Senator Dr. George Igbegbe Orpel Akume Dajoh KSJI is the man who has bitten and chewed ALL the fingers that have fed him; who has dethroned and ruined all the kingmakers that made him. Lo, he bastardized the civil service that nurtured him and ruined many younger generations. Yes, he has gleefully held Benue by the jugular for over two decades and counting and has now elevated himself to an imperator.
He was once a loyal son (in his time of need) to the former Senate President Dr. Iyorchia Ayu and, of course, to former Managing Director of the defunct Benue Cement Company Chief Sen. Dr. BAI Gemade on whose shoulders he rode to prominence.
The man George Akume has formed the darkest cloud that has ever hovered around the Benue political space. He has done everything within his reach to dip every star he sees with the potential to illuminate our environment. He first found Chief Barnabas Gemade who was almost the sole financier of his gubernatorial project in 1999 as prey to test his supremacy. He employed all sorts of unsavory characters to bully Chief Gemade soon after he emerged as the governor of Benue State in 1999. For example, at a reception organized in his honor at Wannune, masquerades with Chief Gemade’s effigy were on display and were flogged round the arena to ridicule him.
George Akume had earlier used State resources to work against the emergence of Chief Gemade as the National Chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). Again, when the opportunity came for the removal of Chief Gemade, George Akume wittingly presented himself as a willing tool being the traitor that he is. Under George Akume’s watch, armed militia were sent to disrupt a reception organized in honor of Chief Gemade at Otukpo after his removal as the National Chairman of the PDP.
George Akume in his rise to prominence never spared Wantaregh Paul Iyorpuu Unongo (may his soul Rest In Peace). He had superintended over Unongo’s arrest, detention and prosecution for daring to contest the 2003 gubernatorial elections against him. In an attempt to further get at Unongo and subdue him by all means, George Akume resorted to committing a pogrom against the entire people of Kwande, taking advantage of the 2004 Local Government Elections. One can recollect with mortal pain and disdain how government sponsored thugs were detailed to exhume the corpses of Unongo’s parents and that of Jatô Aka on George Akume’s instruction as the State Chief Security Officer.
George Akume’s war of attrition has not even spared the children he birthed politically. He has been at war with scores of them, both the low and the mighty. Gabriel Torwua Suswam even as a sitting governor was never spared. Suswam was serially embarrassed, disgraced, and demeaned without restraint to the adulation of leader Akume’s fan base. Emperor George never hesitated to take his war of attrition to the likes of Christopher Demenongu Iyorchia Ayu his erstwhile godfather, Sen. Joseph Kennedy Nyikwagh Waku, Chief Sen. Prof. Daniel Iyorkegh Saror, Prof Terhemba Shija, etc. There is an audio evidence making the rounds that George Akume’s war of attrition took a toll on Sen. Ayu at Dr. Gabriel Suswam’s birthday sometime in Suswam’s second tenure as Governor. Many other elders of note have been metted similar treatment by leader Akume such as “animal” Amb. Gbasha, Elder Ninga Biam and Lt. Col. Benjamin Aboho of blessed memory. There is a whole legion of the Akume Casualties which include Prof Amb Steve Torkuma Ugbah, Rt. Hon. Emmanuel Jime, Sen. Orker Jev, Hon. Mike Mku, H.E. Benson Abounu…etc.
As Governor Ortom’s tenure draws the curtains, his warlords are in the range rehearsing to take their titanic war to Ortom’s doorstep. Akume had used Ortom to fight Suswam and is clearly poised to use Fr. Alia to fight Ortom UNLESS the would-be Governor Alia takes an independent stand from day one in the office and exercises self-restraint in dealing with the affairs of state.
While Akume’s war of attrition and supremacy lasted, younger generations have been wasted. They have been serially deprived of the opportunities to contribute their quota to the public sector after toiling several years to acquire education and certificates. Several people were sacked from the civil service in 2015 with the imprimatur of Leader Akume. This was to undo what Suswam had done as Governor forgetting that those most hurt were the younger generations who desperately desired to be gainfully employed.
As May 29th becons, history seems about to repeat itself with the mass sacking by Alia of those Governor Ortom employed. If this happens, George Akume might have succeeded in using the younger generation in the last 16 years plus to plant (in his own words) 3 governors without the youth being gainfully employed. This is how Leader George has so far wasted generations during his political reign and leadership era. For sure, George sees Benue as his personal estate where things must be done at his whims and caprices. He sees himself as the only competent personality with a CV to take any plum job for Benue from the center – Abuja. This is clearly the main reason why Akume has now taken another fight against Chief Barnabas Gemade and Prof Terhemba Shija having noticed that the duo have placed themselves in pole positions to take up plum responsibility in the coming administration of Bola Tinubu.
For the records, it is rumored that the position of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation might be conceded to the North-Central zone which Akume considers to be his personal entitlement. The recent suspension of Gemade and Shija from the state chapter of the APC is borne out of the fear that the Tinubu team might have seen Gemade and Shija’s CVs as quality enough to take up Akume’s dream job. This is inspite of Gemade’s unequalled morality and prerequisite qualifications, counting also the pedigree of Prof. Terhemba Shija who was a member of the House of Representative when Leader Akume was the Protocol Officer to Late Rev. Fr. Adasu. Sadly, we have all kept mute and watched as Leader George inflicts devastating injuries on the entire Tiv race, taking down one David after the other.
Under George’s predominance the Tiv people who at a point were pacesetters are now playing second fiddle in the comity of ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. Meantime, other nationalities are pulling and pooling their stars to the center to negotiate; here our imperator is forming dark clouds to dip our stars. We may go extinct if we allow this type of leadership to thrive longer than this.
When shall we rise to bring an end to this turmoil?
Dr. Aondoakaa Asambe
Lecturer, Federal University Dutsin-Ma, Katsina State-Nigeria & the Convener, Benue Alliance for Good Governance (BAGG)
23rd, May 2023
