Nigerian Concord Newspaper
The National Democratic Congress Candidate for Benue Northwest Senatorial Zone, Mr. Conrad Utaan is presently under intensed heat as the Nongov PDP Active Social Media Influencers, NOPDPASMI is questioning him why he always makes unwarranted attacks on the immediate past Governor of Benue State, Chief Samuel Ortom, PhD.
In a media note made available on Social Media today, the PDP Social Media influencers group regretted that politics in Benue North West Senatorial Zone is gradually descending into insults, character assassination, mind poisoning, emotional blackmail, and the deliberate distortion of facts.
The group asked why Utaan has to always rain insults on Chief Samuel Ortom, a man who gave him a juicy position even when he didn’t merit it just because of his quest to become a senator in 2027.
The statement reads:
We ask, in strong terms; Does becoming Senator require Engr. Utaan Terhide Conrad to insult Chief Samuel Ortom?
This question becomes more painful when we remember the cultural values of Tiv land. In Tiv tradition, respect for elders is not negotiable. A younger brother does not drag an elderly brother or a father to the market square to be judged, not even when the elder is perceived to be at fault. That is morally bankrupt. It erodes the very foundation of our communal life.
Engr. Terhide Utaan is Ortom’s younger brother from Mbabegha kindred. Yet today, he derives visible joy in casting aspersions on the same Chief Samuel Ortom who singlehandedly picked him from nowhere and cleansed him politically to where he is today. That is not gratitude. That is betrayal.
Let it be stated clearly. Even if Utaan claims he has no personal respect for Ortom’s stature, he ought to respect the fact that Chief Ortom is the supreme political leader of Nongov extraction and beyond. Ortom is a man anointed with traditional blessings by our forefathers, and those blessings will last as long as Ortom lives. To attack him is to attack the collective dignity of Nongov.
We, the Nongov youths, will not sit idle and watch someone whom Ortom’s benevolence transformed into prominence distort facts with fictitious stories meant to attract public sympathy. We warn Engr. Utaan to desist from these unguarded habits, or he should be ready to face similar attacks from his own younger ones, just as he is doing to Chief Samuel Ortom today.
Let the records speak. When Engr. Utaan Terhide Conrad assumed office in June 2016 under the administration of Governor Samuel Ortom as Benue State Focal Person for the Social Investment Programme, SIP/NSIP, he enjoyed enormous benefits that accrued to that office. At that time there were no name-calling. The trouble started only after he was accused of embezzling monies meant for the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, a programme designed to provide free daily mid-day meals to public primary school pupils using food grown by local smallholder farmers.
Also, when Chief Ortom stood with the family of Utaan Hule Jabi over the years with numerous forms of support, there was no need for Utaan to cast aspersions on him. Loyalty and gratitude should have guided him instead.
It is laughable for anyone to think of using Chief Samuel Ortom’s name as a ladder to gain political relevance. It amounts to comic play for Engr. Utaan to ask Nongov clansmen to desert Ortom, the same man who made almost every prominent son and daughter of Nongov, and follow Utaan’s political guidance. The painful truth is that Utaan has not raised a single person in Nongov to prominence, even though he acquired wealth running into billions during his time as Benue State Focal Person for SIP/NSIP. Is he not the joke of the 21st century?
Least we forget, when Chief Samuel Ortom held sway as Governor of Benue State, he appointed Terhide’s brothers from Mbabegha kindred into key positions. These included Prof. Philip Tachin, Pst. Emmanuel Aper, and Hon. Joseph Utse as Executive Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, who succeeded one another respectively within the eight-year period of the administration.
Even Terhide’s father, the late Sylvester Tsegba Utaan, was made a critical statesman in the state through Ortom’s political will. Yet, in the eyes of Conrad Utaan, Ortom still does not deserve respect.
We also refer Conrad Utaan and his co-travellers to Scripture. The Bible is clear that God raises leaders not by gender, but by calling. In Judges 4:4-5, Scripture presents Deborah as “a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, who was judging Israel at that time.” People came to her for judgment, and she gave both civil direction and military strategy that delivered the nation. In a patriarchal era where leadership was culturally male, God still placed a woman at the highest civil and spiritual office to bring peace and justice to His people.
Therefore, the rehearsed rhetoric Utaan told the gathering in Agasha yesterday that Mrs. Eunice Ortom, PhD, should not be voted to represent the good people of Zone B, insisting that it should be given to him, a Nongov clansman rather than a woman married to a Nongov kinsman because “marriage can be divorced and Mrs Eunice Ortom will flee with the mandate to marry another man elsewhere” does not hold water. It is not only baseless, it is also disrespectful to both women and to God’s pattern of leadership.
In conclusion, we urge Engr. Utaan to stop being obsessed with Ortom’s name while running around seeking elections. Riding on Ortom’s name will not earn him Senate victory. Rather, it only exposes his disrespect for the cultural values that place high regard on elders in our society.
Tiv culture teaches us humility, respect, and gratitude. Any politics that abandons these values will not stand. Benue North West deserves leadership built on integrity, not insults.