Just some days back the Benue state house of assembly led by the speaker of the House, Rt. Honorable Titus Tyoapine Uba approved a loan request of 38 billion Naira for Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state.
Already, available statistics show that, within the last seven years, Governor Ortom has borrowed over 130 billion, but for domestic debt, the state debt profile according to the debt management office has stood at 128billion Naira.
With the approval on Thursday for the governor to borrow an additional 38billion, Benue state debt will rise to 166billion, this is the total sum Titus Uba has approved for Governor Ortom in his 6 years as speaker of the assembly.
Benue state is thrown into debt and this is not funny. So In a bid to achieve his intentions and wish of planting a successor, the Governor has again sought and gotten the approval of another loan worth 38 billion Naira, less than two months that another 18billion was earlier approved by the Speaker who is the would-be beneficiary of the imposition and successor, despite the opposition by other members of the Assembly. Since the inception of this Government 7 years ago, loans running into billions have been approved by the Speaker who is presumed to be a “rubber stamp”, and this is the same man the Governor wants to impose on the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, as a consensus candidate despite the widespread condemnation by his co-aspirants, stakeholders and the public.
In Benue state, Information available has it that chunk of the 38 billion Naira approved is to be used in financing the unpopular candidacy of the speaker, during and after the People’s Democratic Party Governorship Primary election.
According to an insider source, the Speaker in two weeks would embark on a tour across the twenty-three LGAs to woo delegates with the billions approved by him.
The opinion is, that the People’s Democratic Party delegates should not reject the money. It is Benue money and it will be more appropriate for them to Collect and fill their empty stomachs, as the Governor has left the citizens to wallow in hunger.
It is worthy to note that, Just a few months ago the Buhari APC led Government approved 18 billion Naira to Benue, and other states of the Federation to be accessed In tranches, no one knows what the money is being used for, and yet another 38 billion Naira has been approved by the speaker.
Unfortunately, Speaker Uba has turned himself into a ” Loan App” Of Governor Samuel Ortom, who he runs to anytime he needs money. Benue State has been indebted by Governor Ortom under the approval of Uba, Governor Ortom’s intended successor, in such a manner that only someone with the required competence, capacity, and intellectualism can handle BENUE after Governor Samuel Ortom, and that person can not be Uba.
Titus Uba is lacking in popularity, exposure, competence, capacity, and contacts to salvage the damage he has aided in causing Benue.
Titus Uba, the least amongst the four aspirants selected during the intermediate Area and Local Government selection process from Jerchira, and Vandeikya can not give the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP) victory against the opposition APC, despite the billions earmarked for his marketing.
Surprisingly, the Governor has hijacked the party structure from those that suffered persecution from him while he was in APC, to a point that he doesn’t even allow people with the party at heart to contribute at stakeholders’ meetings, as his position is always final and unopposed.
He has sidelined the likes of Sen Gabriel Suswam, Order Jev, Abba Moro, and His deputy Engr Benson Abounu to the point that even Assembly members in Zone C, are imposed on the people by him the Governor, making the PDP’s popularity diminish in Zone C.
While corruption has persisted in the dealings at assembly, it is also right to mention that, the Speaker has collected over sixty million to fix his official residence where nothing has been done, while he continues to live in his private home. The money has been misappropriated and not accounted for. This is a man the Governor is foisting on the PDP and the State.
More information revealed that one of the buses used by the Government House in convening stakeholders and other officials has been released to Uba for use on his convoy, as he kickstart LGA meetings with delegates.
The Governor has shown his disdain for members of the old PDP in a manner that he wants to impose Uba as Governorship candidate and at the same time, impose his former conductor or motor boy who is his present Finance Commissioner, Mr. David Olofu, another unpopular and indolent man as the Deputy Governor.
Automatically, the old PDP that nursed the party after the 2015 defeat does not have any stake in the arrangements. The People’s Democratic Party stakeholders, leadership, and delegates must not forget the experience of 2015 as a result of imposition and rejection at the general elections, where her members went through untold hardship.
Furthermore, The People’s Democratic Party leadership at all levels and her stakeholders must rise to stop the plan to sink the party or watch the Governor throw the party into an opposition party after the 2023 elections. It is not late for the leadership and stakeholders to talk truth to the Governor and save the party.
In Benue state, Uba, like the governor has always blamed President Buhari, a man that has done so much in terms of infrastructural development, for taking Nigeria from top to bottom, which they would take Benue State from bottom to underground if not stopped. Uba is the least amongst the Jerchira aspirants to lead PDP into victory.
Already, Benue people are angry that the speaker Titus Uba with his several loan approvals for Governor Ortom, has turned himself to the Governor’s Loan app and they are not ready to vote for him again.
