– Lanshima, PRP governorship candidate
The governorship candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party in Benue State, Dr. Frederick Lanshima, says godfatherism is the major reason the state has been stagnant. He also speaks on other pressing issues, in this interview with HENRY IYORKASE. Excerpts.
What prompted you into the governorship race despite your background as a pastor?
Well, there is a difference between somebody running for an office and answering a clarion call. In my own case, the people have called me to come and lead them, having found me worthy as it were. And having prayed, thought and consulted widely, I have decided to answer the people’s clarion call, unlike other aspirants who are running out of their personal ambition. I am not running but rather responding to a people’s clarion call to come and lead them, having seen the capacity in me.
What do you hope to achieve if elected?
I have watched development indices in the state over time, dating back to the military and civilian administrations, through Aper Aku, Adasu, Akume, Suswam and now, His Excellency, Governor Ortom, and I have come to the realisation that development in the state is not commensurate with available resources. I have spent almost my entire life here in the state, over 50 years of existence. In fact, 80 per cent of my life is spent here in the state. I remember between 1982 and 1983, when Governor Aper Aku used to organise rallies here in Makurdi and Gboko, most of the things he did in the state as Governor, with the little available resources that accrued to the state as it were, were unprecedented, and since then, no meaningful achievement has taken place in terms of infrastructure. Remember, it was during his time he set up places like Benue Cement, Taraku Mills, Otukpo Burnt Bricks and Benue Brewery because the resources were available, I mean raw materials. There was guinea corn in abundance. Again, he was able to spread his tentacles to the other side of the state at Ayingba, which is now in Kogi State. There was plain plantation. But when Kogi was excised out of Benue, they sited a university on that land because the land was conceded to them. I happen to know because I had lived there.
So, I know big states like Lagos, Rivers, Cross River and Bayelsa have developed and what has happened to those with little Internally Generated Revenue. The state has both natural and human resources in abundance but has remained stagnated due to lack of quality leadership.
In terms of human resources, the state parades an array of best brains, technocrats, who are making great exploits within, outside the state and even beyond the shores of this country. If you go to the Benue State University, the University of Agriculture Makurdi, University of Mkar, National Open University of Nigeria, and other tertiary institutions in the state, you will be surprised to find a pool of human resources. Yet, what has happened? The political will to harness and put these resources together to develop the state is not there and that is what I have to put on the table – the political will to develop the state.
I agree with you, with the composition of my project where the bulk of the people are people with genuine concerns without money, it is being looked at as a mere joke, but it is not a joke. The people are ever serious and more determined, due to what they have seen in me
You appear to be a lone ranger without a godfather and no moneybag politician behind you. Instead, your campaign appears more like a movement. How do you hope to realise your intention?
I do not have a godfather but I have God, the father. There is an adage in English, which says, “He who is with God is the majority” and so my project is purely anchored on divine direction without godfatherism.
Remember, I told you, right from the outset, that my desire to come into the contest was borne out of a clarion call by the people to lead them, and so, like you rightly observed, it’s like more of a movement and the people have taken upon themselves, the responsibility of mobilising support, assembling logistics and all what have you.
Since the project started, I have not used my dime to print posters, bill boards and other logistics, but the people have been doing that willingly all through. They will mobilise resources on their own to keep the project moving. Let me tell you, I strongly believe that the major reason the state has remained stagnated is because of this issue of godfatherism, where the godfathers hardly allow leaders to work when finally voted into office. Yes, I agree with you, with the composition of my project where the bulk of the people are people with genuine concerns without money, it is being looked at as a mere joke but it is not a joke. The people are ever serious and more determined due to what they have seen in me.
Remember, at some point in the history of this state, money didn’t work, the people were bent on expressing their genuine concerns and that eventually happened. The forces became overwhelming and so, even with the moneybag politicians around, it still didn’t work and I see that repeating itself this time around
too.
Most of my supporters are people that I don’t even know, but they have stood firm in their support to this cause. I had cause to ask one of them, sometime, his reason for supporting me, and he said he did not know me and that was the more reason he was supporting me, because, perhaps, I might have something different to offer, unlike those other two that he knew. So, the whole thing depends largely on forces from the masses that power actually belong to. I am confident that since God, the father, is behind my project, I am sure of my victory at the end of the day, because God will manifest himself through the people by a force that will be uncontrollable.
The state has come under severe security challenges, which led to the promulgation of the anti-open grazing law. Is there any way you hope to address this issue differently from the law?
I am in support of the law prohibiting open grazing and if I am given the opportunity, I would rather look for a way of strengthening the loose end of that law. It is only someone who is not here in the state that can have a different view about the open grazing law, given the enormity of the security concern that the state has suffered over time.
I am sure you must have heard of MAFO, Movement Against Fulani Occupation, I was one of the strong advocates of that law through the formation of this group and other bodies. I remember, before that law came into effect, I played vital roles at its preliminary stage that led to what we today have as Anti-Open Grazing law of the state. Again, don’t forget it is the Benue people’s law and not the governor’s law. It is the people of Benue, who clamoured for that law since the issue of farmers/herders crises in the state had defiled all solutions, dating back to 2014, 2015, 2016, and the mother of it all, the one in 2018, when hundreds of people were killed across the length and breadth of the state with great devastation in Agatu, Gwer West, Makurdi, Guma and Logo Local Government Areas. So, having watched the devastation that the state has suffered from these armed herdsmen, I am in total support of the law and I don’t think any sane citizen of the state will be against it.
His Excellency Governor Samuel Ortom has rather acted in accordance to the whims and caprices of people of the state by assenting to that law, and so, as far as I am concerned, the law has come to stay and there is no going back on that.
