Open Letter To The President Elect Gen.Mohammadu Buhari. "What TheBenue Vote Means , Not What Our Politicians Mince". by Raymond BemseerMagen.
I congratulate you, Sir, on your election as President (elect) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I write from a Benue perspective and I write early even though unsure this will get to you. I write however, in the hope this gets to you before the layers of access thicken and information meant for you is tinkered to fit what those around prefer to be your perception of reality.Click for more
The Benue vote came as a surprise to many outside of Benue State. To those of us in and from the State, the fact the PDP garnered that much votes and came so close, infuriated us.
But let's try a little appreciation of the Benue situation and the voters' reaction. Permit me to briefly, say here and elsewhere, let no man brag before you that he delivered the Benue vote. A vote for you required no persuasion from any politician in Benue State. As a matter of fact, We mostly voted others because of you, not you because of others.
Under the current administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, our State has a Senate President, we have two ministers, ambassadors, Directors General and several board member positions. The Tiv speaking part of Benue also has the luxury of a Governor of Tiv extraction. All of these positions did very little on the key things that matter to the ordinary Benue man and woman who headed to the polls, clear headed on what his electoral choices are.
We have endured poor leadership in Benue State. Our graduates are jobless, employment into federally allotted jobs especially the paramilitary are highly lopsided, security of lives and property especially in our rural areas from whence our farmers keep to tilling the soil and filling the food basket is at zero. Salaries are slashed and owed; Schools are closed for several months as those who should open them hold strongly to priorities far removed from growing a better society for all. Our farmers are attacked and killed by alleged fulani herdsmen. We needed change not as a slogan but so we survive for we saw vile governance. We voted the Buhari we have heard of and whose anti corruption disposition we so dearly need as a nation and as a State.
The State chapter of your party in Benue State has not led conduct to show self as the desired change, unfortunately. Yet, in our eyes, your candidature was enough to atone their deficiencies. If the State is ran in same manner the party is ran, all our hopefulness for change would come to nothing. However, we think your dedication to the very ideals that persuaded our vote for you shall overwhelm and tone down the over zealousness of the men currently in charge of the party. We hope that your emergence from a free and fair primary election shall be the standard all chapters shall have to adopt to nominate candidates in all contested positions. This shall deepen democratic tendencies in our party and the society we seek to govern.
Let us appreciate the factors that remained silent in the Benue vote. If we allowed ourselves to be susceptible to religious and ethnic sentiments, a defeat for you in Benue State would have being resounding, instead, we were reasonable. We were critical. We were progressive.
Benue State is predominantly a Christian population. But when we headed to the polls last weekend, we knew it was not a census of the Christian population. In Benue State, our rural folks who are mostly farmers have routinely suffered at the hands of attacks by fulani herdsmen. The fact you are yourself a Fulani man did not matter to us because your sense of what is right or wrong is uninfluenced by such prejudicial persuasions.
Try as they did to incite fear in us, Our polling units in church environments and the villages under attacks swelled in votes for your candidature. We believe that under the right leadership, violence and wanton destruction of lives and property shall halt and that perpetrators shall be brought to book. Your credentials compelled us to the choice we made.
In Benue State Sir, we relax in the evenings with our beers. Very often when we are not taking too many gulders early in the day, we are fine gentlemen. We also take liquids with alcoholic contents aspiring to reach the 50% mark. On Friday nights to the wee hours of the morning, we go to clubs and dance to music from our brother Tu Face and his colleagues. We don't want a government legislating on these matters. And yes, please at these hours, ignore the bum shorts too. They should remain legal Sir.
While we appreciate the calm that congratulatory messages from the unlikeliest of quarters have brought to the aftermath of a tensed electioneering campaign, we urge you to not regard these actions as ablution enough to atone for the excruciating pains the resource pilfering actions by some of these persons has caused us. Willingness on their part to make remittances back to the agencies, ministries, states etc they defrauded shall be a fairer bargain.
Lastly Sir, while remembering that the ordinary Benue man and woman voted you in the belief that society would be better, be cautious to not visit our State ostensibly to commission projects without due diligence as to their factual existence beyond a colourful bill board, viability and functionality of such projects. We have invited Presidents in the past to commission non-existing projects. With each visit, their standing diminished in the eyes of the people. We saw them as willing accomplices to the grand deception and mockery of the people. We waited patiently for our day.
Therefore, while reminding you that no politician or set of politicians delivered Benue State to you and as such no personal settlement extended to the gluttonous men claiming delivery of a mandate we so willingly gave should be of higher priority as opposed to specific programs and projects intended to serve the people and the implementation of which must be meticulously done in order to achieve set objectives. Remember, Sir, in Benue State we have shown Our dexterity at use of our thumb. We have shown that we will vote out a poor performer without regards for religion or ethnicity or how many ministers and Senate Presidents we have. We prefer good roads, security, jobs for the jobless more than we do some of these bogus appointments. Remember our roads, our jobs and our farmers. Remember to have the EFCC fully functional and able to instil enough fear in those in charge of our resources. Remember ordinary folks like me willingly voted you in our numbers hoping you shall be different and better.
Beware of our politicians, be aware of us the ordinary people.
Progressively Yours
Raymond Bemseer Magen
The Benue vote came as a surprise to many outside of Benue State. To those of us in and from the State, the fact the PDP garnered that much votes and came so close, infuriated us.
But let's try a little appreciation of the Benue situation and the voters' reaction. Permit me to briefly, say here and elsewhere, let no man brag before you that he delivered the Benue vote. A vote for you required no persuasion from any politician in Benue State. As a matter of fact, We mostly voted others because of you, not you because of others.
Under the current administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, our State has a Senate President, we have two ministers, ambassadors, Directors General and several board member positions. The Tiv speaking part of Benue also has the luxury of a Governor of Tiv extraction. All of these positions did very little on the key things that matter to the ordinary Benue man and woman who headed to the polls, clear headed on what his electoral choices are.
We have endured poor leadership in Benue State. Our graduates are jobless, employment into federally allotted jobs especially the paramilitary are highly lopsided, security of lives and property especially in our rural areas from whence our farmers keep to tilling the soil and filling the food basket is at zero. Salaries are slashed and owed; Schools are closed for several months as those who should open them hold strongly to priorities far removed from growing a better society for all. Our farmers are attacked and killed by alleged fulani herdsmen. We needed change not as a slogan but so we survive for we saw vile governance. We voted the Buhari we have heard of and whose anti corruption disposition we so dearly need as a nation and as a State.
The State chapter of your party in Benue State has not led conduct to show self as the desired change, unfortunately. Yet, in our eyes, your candidature was enough to atone their deficiencies. If the State is ran in same manner the party is ran, all our hopefulness for change would come to nothing. However, we think your dedication to the very ideals that persuaded our vote for you shall overwhelm and tone down the over zealousness of the men currently in charge of the party. We hope that your emergence from a free and fair primary election shall be the standard all chapters shall have to adopt to nominate candidates in all contested positions. This shall deepen democratic tendencies in our party and the society we seek to govern.
Let us appreciate the factors that remained silent in the Benue vote. If we allowed ourselves to be susceptible to religious and ethnic sentiments, a defeat for you in Benue State would have being resounding, instead, we were reasonable. We were critical. We were progressive.
Benue State is predominantly a Christian population. But when we headed to the polls last weekend, we knew it was not a census of the Christian population. In Benue State, our rural folks who are mostly farmers have routinely suffered at the hands of attacks by fulani herdsmen. The fact you are yourself a Fulani man did not matter to us because your sense of what is right or wrong is uninfluenced by such prejudicial persuasions.
Try as they did to incite fear in us, Our polling units in church environments and the villages under attacks swelled in votes for your candidature. We believe that under the right leadership, violence and wanton destruction of lives and property shall halt and that perpetrators shall be brought to book. Your credentials compelled us to the choice we made.
In Benue State Sir, we relax in the evenings with our beers. Very often when we are not taking too many gulders early in the day, we are fine gentlemen. We also take liquids with alcoholic contents aspiring to reach the 50% mark. On Friday nights to the wee hours of the morning, we go to clubs and dance to music from our brother Tu Face and his colleagues. We don't want a government legislating on these matters. And yes, please at these hours, ignore the bum shorts too. They should remain legal Sir.
While we appreciate the calm that congratulatory messages from the unlikeliest of quarters have brought to the aftermath of a tensed electioneering campaign, we urge you to not regard these actions as ablution enough to atone for the excruciating pains the resource pilfering actions by some of these persons has caused us. Willingness on their part to make remittances back to the agencies, ministries, states etc they defrauded shall be a fairer bargain.
Lastly Sir, while remembering that the ordinary Benue man and woman voted you in the belief that society would be better, be cautious to not visit our State ostensibly to commission projects without due diligence as to their factual existence beyond a colourful bill board, viability and functionality of such projects. We have invited Presidents in the past to commission non-existing projects. With each visit, their standing diminished in the eyes of the people. We saw them as willing accomplices to the grand deception and mockery of the people. We waited patiently for our day.
Therefore, while reminding you that no politician or set of politicians delivered Benue State to you and as such no personal settlement extended to the gluttonous men claiming delivery of a mandate we so willingly gave should be of higher priority as opposed to specific programs and projects intended to serve the people and the implementation of which must be meticulously done in order to achieve set objectives. Remember, Sir, in Benue State we have shown Our dexterity at use of our thumb. We have shown that we will vote out a poor performer without regards for religion or ethnicity or how many ministers and Senate Presidents we have. We prefer good roads, security, jobs for the jobless more than we do some of these bogus appointments. Remember our roads, our jobs and our farmers. Remember to have the EFCC fully functional and able to instil enough fear in those in charge of our resources. Remember ordinary folks like me willingly voted you in our numbers hoping you shall be different and better.
Beware of our politicians, be aware of us the ordinary people.
Progressively Yours
Raymond Bemseer Magen
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