NTA OTUKPO: ALAS! WEVE BEEN VINDICATED About two days ago, we criticized and threatened on this medium to drag the FGN to court over the deliberate deprivation of the citizens of Benue South Senatorial District the access to state-own media (NTA). Suddenly, according to my source, this morning news hinted of an expeditious response by government. See the detail of our chat below: Source: I saw it dis morning on d news d federal Govt has yield 2 ur demand by bringing back NTA Otukpo & Gboko un b/4 December 2014 Onjeh: Great! Pls send me the link Source: It was through NTA net work news @7am dis morning, according 2 them when d community stations are completed, Mark will commission dat of otukpo & Susuwan will do dat of Gboko-. Yet when I raised the issue before the Facebook community, I was greeted with derision; in fact some young Idomas even attempted to reduce my agitation on this important subject to partisan interests. One of my critics assured readers that Otukpo NTA was functioning and practically warned me and other patriotic commentators on the post to desist from presenting misleading information. My heart bleeds for the average Idoma youth! We shouldnt come to grandstand on the social media, bragging about our country homes being what they arent! Ive been through the nooks and crannies of Benue South, and I can authoritatively state that we are among the most oppressed and underdeveloped communities in Nigeria! I dare any son or daughter of Idoma to inbox me his or her home address and I shall in no time produce a devastating and sympathetic video/picture of the individuals community. When the proponents of APA State, as a political gambit, realized that it had fallen flat, they resorted to another OGRINYA (a cherished Idoma traditional dance) song, and the youths who are supposedly the conscience gauge of the society, are heads-over-heels dancing to the new tune! The Idoma oppressors are currently mooting that a new entrant to the Senate will be a setback to the Idoma nation, meaning that the entire sociopolitical and economic destiny of the people of Benue South rests solely on an individual and without him, we cannot exist as a people! Ridiculous! Isnt it? Is the Senate seat a birthright? Or is ours an oligarchic system? A man who has had his fair share of political appointments and positions, from the time when most of us were below the voting age till date, and watched complicity over the stagnation of our land, is aspiring to return to the Senate for the 5th time (20 solid years)!. still, the youth whose future is on the balance sees nothing wrong with this inordinate ambition. They are either indifferent or supportive of the status quo. When do we assume our leadership role to develop our people, at 90? Are we merely certificate-oriented? I thought the essence of acquiring knowledge is to impact on our immediate environment and by extrapolation, the world? Aside the primary task of legislation, the Senate seat is a rallying point for the development of a people. Our Senator should have long established an entity that will harness our capital & human resources to address the myriad of socioeconomic challenges facing the Benue South people. Permit me to reproduce my Independence Anniversary message here: Happy Independence Anniversary! But unfortunately, the vast majority of my people of the Benue South Senatorial District (IDOMAS ) are not able to watch the Presidential live Broadcast or be on same page with other citizens on a special day like this, because, they have been denied access to State-own media (NTA) , since independence. Only a handful of people who can afford cable satellite networks receive signals that are limited to national TVs. We cant watch our own state media (NTA Makurdi). We take solace in, albeit by default, tuning easily to follow the socio-cultural, political and economic trends of neighbouring states on their state televisions like NTA Enugu. Oct 1st is a yearly mirror of our journey so far as a nation, since 1960. Thus, lets commemorate today with deep and sober reflection. We dey grow, but still backward!-Idris Abdulkareem . Its imperative we localize our issues first, then integrate the sum to national concern for a better appreciation of where we are coming from, the point we are today, and where we are heading to as a people.
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 17:20:58 +0000