Man Faults Benue Commissioners, Tasks the New Ones on Responsible Representation

Gov Samuel Ortom

By Mkor Aondona‎

Yesterday was the 29th of March 2017. This day was evidently manifest as His Excellency, Dr. Samuel Ortom, the Governor of Benue State carried out a far reaching cabinet reshuffle and restructuring that bothers on realistically ensuring that square pegs are put in square holes and those commissioners who are found wanting in terms of functional credibility and integrity test are appropriately shown the way out! This exercise no doubt is common in every highly pragmatic and accountable government.

However, as the State Executive Council is readjusted, we wish to bare our minds on a few issues that bother on the political conduct, behaviors, interactions and attitudes of some commissioners working with His Excellency, Dr. Samuel Ortom.

First, we wish to encourage all appointed commissioners and advisers to recognize the fact that their positions in the Executive Council is largely anchored on their ability to give their local governments and the electorate in such places a sense of responsibility and carriage in a manner that forestalls goodwill, stewardship and the sustenance of trickle down effect of government and executive benefits to such electorates. 

This call has become necessary because in recent times it is observable that some commissioners serving under His Excellency have become chronically stingy and pretentiously aligned to the culture of self centeredness in terms of executive advantages and benefits. 

This is in sharp contrast to who the Governor truly is and widely known as a kind and generous leader who will hardly see a human being suffer and he will ignore. The character of some commissioners is that they keep telling lies to the people that are close to them that the Governor is not giving them money or there is no money for them to reach out to people in terms of goodwill, yet you see such commissioners ever ready to die in situations when there is a likelihood of their drop out from the executive council.

The question then is, who is deceiving who? One basic fact however, is that whether by making or by circumstance, commissioners in every leadership are the apostles of that government and as such the good name or otherwise of it in terms of goodwill could be made or marred by their character and attitudes to the generality of the people. We can't undermine the significance of Benue politics where the ability of a good leader is assessed by the extent he or she has also touched the lives of great number individuals. Aside this, these apostles must also know that the Governor is the leader of his party and working with him,they must realize the significance of joining hands with Governor to build the strength of the party through goodwill and a trickle down of benefits to the larger supporters of the party, regardless.

Second, we wish to call on some of the commissioners who are seen 24 hours staying around the Governor and moving about instead of giving the essential time to their offices and attending to the large crowds that is usually seen in such different offices to desist. It makes no meaning for a commissioner to abandon his office and be seen all day round at the government house moving from one corner to the other. This scenario is most disturbing when most at times some of such commissioners are not called or requested to be seen by the Governor but they go there!!We wish to further reiterate that the call by His Excellency, Dr. Samuel Ortom on his commissioners to show commitment,dedication,integrity,quality and efficacy to his leadership must start with correcting this abnormality.