Raiding the dead, to procure a mandate for the living, is not new. Peter Obi, then sitting Anambra governor; and his then protégée, Willy Obiano, traversed that track in Anambra 2013.
So if Benue Governor, Samuel Ortom, appears to play devastating politics with the dead, for the deadly benefits of the living, he is hardly novel.
But the question is: when would the Benue living wake up to the dire risk of this deadly political necromancy?
In 2013, a certain Chris Ngige needed to be defeated, by all means necessary. So Obi, with Obiano in tow, made electioneering sorties to the grave of Dim Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, to seek the blessing of the dead, for their living candidate.
Indeed, those Jew-versus-Gentile missions were never complete without Victor Umeh, then national chairman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), but now a senator of the Federal Republic from Anambra Central. Until he died, Ojukwu was regarded as the spiritual leader of APGA.
So, APGA’s Obiano was the Jew. All Progressives Congress, APC’s Ngige was the Gentile. It was all decided at the holy grave. Political necromancy never yielded sweeter fruits, as Mr. Obiano romped into office!
But all, it appears, is turned gall now — at least in the Peter Obi camp. Perhaps believing, after nudging his ward to victory that the dead stay dumb, Mr. Obi found new fortunes with the then federal ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Four years later, Obi came hoisting a different banner. But the old necromantic army lay in wait. Before you could holler “Peter!”, the former governor, as a political force, was unhorsed.
Was that the dead dishing out political death for political harlotry? Or the miffed living, railing at unprincipled politicking? Who knows?
For Obi, however, it was macabre electoral symbolism gone frightfully awry, with a dire prognosis of looming political death.
Yet, in comparison to Benue, Anambra’s was innocuous, if opportunistic, symbolism.
The current Benue version is far more deadly, for it is devastating politics, tugging at the soul of the dead (who should rest in peace); to bait the living (whose lives are useless without peace).
Benue has been home to unfortunate killings, traced to the high-wire tension between herders and farmers. A party to the dispute has alleged it’s ethnic cleansing, for which it fingers the “Fulani”; and accuses the federal authorities of grave collusion, because the sitting president is Fulani. Maybe.
But another school of thought thinks it is nothing but brutal economic survival, manifesting as personal and collective tragedies, which pathos cut deep; assuming ethnic hues, among the common victims.
Whatever it is — and the tragedy and blood-shedding is to be regretted by all — currying explosive sympathy, by subversive external elements, playing nothing but soulless politics, won’t solve the problem.
Parties in the dispute, with their professional sympathizers — genuine or subversive, laying wreaths all over the place — should learn from the Rwandan experience (see the accompanying story by retired Col. Azubike Nass), where orchestrated Tutsi-Hutu hate baited nothing but avoidable catastrophe.
Still, after all the emotional madness, the same Hutu and Tutsi have settled down in their country, probably more than ever, appreciating the worth of peace.
Let the Benue and federal authorities learn from the Rwandan experience — which Genesis, incidentally, is another herder-farmer confrontation — to bring back the peace, so the Benue people get their lives back.
That is the sane way to go. Political necromancy does nothing but plants the seeds of more hideous future tragedies!
The dead are dead. It is the living that feel the pains.