By joshua 
*By Tunde Olusunle
Two incidents in the not too distant past, mitigated my physical participation in open-field, free-to-air political events, notably rallies and conventions, in recent times. At a rally of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, (PDP), in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital years ago, I left the venue of the event, relatively lighter than I went. My prized mobile phone had been pinched from the pocket of my national dress I donned to the event. It was an experience I had never had. With most of us almost wholly dependent on our electronic gadgets for day-to-day functionality, I felt like an orphan having been so criminally dispossessed of my device, for 24 subsequent hours. This was the time span between the pilferage of the equipment, and its eventual replacement. The second experience occurred as I queued to access *Eagle Square,* Abuja for the convention of the same party in 2017. I least imagined that the wad of currency notes I supposedly secured in one of the less visible pockets of my smart dress, could be so neatly, albeit criminally accessed!
On the recent invitation of the much-misunderstood governor of Benue State, Samuel Ioraer Ortom, however, I broke my subsisting self-censorship. I honoured the flag-off of the Benue State PDP campaigns, held in Makurdi the state capital, on Monday November 7, 2022. Candidates of the PDP contesting for various positions, at all levels in the February and March 2023 polls, were to be formally presented to the PDP family in the state. My longstanding friend and brother, Tivlumun Nyitse, Chief of Staff to Ortom, was the ideal host, on behalf of his Principal.
The pre-event sensitisation was massive. Ortom’s colleagues, who have come to be known as the *G-5,* or the *Integrity Group* as they are interchangeably referred to, in contemporary political discourse, were to headline the event. Nyesom Wike, Seyi Makinde, Okezie Ikpeazu and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Rivers, Oyo, Abia and Enugu respectively, would be storming the *food basket of the nation,* the legend of Benue State, for the programme. They were coming to stir the Benue river, calmer now than weeks ago when its flooded banks chased the people from their homes and farmlands. The quintet have been vocal and unanimous in speaking up against issues they consider unjust and unfair, in the current structure and operations of their party, vowing never to back-down until their demands are addressed. The issues are public knowledge, and need no rehashing.
The airport at the typically sleepy *Nigerian Airforce Base,* Makurdi, came alive in the evening of Sunday November 6, 2022. Four private jets, each conveying Ortom’s guests, lit up the concreted face of the typically snoozing tarmac. Chief host Ortom would settle his guests in at the recently rehabilitated *Aper Aku* Lodge in Government House, christened after the Second Republic governor of the state. Aku is credited with several multisectoral innovations, during his shortlived four year term in office. Aper Aku Lodge is an innocuous, yet voluptuous complex with about 25 rooms, backing the Presidential Lodge within the Government House. After dinner with his guests in his own section of the Government House behemoth, Ortom led his guests on a short walk to the *Banquet Hall* for a reception.
Benue State’s well-known affluent culture was on display. Dances and performances from the major ethnicities in the state, the *Tiv,* *Idoma,* *Igede* and *Agatu,* featured at the event. Ortom’s August guests responded by nodding their heads to the rhythms of music and the footwork of performances, intermittently applauding the performers. Ortom proclaimed the adoption of his guests as *honorary citizens* of Benue State, requesting that the proclamation be recorded in relevant instruments of the government. Wike, Ikpeazu, Makinde and Ugwuanyi were subsequently robed in traditional Tiv attires, complete with ceremonial spears. They took to the dais themselves, and shuffled to the rhythms and songs.
Ortom’s guests woke up the next morning, to a tour and simultaneous commissioning of projects in the state capital and its environs. It was an opportunity for Ortom to beam to the world, some of the infrastructures he had developed for his people. “Dr,” he called me as we chatted, “I find it amusing when people accuse me of not building even a simple bathroom in all my years as governor. I think it’s because I’m media shy. My upbringing and religious inclination, also forbid my blowing my own trumpet.” Ortom continued: “Again, I’m by nature a frugal person. If I reckon that the cost of commissioning a particular project can help us build a culvert somewhere, or a borehole elsewhere, that is more important to me than the fanfare of showcasing things we’ve already put in place.” And Ortom does have a commendable collage of infrastructures to flaunt before the eyes of his August guests and constituents, variously.
They include: The 9.4 kilometre *Tse Poor- Mbakya-Apir road and electricity project,* named after