Opinion
Beyond the Congress: What the Alia–Akume Struggle Means for Benue -By Leonard Karshima Shilgba
If compromise becomes impossible, polarization will intensify. If dialogue prevails, the party may yet emerge stronger. This truth finds scriptural validation in this counsel by Jesus Christ: “When you are on the way to court with your adversary, settle your differences quickly. Otherwise, your accuser may hand you over to the judge, who will hand you over to an officer, and you will be thrown into prison. And if that happens, you surely won’t be free again until you have paid the last penny.”
The unfolding contest within the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State between the camps of Hyacinth Alia and George Akume is being framed as a dispute over ward, local government, and state party congresses. But that description understates the gravity of what is happening.
This is not merely a quarrel over party offices.
It is a struggle over political architecture, institutional control, and the direction of Benue’s democratic future.
A Battle of Power Centers
At its core, the present confrontation represents a tension between two forms of political authority.
On one side is the Governor, whose legitimacy rests on electoral mandate and the power of incumbency within the state. On the other side stands the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, a seasoned political actor with longstanding influence over party structures and federal networks.
In Nigeria’s political system, control of party structures — from the ward to the state executive — is not a ceremonial matter. It determines delegate composition. Delegate composition determines primaries. Primaries determine who appears on the ballot. Whoever controls the structure today shapes the ballot tomorrow.
Thus, the struggle is not about the upcoming Benue APC’s congress alone. It is about who will shape 2027.
When both camps claim possession of electoral materials ahead of the exercise, it signals more than administrative confusion. It signals deep mistrust. And in Nigerian party history, such mistrust often produces parallel congresses, litigation, and intervention from national leadership.
The danger is clear: when internal party processes become battlegrounds, cohesion weakens, and fractures widen.
The Cost to Governance
Yet beyond strategy lies a deeper concern — governance.
Benue State is not short of urgent priorities. Security challenges remain persistent. Economic hardship weighs heavily on citizens. Infrastructure gaps, youth unemployment, agricultural modernization, and institutional reform all demand sustained focus.
When political elites divert energy toward structural supremacy, governance inevitably suffers.
Democracy is weakened when party structures are treated as instruments of factional dominance rather than platforms for service delivery and policy development. Internal democracy becomes hollow when congresses are reduced to power calculations rather than genuine representation.
If this struggle becomes a zero-sum contest, the ultimate loser will not be either camp. It will be the people.
Institutional Strength or Personal Capture?
The deeper question confronting Benue APC — and indeed Nigerian politics more broadly — is this:
Will internal competition strengthen institutions, or merely replace one center of dominance with another?
Political structures should not be private estates. They are meant to be collective mechanisms through which citizens’ aspirations are aggregated and translated into governance.
Where personalization replaces institutionalization, instability follows irrespective of substitution of one godfather with another.
History shows that parties fractured by unresolved structural disputes often enter general elections weakened. Aggrieved actors explore alternative platforms. Litigation drags on. Public confidence erodes. Opposition forces capitalize.
Benue must not become another example of this cycle.
A Call for Statesmanship
This moment calls for restraint, negotiation, and genuine commitment to internal democracy. Power struggles are not unusual in politics. But how leaders manage them distinguishes statesmanship from mere ambition.
If compromise becomes impossible, polarization will intensify. If dialogue prevails, the party may yet emerge stronger. This truth finds scriptural validation in this counsel by Jesus Christ: “When you are on the way to court with your adversary, settle your differences quickly. Otherwise, your accuser may hand you over to the judge, who will hand you over to an officer, and you will be thrown into prison. And if that happens, you surely won’t be free again until you have paid the last penny.”
But above all, leaders must remember: structures exist to serve people, not factions.
The real contest before Benue is not who installs ward executives, local government executives, or State executives. It is whether political competition can coexist with institutional maturity — and whether governance will remain the central focus amid ambition.
The future of Benue deserves nothing less.
The present confrontation represents a strategic collision between two distinct centers of influence.
Governor Alia, as incumbent, carries the weight of voter mandate and access to state-level political networks.
Senator Akume, now Secretary to the Government of the Federation, represents institutional memory, federal leverage, and longstanding influence over party organization.
In 2022, control of the party structure shaped the ballot. Today’s contest is about preventing history from repeating itself in a way that disadvantages either camp.
When both sides claim possession of electoral materials ahead of the congress, it signals that trust has collapsed.
Three strategic scenarios are plausible:
1. Negotiated Compromise
The national leadership may broker a sharing arrangement to prevent fragmentation. This is the most stabilizing outcome but requires mutual concession.
2. Consolidation by One Camp
If either side successfully installs loyal structures from ward to state level, it will gain decisive leverage ahead of 2027. The losing camp may then recalibrate, resist internally, or seek alternative political platforms.
3. Prolonged Internal Fracture
Parallel congresses, court injunctions, and factional claims of legitimacy could weaken the party’s cohesion in Benue, creating openings for opposition forces, and even weakening President Tinubu’s chances in Benue.
This contest illustrates a recurring feature of Nigerian politics: the tension between incumbency power and structural control.
Governors seek autonomy from political godfathers. Established party figures seek to maintain influence over succession and ticket allocation. When these ambitions intersect without negotiated boundaries, confrontation becomes inevitable.
The current struggle within Benue APC is therefore less about personalities and more about strategic survival.
It is a battle over who defines the next political cycle and even the one after that (2031).
And as history shows, in Nigerian politics, whoever controls the structure today shapes the ballot tomorrow. It remains to be seen if SGF Akume and Governor Alia are both politically mature enough to “agree on the way”, or they require a “judge” between them, which will cast them in the public space as immature and Benue State as weak politically. If I may ask, who from the outside resolves political differences (and they exist) in Lagos State? Rivers State politics shouldn’t be Benue’s example.
