Leonard Karshima Shilgba
In 2013, I came across some people who belonged to a group called “Workman Network” . I was invited to an event that they hosted in Gboko. Later, an associate of mine confided to me that the group was promoting the Benue gubernatorial aspiration of one of then President Jonathan’s ministers, Samuel Ortom. He drew my attention to the word “workman”, which is a literal English translation of the Tiv name “Ortom”.
Behold, 2015 came, and Ortom became the Governor of Benue State. Well, less than three months from now, and Ortom will no longer be the governor. What are the GOOD works that this “worman” is leaving behind as a legacy, and what lessons can we learn from his public and private life? First, I wonder how many promoters of the “Workman Network” are proud of the work of their “workman”?
As my disappointment in Gov. Ortom’s performance on behalf of Benue people continued to mount, I visited an elder of the State one day, and as we discussed the poor quality of governance of our State, he said to me, “Prof., Ortom prepared to win election, but he didn’t prepare to govern.” It was not for lack of novel development ideas that Ortom failed to perform well, in agreement with his name, in Education, Agriculture, Health, Infrastructure Development, Social Welfare, and Public Revenue Generation. People like myself, very early after his inauguration in 2015, made available to his government ideas on all these sectors.
Ortom failed mainly because he was not good at identifying good talents, recruiting good talents, delegating tasks, and monitoring performance. Unsteady as water, Ortom failed.
Benue State deserves a qualitative cabinet of knowledgeable, competent, and courageous persons, who can correct the governor when he goes wrong, and whose memos in council could inspire the team. A poor governance team will always yield poor governance. Ortom lacked such cabinet.
When a governor focuses more on personal wealth improvement than on public wealth generation, he or she will be too easily distracted and conflicted. Benue State, under Ortom, is more deeply stuck in public debt than it is radiant in public wealth. I wonder how in less than three months, Gov. Ortom can make the faces of Benue workers and pensioners to radiate with smiles.
Ortom preponderated personal fights on too many fronts: He was fighting openly in the news media with the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, or being pugilistic against the cattle herders, or throwing political punches at his former benefactors and associates, or turning Benue workers and pensioners against him by his failure to pay them their due as when due, or worsening of the plight of Local Government Councils.
In the twilight of Ortom’s tenure as Governor of Benue State, he crowned his poverty of choice with an amateur display of political naïveté. His poor political dance and tantrums have alienated him from the next president of the Nigerian Federation, shut him outside the conference of the Benue power brokers, cut him off the sympathy of the aggrieved Benue people, and threatened the dissolution of his union of “friends of office”.
I really wanted Ortom to succeed. He struck me as a fighter for Benue people, but he didn’t know how to choose his battles or fight productively. At last, where are the fruits of Ortom’s many fights?
May Ortom find out and succeed in his next calling after his current public office. Material accumulation never satisfies. I call on the aggrieved, including the militants who felt betrayed by his government, to remember mercy.
Ortom tried to solve the cattle herders-farmers crisis in Benue through legislation, and worked to reform the Benue Traditional Institution; let’s recognize his achievements, and let another avoid his mistakes.
Governor Ortom, you remain my brother in spite of our political and perception differences. Maranatha! The “Workman” understands this code; at least I hope so. We must be prepared to have our works tested by fire at the RETURN.
