By Tunde Olusunle

It may be well over two years to the next cycle of general elections in Nigeria. For the people of Apa/Agatu federal constituency in *Benue South, however, the measure of their participation and integration into the governance scheme will be defined in the run-up to the general polls that year. Nine local government areas make up the predominantly Idoma country of Benue State also labelled Zone C in the senatorial tripod of the geo-polity. The zone is also home to the Igede ethnic stock and the Etulo. Local government areas in “Benue Zone C” include: Apa, Agatu, Oju, Obi, Ado, Ogbadibo, Okpokwu, Otukpo and Ohimini. The other zones, Benue North East and Benue North West, are wholly dominated by the Tiv nationality, striding across 14 local government areas. They are christened Zone A and Zone B in the local political scheme of the state. Federal constituencies in Benue South are: Apa/Agatu, Oju/Obi; Ado/Ogbadibo/Opokwu and Otukpo/Ohimini.

The subjugation of groups and ethnicities considered demographically smaller, by the larger groups which has dominated Nigeria’s politics over time, has not been any different for the Idoma of Benue State. Until the circumstantial emergence of a Yahaya Bello from the Ebira ethnicity in Kogi State in 2015, the Igala had the relay baton of governorship of Kogi State, in rounds and succession. The Ebiras and the Okun-Yoruba zones in the state could only aspire to be serial deputies or Secretaries to the State Government. This political template was virtually cast in stone. The Ilorin people of Kwara State have similarly wholly warehoused the gubernatorial office, sparingly conceding the position to other sociocultural groups in the state. The only exception was the concession of the seat to a candidate from Kwara South, in the person of Abdulfatah Ahmed, by his predecessor, Bukola Saraki in 2011. Even at that, there were murmurs and dissent from those who believed Ahmed came from a community too close to the Ilorin emirate to be of genuine Igbomina stock, which prides itself as the pure Yoruba species in Kwara State.
Twenty-six years into the Fourth Republic, the maximum proximity of the Idoma to Government House, Makurdi, has been by the customary allocation of the Deputy Governor’s slot to its people. Ogirri Ajene from Oju/Obi, the charismatic blue-blood of blessed memory, was deputy to George Akume, incumbent Secretary to the Government of the Federation, (SGF), from 1999 to 2007. Akume it was reported, genuinely desired to be succeeded by Ajene who exhibited competence and loyalty and could build on their legacies. The Tiv nation we understand, shot down the proposal. Gabriel Suswam succeeded Akume and had the urbane multipreneur, Stephen Lawani from Ogbadibo as deputy. Samuel Ortom, a Minister in the Goodluck Jonathan presidency who took over from Suswam opted for Benson Abounu, an engineer from Otukpo as running mate, while Hyacinth Alia, the Catholic priest who succeeded Ortom, also chose as deputy, Samuel Ode, who was also a Minister in the Jonathan government, from Otukpo. Arising from this precedence, Apa/Agatu has not for once, been considered for a place in Government House, Makurdi.
In similar fashion, the position of Senator representing Benue South, has repeatedly precluded Apa/Agatu federal constituency. David Alechenu Bonaventure Mark a former army General from Otukpo, took the first shot at the office in 1999. He was to remain in the position for five consecutive times, a distinctive record by Nigerian standards. Mark would subsequently become President of the Senate and the third most senior political office holder in the nation’s governance scheme for a string of two terms between 2007 and 2015. He was replaced by Patrick Abba Moro, who hails from Okpokwu and was a former teacher, in 2019. Abba Moro who previously served as Minister of Interior in the Jonathan government from 2011 to 2015, won a second term at the 2023 general elections and remains substantive Senator for “Benue Zone C.” He is indeed incumbent Minority Leader of the Senate, and thus a principal officer in the leadership scheme of the “red chambers.”
While Moro is barely two years into his second term, there are suggestions that he is interested in a third term which should run from 2027 to 2031! This is the core issue which has dominated contemporary political discourse in Benue South, especially from the Apa/Agatu bloc. For Apa/Agatu, it is bad enough that they are repeatedly bypassed in the nomination of deputy governors in the scheme of state politics. It is worse that they are equally subjugated by their own kinsmen within the context of politics in *Idoma and Igede land.* This is particularly worrying when both local government areas constituting the Apa/Agatu federal constituency, Apa and Agatu, are not in anyway deficient in human resources to represent Benue South. Names like John Elaigwu Odogbo, the incumbent *Och’Idoma* and respected clergy; Isa Innocent Ekoja, renowned Professor and Librarian; Sonny Togo Echono, FNIA, OON, Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund, (TETFUND), and John Mgbede, Emeritus State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), Benue State, readily come to mind.
Major General R.I. Adoba, (rtd), a former Chief Training and Operations in the Nigerian Army; Professor Emmanuel Adanu, former Director of the Kaduna-based National Water Resources Institute, (NWRI) and the US-based specialist in internal medicine, Dr Raymond Audu, are eminent Apa/Agatu constituents. There are also Ada Egahi, long-serving technocrat who retired from the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, (NPHDA), and Super Eagles forward, Moses Simon, (why not, hasn’t the retired soccer star, George Opong Weah just completed his term as President of Liberia)? The Member Representing Apa/Agatu in the House of Representatives, Godday Samuel Odagboyi, an office previously held by Solomon Agidani, as well as Adamu Ochepo Entonu, is, like his predecessors, a prominent figure from the resourceful Apa/Agatu federal constituency.
The Olofu brothers, Tony Adejoh, a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police, (AIG), and David, PhD, a renowned management and financial strategist, who is also an Emeritus Member of the Benue State Executive Council during the Ortom dispensation, are from the same federal constituency. So is Abu Umoru, a serial entrepreneur who represents Apa State Constituency in the Benue State House of Assembly. The continuing intra-zonal alienation of Apa-Agatu from the politics of Benue Zone C, remains a sore thumb which must be clinically diagnosed and intentionally treated in the run-up to 2027.
If previous top level political office holders from Idomaland in general and Apa/Agatu in particular, had diligently applied themselves to tangible, multisectoral development of the zone and constituency, the present clamour for inclusiveness would probably been less vociferous. *River Agatu* which flows from Kogi State, and runs through Agatu before emptying into *River Benue,* is a potential game changer in the socioeconomy of Apa/Agatu, Benue South and Benue State in general. Properly harnessed, it can revolutionise agriculture and aquaculture in the state, beyond subsistence levels which are the primary vocations of the indigenous people. Rice, yam, guinea corn, millet and similar grains, thrive in the fertile soils of the area. These can support “first level” processing of produce and guarantee value addition beneficial to the primary producers, before being shipped to other markets. River Agatu can indeed be dammed to provide hydro-electricity to power the entire gamut of Idomaland.
The infrastructure deficit in Benue South with specific reference to Apa/Agatu is equally very concerning. A notable pattern in Nigerian politics is its self-centeredness, the penchant for political players to prioritise their personal wellbeing and the development of their immediate space. This has accentuated the ever recurring desire of people to ascend the political pedestals of their predecessors if that is the principal window by which they can also privilege their own primary constituents. Motorable roads are non-existent, seamless travel between communities therefore encumbered. Expectedly this has been a major impediment to subsistent trade and social engagements between constituents and their kinsmen. Primary health facilities are almost non-existent, compelling people to flock to Otukpo, headquarters of Benue South, for the minutest of medical advice and treatment.
Apa/Agatu pitiably bleeds from the relentless and condemnable activities of vagrants and bandits who have reduced the constituency into a killing field. Reports suggest that in the past 15 years, no less than 2500 lives were lost to the vicious attacks of marauders and trespassers in the area under reference. This unnerving situation has compelled engagements between concerned Apa/Agatu leaders, and the leadership of the Nigeria Police Force, (NPF). The prayer is for the swift establishment of a mobile police outpost in the troubled sub-zone to contain bloodletting. The proposal, anchored by AIG Tony Olofu, NPOM, (rtd), and Echono, has received the blessings of the police high command. At the last update, a commander for the outfit had been named, while the deployment of personnel had begun in earnest.
It is very clear that in the march towards 2027, Apa/Agatu will refuse, very vehemently, to be sidelined and trampled upon in the political scheme of their senatorial zone. Abba Moro may desire a third term in the Senate, but the people of Apa/Agatu are quick to remind him that his curriculum vitae as a politician is sufficiently sumptuous for him to yield the seat in the “red chambers” and sit back like an elder statesman. They remind you that for a man who began his working life modestly as a lecturer in the Federal Polytechnic, Ugbokolo in 1991, Abba Moro has done extremely well for himself in Nigerian politics. For reminders, Abba Moro was elected Chairman of Okpokwu local government in the state as far back as 1998. Ever since, he has remained a permanent fixture in Nigeria’s national politics.
The people of Apa/Agatu will put up a determined fight for the Benue South senatorial seat in 2027, and no one should begrudge them. They are the proverbial ram which was pushed to the wall, which must of necessity push back with angered horns to liberate itself. They are already engaging with their kith across “Benue Zone C” to ensure that intra-zonal equity, fairness and justice, prevails in communal politics.

Tunde Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), teaches Creative Writing at the University of Abuja

By Dr. Ag Zaki

On Thursday, 9 January 2025, Prince Adewole Adebayo presented a keynote address at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos. The occasion was the annual conference of a group of professionals, business executives and experts codenamed J9C for January 9 Collective. The theme of the Conference was “Business and Policy Strategy: Examining the Role of Reform in enhancing the ease of doing business in Nigeria.” Prince Adebayo is a versatile cerebral man of many parts, a lawyer, a multimedia practitioner, a real estate investor, a large-scale miner, a philanthropist, a community developer, and the 2023 Presidential Candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The organisers of the J9C conference introduced him as an intercontinental lawyer because he currently practices law in over sixteen countries.

The full speech of Prince Adebayo at the occasion is available online and can be accessed by clicking at this url: https://youtu.be/SsHkcJbVNRg?si=ebvoOVqGh0zVOsnt or by scanning the QR code above. However, we are presenting the salient take-aways from this most incisive keynote address below for the convenience of interested persons and for the public good.

THE TAKE-AWAYS
Preamble
1. Not every change of policy or programme is a reform. A reform is a fundamental change in the activities, programmes, and policies structured to cause improvement. Genuine government reforms are people oriented and so citizens can interject, comment or contribute.
2. Reform may be internally motivated, externally forced or imposed, or technological driven.
3. The government of Nigeria must first reform itself to be able to implement development-oriented reforms to improve the country’s economic performance.

In general terms
4. Fiscal and monetary reforms are critical and are urgently required in Nigeria. While government can freely control its fiscal reforms, it must be bound by market forces for realistic and realisable monetary reforms.
5. Economic reforms must positively affect developmental policies, programmes and projects to engender economic growth, increase in efficiency, and lead to stability. Economic and political reforms must be implemented pari-passu for untainted policies and programmes.
6. Urgent structural reforms are required in areas of legal reforms, laws on banking controls and regulations, lending and borrowing as well as land matters.

In specific terms
7. Reforms which are aimed at targeting ease of doing business must be aligned with the Malam Aminu Kano maxim that “all civil servants should abstain from contracts or business”.
8. Nigeria must break the current odious and unwholesome conspiracies between policy makers, civil servants, and contractors, which can lead to irreversible endemic corruption, long foreseen by the revered Malam Aminu Kano, and which can permanently damage the economy.
9. Structural reforms must ensure that land laws open up maximum benefits and potentials of the land, encourage labour productivity and efficient and transparent entrepreneurship rules including registration, capital and lending matters.
10. Tax reforms should be broad-based, not about sharing of revenue but promoting productivity and competitiveness in all aspects of endeavours and infrastructure reforms should make transportation of people and goods safe and cost effective.
11. Monitoring economic crimes must be thorough and should go beyond arresting of “Yahoo boys” and those spraying Naira notes, but those devaluing the Naira and abusing economic rules and regulations.

Warnings
12. Adebayo left some stern terse warnings for the business sector and for the government of Nigeria.
13. Business executives and professionals should not ask or encourage government for specific reforms but for general broad-based reforms as firm-specific reforms can enhance operations of specific firms or business in the short term but will ultimately kill the industry.
14. Government should not meddle into business or be guided by partisan businessmen; government should meet business only at the junction of regulatory framework.
15. Government should be selfless and honest in carrying out reforms, incorporate measurable performance indices and ensure that reforms are implemented in a way not to inflict pains or punishment on the people.

# DrZaki25, 903 Tafawa Balewa Way, Abuja

By Ehichioya Ezomon

The All Progressives Congress (APC) certainly has its work cut out, as the hearing proper begins today, January 13, 2025, into the petitions filed by seven political parties against the declaration of Senator Monday Okpebholo as winner of the governorship election in Edo State on September 21, 2024.
While six of the parties question the credibility of the poll, the focus is on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), whose candidate, Dr Asue Ighodalo, came second with 247,274 votes to Okpebholo’s score of 291,667 votes – giving a margin of lead of 44,393 votes.
The PDP claims that those figures were manipulated by the APC, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Police, to favour Okpebholo and disfavour Ighodalo, who the PDP says won the election in a landslide.
The PDP avers that – save cheating via disfranchisement of voters; suppression of votes; over-voting; vote-buying; and connivance of the APC, INEC and the Police to “gift” victory to Okpebholo – Ighodalo won the poll, and should be declared as Governor of Edo State.
Ighodalo also asserts on a Channels TV’s ‘Politics Today’ on September 12, 2024, that: “There was a collusion between the INEC and the police to suppress the will of the people of Edo State. People of Edo State purposely voted for us (PDP). We won the election clearly.
“But we have serious collusion by INEC and the APC working towards votes not counting… But this time around, we will go through the judicial process and the vote will count. We are quite clear that with the evidence we have, we will show clearly that we won the election. And the mandate of the people will be upheld.”
In the United States, the burden of proof most generally places obligation on a party to prove its allegations at trial. In a civil case, as per Wikipedia, “the plaintiff sets forth its allegations in a complaint, petition or other pleading. The defendant is then required to file a responsive pleading denying some or all of the allegations and setting forth any affirmative facts in defence. Each party has the burden of proof of its allegations.”
Similarly in civil cases in Nigeria, the burden of proof is generally cast on the party “who asserts the affirmation of a particular issue.” In other words, “the burden rests on the party, whether plaintiff or defendant, who substantially asserts the affirmative of an issue,” the Supreme Court ruled in Senator Smart Adeyemi (Appellant) and the APC, INEC and Ahmed Usman Ododo (Respondents).
As reported by Optimum Publishers Limited, Publishers of the Nigerian Monthly Law Report (NMLR) (An affiliate of Babalakin & Co.), Adeyemi, a defeated contestant in the April 14, 2023, APC primary in Kogi State, contended that failure to conduct the primary in substantial compliance with the law, the burden was on the APC to prove how Ododo won the primary.
But in the judgment by a five-member panel of Justices, delivered by Emmanuel Akomaye Agim (JSC) on Monday, October, 23, 2023, the Apex Court held that, “the party that has the primary legal burden to prove the existence or non-existence of any facts, is the one who desires a court to give judgment as to any legal right or liability dependent on the existence or non-existence of facts which he asserts.”
The Court held further that Section 133(1) of the Evidence Act specifically provides that whether the Appellant is making an affirmative assertion i.e., the existence of a fact or a negative assertion i.e., the non-existence of a fact, “the burden of first proving either of the two lies on the party against whom the whole judgment would be given if no evidence is led on either side.” (Egharevba v Osagie (2009) 18 NWLR (Pt. 1173) at 299)
The Court referred to its decision in Shitta-Bey v A-G Federation (1978) 7 SCNJ 264 Pg. 287, that apart from the presumption of regularity, “there is the presumption that where there is no evidence to the contrary, things are presumed to have been rightly and properly done.” 
“The Court also held that where allegations of crime are made in an election matter, the standard of proof is even high, as election matters are not exempt from the law that says that an allegation of crime in any proceedings must be proved beyond reasonable doubt.
“On the whole, the Court held that in the instant case, the Appellant (Adeyemi) made certain assertions regarding the conduct of the 1st Respondent’s (APC) primary election, and by the provisions of the law, he ought to adduce evidence to support these assertions. However, he claimed that since there was no primary election, he did not have any result to tender, when he could have tendered other affidavit evidence from his agents in the wards all over Kogi State to substantiate his claim. 
“The Court found that, on the other hand, the Respondents produced evidence which proved the fact that the primary election was indeed, conducted, with the 2nd Respondent (INEC) tendering before the trial court the primary election results and reports on the conduct of the primary election in the various local governments duly signed by its electoral officers.”
Also, in a piece, “Analysis of the Burden of Proof on Defendants in Criminal Cases: The Dust not Settled,” published on July 21, 2017, Jide Bodede, Managing Partner at Lawfields Solicitors & Advocates, cited Muhammad JSC, in Olonade v Sowemimo (2014) LPELR-22914(SC), 27, as explaining the meaning of the standard of proof in civil cases, the balance of probabilities, thus:
“My Lords, in a civil matter such as this, the court decides the case on the balance of probabilities or preponderance of evidence. The trial court does this by first deciding which evidence it accepts from each of the parties, putting the accepted evidence adduced by the plaintiff on one side of the imaginary scale and that of the defendant on the other side of the scale and weighing them together. 
“The court then decides which side’s evidence is heavier, not by the number of witnesses called by either party or on the basis of the one being oral and the other being documentary, but by the quality or probative value of the evidence be it oral and/or documentary.”
From the foregoing, it’s clear that the burden of proof in the Edo governorship petitions is no less imperative on APC/Okpebholo than it’s on PDP/Ighodalo; both sides are required to prove their counter-petitions. But while PDP/Ighodalo have the burden to “prove beyond reasonable doubt,” APC/Okpebholo have the evidential burden to prove “the probability of the defence or to create a reasonable doubt in the case of the prosecution.”
Thus, APC/Okpebholo should have the facts and evidence to counter PDP/Ighodalo’s claim that unlike the figures the INEC declared for the parties on September 22, they won the votes in each of the polling units, wards and councils in contention, and that their total votes are authentic, and a true reflection of the votes cast on September 21.
Meanwhile, in their defence, APC/Okpebholo, apparently picking the “low-hanging fruit” first, have urged the tribunal to dismiss the PDP/Ighodalo petition on grounds of “incompetence, and not filed in accordance with the extant law.” The APC counsel, Ferdinand Orbih (SAN), canvassed this position on December 18 at the close of pre-hearings into the petitions.
Orbih, as reported by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), while noting that further grounds for seeking the dismissal of the petition are contained in the motion paper dated November 30, and supported by a seven-paragraph affidavit, also prayed for expunging of some paragraphs of the petition, and urged the tribunal to rule on the motion before it commenced hearing into the petition, even as he asked the tribunal to hands-off the petition “for lack of jurisdiction.”
But Ken Mozia (SAN), a lead counsel for Ighodalo, who’d also moved four different motions, for the tribunal to expunge various paragraphs in the replies of INEC, APC and Okpebholo to PDP’s petition, urged the tribunal to discountenance the APC submission, as the PDP had filed a reply and counter-affidavit to challenge APC’s motion, which he sought its dismissal “for lack of merit.”
APC/Okpebholo’s cause may be helped by the INEC, which’s expected to defend its declaration of Okpebholo as Governor, and debunk the PDP/Ighodalo allegation that the APC and the Police pressured top officials of the commission to manipulate the collated figures in favour of Okpebholo.
Governor Okpebholo’s denied PDP/Ighodalo’s charge of rigging his way to the Osadebey Avenue Government House in Benin City, claiming the PDP’s caught up in the web of writing and announcing “fake results” sourced from an equally “fake IReV” portal, which mimicked the official IReV portal, and yet “crying that somebody rigged the election.” 
At a reception in his honour by the Esan people of Edo Central at Irrua, headquarters of Esan Central local government area on November 30, Okpebholo stated: “The people, who wrote results and were announcing fake results on the internet, are the same people crying today that somebody rigged the election. 
“It is sad to say that the criminals are crying today that they have lost, and will continue to lose. They are spending money day and night and wasting their money, and they will wait in vain. Edo people have spoken. They have chosen the path of development, peace, and unity. This is what Edo people have chosen, and that is how it will remain.”
Recall, also, the APC’s allegation that then-outgoing Governor Godwin Obaseki cut short his terminal leave overseas in October 2024, and returned with a “Sophisticated Infrared-Driven Technology, with preloaded results, to manipulate the INEC database.”
As posted by “Akpakomiza Media Strikers” – one of pro-Okpebholo political groups, “credible sources have raised concerns about the true intent behind Obaseki’s recent trip to Italy, shortly after the Edo State gubernatorial election.”
“Obaseki is said to have access to a specialised software capable of interfering with the INEC portal. It is claimed that this infrared-driven software has been pre-configured to alter the election data once Obaseki gains access to the relevant systems,” the group added.
What about APC’s claim on October 10 – during the political parties’ inspection of INEC’s materials used for the September 21 poll – that the commission conveyed the materials with Edo State government’s vehicles from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to the INEC office in Benin City, thus raising suspicion of possible tampering with the evidence by the PDP/Ighodalo team? 
The inspection of the poll materials was postponed from October 9 to 10, to 11 and then indefinitely due either to disruption by armed thugs, APC-PDP couldn’t agree to the modalities for the inspection, or the APC refused to proceed until its petition – regarding use of government’s vehicles to convey the BVAS machines and other materials – was attended to by the INEC, the Police and the Department of State Services (DSS).
Counsel to APC/Okpebholo, Victor Ohionsumua, told journalists on October 10 that the Edo APC chairman, Emperor Jarrett Tenebe, had observed that the electoral materials were brought into the INEC complex in Edo government’s vehicles, and “on that basis, we raised an objection that the party would only return for the inspection once the petition was addressed.”
“The INEC legal officer wanted to move forward with the inspection without directives from the REC (Resident Electoral Commissioner). We insisted on hearing from the REC, and that our petition must be addressed before proceeding. During this, the situation became chaotic, and we began hearing gunshots outside the complex. The INEC Director of Operations then decided to adjourn the inspection indefinitely, citing security concerns.”
Why would the INEC convey very sensitive electoral materials – billed for inspection by avowed rival parties – with vehicles of the state government that’s led by the PDP and Governor Obaseki, who’d “anointed” Ighodalo to succeed him in November 2024? 
If true to their conviction, APC/Okpebholo can connect the “figures” bandy by PDP/Ighodalo to the alleged “pre-configured infrared-driven software capable of interfering with election data,” and the probable altering of the BVAS machines and other voting materials reportedly conveyed in Edo government’s vehicles to the INEC office in Benin City.
Nonetheless, APC/Okpebholo should worry that PDP/Ighodalo’s allegations could alter the status quo, in light of Ighodalo’s claim that, “we are quite clear that with the evidence we have, we will show clearly that we won the election, and the mandate of the people will be upheld.”
APC/Okpebholo need to rebutt the PDP/Ighodalo allegations, seriatim. Did they manipulate the process to disenfranchise voters, suppress votes, over-vote and buy votes? And did they connivance with the INEC and the Police to reduce Ighodalo’s votes and inflate Okpebholo’s scores?
Surely, the three-man tribunal of Justices Wilfred Kpochi A.B. Yusuf and A.A. Adewole will, from today, January 13, have their hands full in PDP/Ighodalo’s avowal to “retrieve our stolen mandate,” which APC/Okpebholo dismiss they didn’t have in the first place! 
The panel, chaired by Justice Kpochi, has barely four months remaining of the six months (180 days) mandated by the electoral law to consider the petitions and return a verdict that should reflect the will of Edo people, as exercised through the ballot on September 21, 2024. Let the legal fireworks begin!

Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria. Can be reached on X, Threads, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp @EhichioyaEzomon. Tel: 08033078357