The inability of the Idoma people to elect a governor in Benue State since its establishment in 1976, according to Godwin Obla, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and head of the Godwin Obla Foundation, is due to a mix of demographic disadvantage and ongoing political strife among the Idoma elite.
This was said by Obla on Saturday during the Idoma Centenary Plus Celebration in Otukpo, Benue State, during his centenary speech titled, “The Political Choices of the Idoma People Since 1950: Context, Consequences, and the Path Forward.” It was a historical event.
He asserts that the Idoma have been denied the opportunity to hold the highest political post in Benue State for almost fifty years, even though they are the second-largest ethnic group in the state.
The election of a governor has not been held by an Idoma since 1976, when Benue State was created. Even after fifty years of being a state, the second-largest ethnic community in Makurdi has never held office in the state capital, he added.
According to Obla, the Idoma and Igede people are numerically disadvantaged in Benue State’s political system. He pointed out that Zones A and B, which are mainly Tiv, control fourteen local government districts, but Zone C, which is mainly comprised of Idoma and Igede communities, has only nine.
He made the statement, “The arithmetic is straightforward and merciless,” and went on to say that the Tiv majority had maintained control of the governorship under a majoritarian voting system.
But he insisted that population trends cannot account for everything. The likelihood of the Idoma ethnic community generating a governor, in his view, has been continually diminished due to internal strife among political leaders within the group.
“The elite have fractured, splitting along personal rivalries, generational fault lines and competing ambitions time and again” whenever the chance to become governor of Idoma has arisen, he said.
He bemoaned the fact that the Idoma would often split their votes and bargaining leverage when numerous contenders arose rather than unite behind a single candidate.
According to Obla, the failure of the Idoma political elite to remain united is a long-standing problem that has plagued the Idomaland political landscape from its inception.
Additionally, the senior lawyer voiced his disapproval of what he saw as the inability of the Idoma political class to translate their national political clout into long-term, community-based development.
Despite the fact that numerous Idoma sons have held prominent positions in our nation, such as senators, ministers, military governors, and diplomats, he maintained that numerous Idomaland areas continue to endure inadequate infrastructure, instability, and lack of growth.
“No amount of national political prominence—no matter how impressive—can replace local development,” he declared.
In order to avoid the splits that have hampered the community’s political ambitions and to assist generate agreement before elections, Obla proposed the creation of a permanent, non-partisan Idoma Political Consultative Forum.
In addition, he emphasised the importance of the Idoma people’s increased spending on voter registration drives, grassroots organising, and the formation of interethnic political alliances that can garner support from outside Zone C.
He claims that the only way for a governor to be elected from Idoma is to form a strategic coalition and provide a development plan that is acceptable to every region of Benue State.
He urged the younger generation to be more active in determining the future of the ethnic nationality and called the Idoma Centenary Plus Celebration as a chance for self-reflection and political rebirth.
Instead of internal strife and lost chances, he said that the next chapter of Idoma’s political history should be characterised by cooperation, strategy, and collective action.