Nigerian Concord Newspaper
It is deeply revealing that Governor Hyacinth Alia’s camp has become consumed by the question of whether Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa SAN is Chief Samuel Ortom’s third term by proxy. Why has the question of who supposedly controls Aondoakaa become more urgent than the question of what their principal has delivered? The answer lies in the discomfort of a camp watching a broad coalition gather around an opponent.
That discomfort cannot be understood without recalling how Alia arrived in office. He did not emerge from a political vacuum. His 2023 emergence was facilitated by an APC structure in which Senator George Akume and other influential stakeholders played significant roles. Having benefited from that arrangement, he chose a path of defiance and confrontation that has strained his relationships with important figures in the very structure that raised him.
His supporters cannot dismiss this as ordinary political disagreement. When a beneficiary turns against those who helped him and alienates former allies, the isolation that follows is a consequence, not proof of independence. Those who build a platform are entitled to consultation and respect, even after the person they supported occupies the highest office in the state.
Against this background, the contrast with Aondoakaa becomes impossible to ignore. While Alia’s relationships with stakeholders have deteriorated, Aondoakaa is attracting support from a wide range of political figures. It is a fair reading that an incumbent who has isolated himself now resents a challenger who is gathering allies. A leader who has alienated his own cannot credibly present another man’s broad relationships as a weakness. Aondoakaa’s support base is not a defect. It is a coalition that he must now convert into a credible programme for Benue.
This is precisely why the proxy theory has been manufactured. It is an attempt to turn a political strength into a liability. Ortom holds a prominent place in the PDP, and Aondoakaa emerged as the party’s candidate. From those facts alone, Alia’s supporters ask the public to conclude that he is an extension of Ortom’s administration. But association is not ownership.
Aondoakaa owes Alia no performance of independence. He need not quarrel with Ortom, distance himself from him or stage a rebellion to satisfy an incumbent’s camp. His debt is to the people of Benue, who are entitled to a clear account of his agenda, his priorities and how he intends to govern. The electorate, not the incumbent’s propagandists, will judge whether his proposals deserve their confidence.
The story of Lucifer’s rebellion offers a sobering lesson here. Rebellion against one’s own support structure carries consequences that outlast the original confrontation, and it leaves the rebel isolated from those who once stood with him. Alia’s defiance has produced exactly such a climate, in which questions about the strength of his support have become unavoidable. Instead of confronting the cost of his own choices, his camp fixates on the alliances of another man.
The confusion at the heart of their argument is deliberate. It blurs party leadership and the exercise of governmental power. Parties provide platforms, stakeholders mobilise support and influential figures help candidates emerge, yet none of this removes a candidate’s agency. Aondoakaa will maintain a constructive relationship with Ortom, engage Nyesom Wike and other stakeholders, respect the PDP’s structure and still shape policy on his own assessment of Benue’s needs. His independence will be proven by his decisions, his priorities and the responsibilities he accepts under the Constitution, not by publicly rejecting allies to reassure a rival.
That brings the debate back to where it belongs, which is the incumbent’s record. Alia has held the governorship since 2023. Benue people demand answers on insecurity, displaced communities, employment, agriculture, education, healthcare, infrastructure, industrialization and the management of public resources. No label attached to an opposition candidate can neutralise those questions. If the government has achievements, let it present them. If it believes Aondoakaa’s proposals are inferior, let it challenge them on substance. It cannot escape scrutiny by making a challenger’s relationships the central issue.
In the end, the proxy theory exposes a contradiction in Alia’s camp. Aondoakaa is being asked to prove that his relationships do not make him somebody else’s candidate, and that is the wrong test. His task is to present his vision for security, economic recovery, agriculture, industrialisation, education, healthcare and the welfare of Benue people, and to show how he will turn support into effective governance. The stakeholders behind him are neither a substitute for that agenda nor evidence against it.
THE REAL QUESTION IS NOT WHETHER AONDOAKAA IS ORTOM’S THIRD TERM. IT IS WHY ALIA, HAVING ALIENATED IMPORTANT POLITICAL ALLIES, IS NOW SO PREOCCUPIED WITH THE ALLIANCES OF HIS CHALLENGER. AONDOAKAA MUST PRESENT HIS OWN AGENDA TO BENUE, WHILE ALIA MUST ANSWER FOR HIS OWN RECORD. NO PROXY THEORY CAN ERASE THAT DISTINCTION.
Credit: By Aondoakaa Tersugh Daniel, 24 October 2026