The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has described Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom’s latest comments on President Muhammad Buhari’s administration as rantings of a failed governor, even as it challenged the governor to list his achievements since 2015.
According to the group, the latest attack is not unexpected, because the governor has a habit of launching unguarded verbal attacks on the President at the end of each month when he should be working on paying workers’ salaries and pensions.
In a statement signed Thursday in Abuja by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke, BMO said governor Ortom’s reaction to the President’s move to restore over 300 grazing reserves in 25 states was just a diversionary tactic.
“Governor Ortom should speak more on how he has improved on what he met in 2015, rather than his constant desire to hug the limelight with his anti-Buhari rhetorics.
“Governor Ortom has expectedly publicly come out to challenge the ongoing move by the Federal Government to revive grazing reserves by making unguarded comments against the President.
“We are however surprised that his latest tirade on national TV came within days of indicating his interest in challenging the government’s plan in court.
“So we have every reason to agree with many Nigerians who have said the Governor has a habit of using the media, at the end of each month, to attack President Buhari on his perceived Fulanisation agenda when he knows he won’t be paying civil servants their wages.
“Here is a Governor who ranks as the worst in performance among his peers, according to the Tiv Youth Council worldwide, yet he prefers to slander the President rather than provide good governance for the people of Benue State in the last six years.”
BMO added that Ortom’s position on President Buhari’s support for open grazing is at variance with the realities on ground.
“How could the Governor in one breath accuse the President of supporting ranching in Katsina State to the detriment of others, and in another breath claim that Buhari is bent on imposing open grazing across the country?
“Which is why we see his open attack of the move to retrieve grazing reserves from those who have taken them over as a reflection of his incoherence. It is clear that he responded without having a full grasp of the issues at stake, even after the Presidency had made President Buhari’s stance on open grazing public.
“We know that Governor Ortom has absolutely nothing to show for his six years in office so we urge him to pay more attention to doing something worthwhile for Benue people rather than his regular show of open hostility to a President that has continued to ignore his tirades.
“It would be a shame that after eight years in office, the only legacy he would be leaving will almost certainly be his anti-Buhari posturing, not projects, unlike some of his colleagues, even in the same shipwreck that is the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“We however need to remind the Benue State Governor of the promise he made several weeks ago that he would be inviting the President to commission a number of projects. Like many Nigerians, we hope it won’t be a case of ‘Waiting for Godot!’ because we are all keen on seeing what Ortom has been doing in the last six years.”
