by Ushakuma Anenga
The ousting of Akume looked like victory for Suswam but it wasn’t long before Akume came calling.
Suswam’s career and reputation continued to blossom, his early years as governor saw a lot of positive changes. In fact, my one and only facebook post on October 1, 2007 (independence day) was simply Benue can celebrate referring to the impact Suswam had on the state in that short period as governor. Such was the air of approval and optimism that greeted the visible infrastructural developments at that time. Roads were being tarred, drainages built, and that’s it. That alone was something! That the roads in Makurdi notorious for pitholes were now motorable, was something. Although there were rumours that those were Akume’s projects, it didn’t matter much because Suswam took charge of them to completion, a feat worth commendation. The early days of Suswam’s government, I must confess, were impressive. His meteoric rise from humble beginnings to governor at a young age of 41 years was an inspiration, especially to the youths and endeared the people towards him.
Fast forward 8 years after, and the issues that surrounded Suswam’s loss in the election, one begins to wonder what really went wrong. How did all this love fade away? The reasons are not far fetched. Amongst many issues, two things stand out in the ontogeny of Gov Suswam’s political undoing.
First, was an infamous fallout with his boss and predecessor, Dr George Akume. Suswam wanted to stand alone and set up his own political empire, and for many other reasons well covered by the local media and rumoured on social media, details of which I’m not qualified to unravel, these two gladiators just couldn’t get along. As the issues went unresolved, it became clear that they wouldn’t share one umbrella the umbrella party, PDP, could not accommodate them, hence Akume leaving to seek refuge in newly formed Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Akume will go on to contest and win a return to the senate under this party.
The ousting of Akume looked like victory for Suswam but it wasn’t long before Akume came calling. In 2007, whilst Akume won his senatorial election quite easily, Suswam had a formidable opponent in his kinsman, Steve Torkuma Ugbah, a Professor of Marketing at Califonia State University, brought by Akume into the governorship race to wrestle power from him. The ensuing campaigns and election have been described as the stiffest and fiercest in the history of Benue State. The people, buoyed by the promise of change, rallied round the relatively unknown professor with Ugbah nyior, shior chenji meaning ugbah’s arrival has changed the game, as the campaign slogan. This gave Suswam a torrid time but as it’s characteristic of the black cat, he won the elections against all odds while Prof Ugbah headed for the court.
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