Benue State Dominance at The Senate; An Indication Of The Political Myth of the State
The Nigerian Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of Nigeria, and together with the House of Representatives makes up the National Assembly. Every state of the federation has three senators representing them and one from the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, bringing the total number of serving senators presently to 109.
Benue State has always been conspicuous at the senate. It has produced two senate presidents in the past and presently, the senate president is from Benue State. What baffles everyone however is the fact that the present senate president is serving a second term as the president of the senate, the first of such development in the history of the country. In his first election as senate president, he contested with his own kith and kin, meaning both contestants were from Benue State. During his second election, he was elected unopposed.
As if that is not enough, the minority at the senate is also headed by a serving senator from Benue State. One would wonder how someone who joined the opposition just recently will now be heading the entire opposition at the appellate house. But that is what Benue State is known for, leadership. All
efforts to get him out of the position has proved abortive just like his brother who is the senate president, he remains unshakable.
The only thing the poor masses at home are looking forward to however is how the dominance of the state at the senate will translate to something developmental in the state. We are presently not comfortable with the low level of Federal Government influence in the state and we are looking forward to our eminent and qualitative senators to draw the attention of the Federal Government to the State. This, I believe can only be achieved if political differences is put behind and unity of purpose becomes the guiding rule.