Fr. Hyacinth Alia, the Governor of Benue State, deserves our pity. The sin of contumacy which drove him out of priesthood is still haunting him. That is why his earlier combative disposition towards Peter Obi could not pass as a mere instance of peevishness by an over-indulged apostle of questionable syncretism. It has actually become a pattern; a persistent attitude bordering on ill temper.
Governor Alia first fell into this error in April 2025. Obi was then to visit some internally displaced persons camps in Benue state to share in their grief and assist them in whatever way he could. But Alia, the governor, stopped him from embarking on the philanthropic exercise. He warned Obi not to enter Benue as his security could not be guaranteed. Decent minds were taken aback by the governor’s irreverence. Even confirmed thugs who have, somehow, found themselves in positions of authority have not been known to act that way. But Alia, though a fallen Catholic priest, was still expected to have some grains of ecclesial life in him. But the world has, strangely, not been able to find any in him. He appears to have been thrown irredeemably into the devil’s excretal.
But why is Governor Alia bellyaching over Peter Obi? Simple: he is frightened by Obi’s philanthropy. His masters in Abuja have weighed in on Obi’s uncommon donations and are ill at ease with them. That was why Alia, in the bid to justify his assault on Obi’s kind-heartedness, described the gestures as political charity. Since that shameless display from Alia, Benue has continued its steady plunge into wanton waste of life and property. Governor Alia has no clue on how to save his people from the onslaught of Fulani invaders. Rather than look inwards with a view to finding a lasting solution to the killings in his domain, he has chosen, rather shamefacedly, to vent his spleen on Peter Obi.
Governor Alia’s hostility to Peter Obi has since complicated matters for the governor. The killings in the state he presides over as the chief security officer are not abating. The state is still stewing in blood bath. Between June 13 and 14, 2025, Yelwata, a farming community in Guma Local Government Area of Benue state, was reduced to Golgotha in a midnight attack by murderous herdsmen. At the end of the concert of blood, over 271 indigenes of Yelwata lay dead. Some of those massacred included internally displaced persons being sheltered at a local Catholic mission. About 3000 to 4000 residents were forced to flee their homes, thereby worsening the humanitarian crisis in the state. The people have been mourning since then. Alia’s government has not been able to deal with the situation.
But Peter Obi, out of compassion, set out to visit the community to commiserate with the people and make donations that could ameliorate the harsh condition that they are facing. Rather than welcome this public-spirited Nigerian, Alia unleashed thugs on him. He detailed them to block Obi from visiting the community. He does not want whatever assistance that Obi has to offer to reach the distraught people of the community.
There has been an outrage in the land since Alia exposed his rotten underbelly in the manner he has done. Strangely, however, the governor has not taken time out to address his grievous error. Instead, he sent one aide of his to interject. That person, whatever his name is, complicated matters for the governor with his uncouth display. He had no explanation for the embarrassment the governor has brought to the state. All he could say was that Peter Obi was looking for their trouble. This is not the language of governance. It belongs to the gutters. I am amazed that Governor Alia is sitting quietly somewhere pretending as if nothing took place in his state. For how long will he pretend?
Alia seems to forget that Peter Obi is the most consequential politician in the country today. He is not someone you can treat with levity and go to sleep.
Let us recall that it was this Alia script that Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State tried to act out in July last year. Like Alia, Okpebholo was angry that Obi is helping the people. The two governors are not happy that Obi is donating to schools, hospitals and worship centres. A man is spending his money in a noble manner and some people are not happy. That is strange, indeed. But the big regret is that they could not mask their disdain for Peter Obi. They are demonstrating it through crudity and incivility. They do not seem to know that actions that assault other people’s sensibilities do not belong to the world of decency. They are the trademark of street urchins. This is what Alia has chosen to be after falling from state of grace to moral turpitude.
But the governor should apply the breaks. He does not need to descend wholly into the cesspool of shamelessness. It is only an imbecilic prole that will not rely on his initiative even for a second. Alia should take a little time out to think. Right now, he is behaving like someone being propelled by the Orwellian mind machine. In that state, you are a slave to an indoctrinated ideology. You have no mind of your own. It is a state where you do not think. You only feel. Is Alia’s case that hopeless? I suspect so. He is just a hireling who must play the robot to justify his hire. Otherwise, why is he insensitive to his own actions? Who is he working for- the people of Benue state who elected him into office or the anointed hypocrites of our time who have vowed to stop at nothing in their manipulation of the system? Governor Alia has his choice to make. But he should try to recognize the fact that the people of Benue State are not with him in this dance of disrepute. They are embarrassed by his indiscretions. They never imagined that the governor they elected into office will make them and their state an object of ridicule.
When Alia wakes up from his long night of drudgery, he will recognize that by stopping Obi from entering Yelwata, he has abridged Obi’s right as a free citizen of Nigeria. He has, through his actions, given democracy a frontal slap. How can we live together as a people when we order certain individuals to stay away from our territory simply because we do not like their faces? Such a line of action is not just patently divisive, it is highly provocative. Obi cannot be hunted like a game just because he aspires to lead the people of Nigeria. He is not the only Nigerian aspiring to lead the country. So, why is he being singled out for vilification? Alia should be hiding his head in shame for his unprovoked assault on a free citizen of this country. That irreverence must stop before it graduates into a flame that will consume those behind it. But my consolation in all this is that Obi has a steely disposition. He will not be distracted by minions like Fr. Hyacinth who have chosen to dance naked in the market square.
QUOTE:
“Alia should take a little time out to think. Right now, he is behaving like someone being propelled by the Orwellian mind machine. In that state, you are a slave to an indoctrinated ideology. You have no mind of your own”.
