By Onjefu Okidu
Richard Kuklinski was an American silent murderer. He was given the nickname “The Iceman” because he usually put his victims in a freezer after killing them so that investigators could not figure out anything. Cyanide was his best liquid killer because it is very difficult for pathological regents to detect at autopsy.
Kuklinski was not a wild man running around with AK-47, he was not into drugs, he didn’t drink alcohol, he didn’t gamble and he was not given to sexual perversion. He lived for his wife and children. He lived a normal religious life. But, he was a killer without a conscience. When asked about killing, he said “it doesn’t bother me at all. I don’t have a feeling one way or another. Nothing haunts me. I don’t think about it.”
In the words of an analyst, “he had no mercy.” His motivation was pure greed and personal gain. Greed and personal gain drove him into becoming cold-hearted, ice-cold like the devil. He had no remorse about anything.
Idoma “political leaders” and “influential elites” at all levels epitomize Richard Kuklinski. They fit perfectly into his character. Like Kuklinski, they have unconscientiously turned themselves into a virtual recluse, murdering and freezing the Idoma people. Despite their outward appearance of propriety, most discerning Idoma people realized long ago that they are just keeping up appearances and that they are all-round dangerous. For over a decade now, the Idoma people have increased the intensity of pertinent questions such as: How come an Idoma man has not ruled Benue since the foundation of the state? How come the Idoma geographical enclave is short on social infrastructures? And more recently they have raised a question as to why the fees of the Federal University of Health Sciences, Otukpo (FUHSO), Benue State, have been made so exclusively exorbitant? The first and third questions appear to be generating the most controversy at the moment.
Yes, how come an Idoma man has not ruled the state either military or civilian? Without any pretext of all-knowledge, this is a very contentious question! Over the past two years, the issue has been hotly debated online and off-line, on-lockdown and off-lockdown. The generality of the Idoma people has tried to trash it, but those who suppose to have a ready answer, the Idoma “political leaders,” have been bluntly silent. In an attempt to gain insight, a gentle son of the soil, came up with two pairs of curious subtle questions on the Benue Rebirth Movement (BRM) Telegram platform: “I just want to know where we are in the collective struggle towards the enthronement of a zone C governor in 2023. It seems the two major parties have zoned the chairmanship of their parties to Zone C. Is the chance of an Idoma Governor foreclosed? Abi wetin? Please, what is going on?”
Up till the time this piece was being put together, nobody had attempted to answer the question on the platform, nobody, including the leadership of the BRM. From all indications, the questioner asked the question out of curiosity. He just needed to be reassured. He neither appeared a radical nor a bloody revolutionary, yet he shook the BRM platform with a set of questions that exposed the silent murderous nature of Idoma “political leaders.” The questions were clearly based on the lessons continuously learned from the ground – since the revival of democratic governance in Nigeria in 1999, prevailing moral principles have always been unfavorable to a zone keeping both chairmanship and governorship of political parties.
To be fair, the question presents the BRM with a series of dilemmas. In the tough and mean world of democracy, it cannot dictate to a party how it can function neither can it dictate to and compel Idoma politicians how to handle their party matters - more so that the organization needs money to function optimally. But, the entire situation as it is now suggested that the Idoma “Political leaders” like Kuklinski are shedding their fantasies for an Idoma governor through silence. The truth is that “Idoma political leaders” are still overwhelmed with innate greed and selfishness to forge a common front to enthrone a governor from zone C. And the generality of the Idoma people themselves have not really come to a consensus on the need to leave the political leaders stranded and frustrated. Too often, the generality of the Idoma people allows decisions to be made for them by selfish political leaders who are not open, sincere and sympathetic.
To be sure, at the early stage of the agitation for an Idoma Governor, a prominent political leader of the Idoma extraction made it very, very clear that the noise being made on the interpersonal spaces, social and traditional media for an Idoma Governor was a sheer waste of time and a lonely walk in the garden as the effective decision of who rules Benue was usually taken by the power-holders behind-the-scenes. The observation is neither new nor inimical to the agitation but it further exposes the Idoma political leaders’ silent conspiracy, transactional role, and complicity in the killing of Idoma governors since 1999. Actually, now, it is not a question of asking where they were when the decisions to zone the chairmanship of the two parties to zone C was taken but one could readily foresee that having been reared in the lap of selfishness and greediness they were too eager to feed their private appetites by their continuous encouragement of the arrangement.
The predisposition of “Idoma political leaders” to silent debauchery and sell-out has always encouraged the other side to evaluate the situation from the prism of normality. The darkest reality of all is that many Idoma men and women still misrepresent the silent debauchery of the Idoma “political leaders” as good leadership, and have made themselves readily amenable to their crump – cringing and begging their way to favor. And so the Idoma people have been made so vulnerable that even if a community of goats wants to elect or appoint a leader the decision is silently, or even sometimes loudly taken from outside Idomaland – gravely pathetic!
In fact, the situation has become so bad that Zone C and particular sections within the Zone have been ridiculously crowned as the life producers of chairmen of the key political parties in Benue State – for those who care to know, Zone C of Benue State has un-beneficially produced the chairmen of APC and PDP since the parties’ foundations. And to some extent, Ogbadigbo and Agatu local governments have dominated likewise in the two parties within the zone. As it is now, based on moral principles, the chance of Zone C, Ogbadigbo, and Agatu in key elective positions seem to be foreclosed as it were in the past. How can people develop with these kinds of arrangements that are based on pure greed and personal gain? If there is consciousness beyond the grave, as the religionists assure, one can imagine the sadness of Idoma political forerunners over the contemporary Idoma political leaders’ wanton debasement of the Idoma politics. The rotational Idoma traditional system has served over centuries as an example that the Idoma people are not steel greedy and selfish.
Another issue extracting tears from the eyes of Idoma people at the moment is the excruciating fees rolled out to be paid by students of FUHSO. If the cries of local poor parents and guardians are anything to go by, their children and wards are being asked to pay Four hundred and fifty thousand nairas (N450, 000) per session as school fees. As some have already argued, the Idoma elites who were part of this decision would have been perfectly excluded with this kind of fees if they were to be admission seekers, because their parents or guardians too would have been too poor to afford even a zero fee. Most of them during their time had to be rescued by the prevailing inclusive humanitarian environment. It is as futile even now as it is shortsighted to believe that one can lift a child from the pervasive socio-economically degraded community like that of Benue zone C through creating funding barriers; more so that people all over the world are now advocating for social inclusion. The education of the Idoma poor child matters a lot!
The core northerners realized this long, long time ago. In fact, one does not need to do research to arrive at the fact that the fees of other Federal universities like Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto, Bayero University, Kano, just to mention a few, are near these un-thoughtful rates. Unfortunately again, some of the children of the poor from the zone who are supposed to vehemently oppose the policy are the ones making excuses for this un-thoughtful, wicked and debilitating policy.
Actually, there are far more pressing internal baffling questions. What is clear, though, is that majority of Idoma people are not happy with the development as they feel they are going to act as mere hosts to an institution that is supposed to be a major contributor to their socio-economic upliftment. And the unfortunate thing about the situation is that it may be an Idoma man out of wanton greed and selfish gain that might have engineered the fees. No federal university in the entire country attracts such outrageous fees!
Since 1999, there have been clearly no evidence to suggest that “Idoma political leaders and influential elites” are interested in the altruistic social reconstruction of Idomaland. Everything they do is calculatedly beclouded by pure greed and personal gain. They will dash you a goat and hold on to the rope! Name them – when they influence a road to be constructed, it is their wives and children that would be the contractors, when they influence a school project, it is their cronies and family members that would provide the staff, hostels, and teaching facilities at exorbitant rates, etc. – No inclusiveness, no merit, no fairness, no balance, and no equity. And so where is the hope and future for the contemporary Idoma child?
As one of the participants of the BRM platform has tearfully lamented, “It’s a pity that those who are supposed to help Idoma people are the ones killing them.” Like Kuklinski, greed and personal gain have driven them to become cold-hearted, ice-cold like the devil. They don’t have feelings one way or another, no fear of God, no conscience, and no remorse about anything. It doesn’t bother them at all. Nothing haunts them. They don’t think about it. In fact, they have no mercy. But, the souls of the Idoma people who are being killed and frozen every day through their political Cyanide have continued to cry out very loud to God Almighty. Let the evil man continues his evil ways still. It is a question of time!
...Dr. Okidu writes from Ilorin. He can be reached through E-mail - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Phone: +2348036636139. NNL.
