singlehandedly pick their successors.
A Catholic priest Father Hyacinth Alia beat the PDP’s candidate with more than 200,000 votes. That seems to be the end of the political career of Mr Samuel Ortom. He fought Atiku Abubakar, but he too went down the drain as a result of that.
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