The Clock Is Set: Congratulations, Governor Alia -By Leonard Karshima Shilgba

In much saner democratic societies, there should never have been any serious question about who the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State would be after the party’s INEC-monitored Direct Primaries held a few months ago to select candidates for the 2027 general elections.

The democratic principle is rather straightforward: where a political party has chosen, in accordance with its constitution and the applicable electoral framework, to allow its members to determine their candidates through Direct Primaries, the outcome ought to be respected. Winners should be celebrated, losers should accept the verdict, and the party should move forward in unity to face the general electorate.

Governor Hyacinth Alia made his position clear from the outset. He consistently advocated the constitutional route of allowing party members to make their choice through Direct Primaries. He did not merely prefer the process because it was politically convenient; he argued that it was the right thing, the fair thing, and consistent with the position of the national leadership of the APC.

That should have settled the matter.

Unfortunately, what followed exposed an uncomfortable contradiction in the vaunted democratic credentials of some political actors within the party. Instead of allowing the outcome of the primaries to stand as the legitimate expression of party members, needless tensions were stoked. Rumours circulated. Propaganda flourished. Divisions were encouraged. And, most remarkably, arguments were advanced that persons who either lost the primaries—or did not participate in them at all—could somehow replace those who had legitimately emerged victorious.

Such propositions were not merely ludicrous. They revealed an unfortunate mixture of political immaturity, ignorance, and gullibility. Democracy cannot mean one thing when we win and another when we lose. A democratic process cannot be celebrated as legitimate only when it produces the preferred outcome of a particular faction.

The ultimate lesson is therefore important: a primary election is not a rehearsal for another selection. Where due process has been followed and a candidate has emerged, the democratic obligation is to respect the verdict.

Governor Alia, having emerged victorious in the Benue APC gubernatorial primaries, has now been formally and unequivocally entrusted with the mantle to represent the party in the 2027 gubernatorial election. His emergence is complete. His candidacy is settled. The clock is set.

For this, he deserves congratulations.

But perhaps even more deserving of commendation is the manner in which he weathered the storm. He remained unfazed in the face of innuendos, rumours, conspiracies, distractions, and, regrettably, betrayals. He kept his eyes on the larger assignment rather than allowing the turbulence of internal politics to consume the purpose for which he was elected.

And that larger assignment is Benue.

The next stage, therefore, is not principally about convincing ordinary Benue citizens that Governor Alia deserves a second term. It is about continuing to deliver the outcomes of development with which his administration has chosen to define itself—not as a campaign gimmick, but as a desideratum of governance.

Politics may produce promises. Governance must produce results.

Benue has suffered for too long from the consequences of deferred development, deteriorating infrastructure, weakened public institutions, and diminished human capacity. The task before any serious administration is therefore not cosmetic. It is to rehabilitate what is broken, renovate what can be renewed, construct what is missing, restore confidence in public services and invest in the people whose ingenuity and resilience constitute the greatest resource of the State.

Governor Alia’s administration has embarked on this process of rehabilitation, renovation, and renewal. Roads and public infrastructure are receiving attention. Public institutions are being repositioned. The quality of public services is being restored. Human capacity development is receiving renewed emphasis.

These are matters that ought to be debated on their merits, not denied merely because politics demands an opposing narrative.

Indeed, there is a useful test by which the 2027 gubernatorial contest should be judged.

The people of Benue are unlikely to be impressed merely by candidates standing before microphones to tell them what they will do. After decades of promises, the electorate has every right to ask a more searching question:

What did you do when you had the opportunity to serve?

What did you do when you occupied public office? What did you do when Benue was hurting? What did you do when citizens experienced pain, oppression, deprivation or neglect? What did you do with the resources and authority entrusted to you? And, most importantly, what precisely will you do differently from the incumbent—and how will that difference materially improve the lives of ordinary Benue people?

These questions will matter.

Those seeking to challenge Governor Alia, or those sponsoring alternative candidates directly or surreptitiously, must expect their own records of public service to be placed beside the incumbent’s record. That is not persecution. It is democracy.

Public service records must be publicly compared.

No candidate should be permitted to escape the scrutiny of history simply by manufacturing a new political identity for the 2027 election. The people have memories. They remember moments of pain. They remember moments of courage. They remember who stood with them and who stood elsewhere. They remember who spoke when speaking was difficult, who acted when action was costly, and who remained silent when silence was politically convenient.

This is why the coming election should become more than a contest of personalities, slogans, and propaganda. It should be a referendum on the direction in which Benue wishes to travel.

Do we press forward with the current momentum of development, however imperfectly, demanding that it be accelerated, deepened, and made more inclusive?

Or do we return to the familiar politics of consumption, patronage, and propaganda—the politics in which political power becomes an end in itself rather than an instrument of service?

I believe the answer is increasingly evident.

From my interactions with Benue people across different walks of life, I sense that something has changed. The people have begun to taste a different kind of politics. They have seen the possibility that government can actually pursue development as a responsibility rather than as an occasional campaign spectacle. They have begun to appreciate momentum.

And once people have tasted something new, it becomes increasingly difficult to persuade them to return willingly to the old.

The charmers of yesterday may therefore discover that their charms no longer work as they once did.

This is not to suggest that Governor Alia should become complacent. Far from it. A second-term mandate must be earned every day. The administration must remain focused, transparent, responsive and relentlessly committed to delivering measurable improvements in the lives of Benue citizens. The unfinished work must be completed. The weak spots must be confronted. The successes must not become excuses for complacency.

But it is equally important that political disagreements do not obscure the larger historical picture.

Benue is at a crossroads—not merely between candidates, but between competing visions of what political power should mean. One vision regards government primarily as an opportunity for political consumption. The other regards government as a solemn trust, a platform for rebuilding institutions, expanding opportunities, and improving the material conditions of the people.

The 2027 election will provide Benue voters with the opportunity to choose.

For now, however, one thing is settled.

Governor Hyacinth Alia has emerged through the party’s democratic process and has received the undisputed mantle to carry the APC flag into the gubernatorial contest. Those who believe in democracy must accept democratic outcomes even when those outcomes are inconvenient. Those who believe in the APC must now put the distractions behind them and unite around the candidate legitimately produced by their own process.

And Governor Alia himself must continue to do what ultimately matters most: govern.

Let the roads speak. Let the schools speak. Let the hospitals speak. Let the civil service speak. Let the young people whose capacities are being developed speak. Let the communities receiving renewed public investment speak. Let the totality of the administration’s record stand before the people.

Then let the people decide.

Congratulations, Governor Hyacinth Alia.

The contest has entered a new phase. The distractions belong to yesterday; the work belongs to today; and the verdict belongs to the people.

The clock is set, and no one can manipulate the times.

Leonard Karshima Shilgba, PhD (Yokohama)

Professor of Mathematics and Vice Chancellor,

University of Agriculture, Science and Technology (UAST), Ihugh, Benue State, Nigeria

Postal Code: 982112

TEL: +234 (0) 9074346000

Email: shilgba@uast.edu.ng

Website: www.uast.edu.ng

Author Website: www.leonardshilgba.com

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Pioneering Professor & Acting Vice Chancellor/President, Admiralty University of Nigeria (ADUN)

Pioneering Vice President for Academic Affairs, ADUN

Former Director of Academic Planning and Quality Assurance, ADUN

Former First-Elected Dean, Faculty of Science (ADUN)

Chairman, 9th Governing Board, National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB)