I AM BENUE & BENUE IS ME: Reclaiming Responsible Citizenship in the Age of Social Media
Sunday, 27th September 2027
Today, an interdenominational church service held at the Faith Hill Prophetic Assembly, Demekpe, to mark Nigeria’s 66th Independence Anniversary. In his sermon, drawn from Proverbs 18:24, the Reverend Akpen Leva returned the congregation to a truth that sits at the very heart of the IAM Benue and Benue is Me Orientation Campaign I have been championing since assuming office as Commissioner for Information and ORIENTATION: that the words we choose, and the tongues that carry them, have the power to build or to destroy, the power of life and death.
It is a message our state needs to hear again and again. Too often, in the name of opposition, we run down our state and our nation, only to turn around and expect that same state to deliver the best for us and our families. Scripture teaches plainly that the power of life and death lies in the tongue. When we carelessly make damaging statements about our state, we are sowing seeds whose harvest we will one day have to reap, whether we intend it or not.
Opposition is not enmity. Demanding good governance is not war. Let that distinction be clear. To hold a government accountable is a democratic duty, not a betrayal of the state. But there is a difference between demanding good governance and setting out to demean the very institutions and elders that hold our society together. Too often, we fall into the trap of running down our leaders and our elders in ways that cause far more harm than good, harm that outlives whichever administration is in office when the words are first spoken.
Today, it is the turn of His Excellency, Governor Hyacinth Iormem Alia, to steer the affairs of Benue State. But as Senator Gabriel Torwua Suswam has often reminded us, no governor folds up the office of the governorship and carries it away at the end of his tenure. One day, the mantle will pass to someone else. It is worth asking, honestly, what happens if it falls to the person you support today? Will the state suddenly become better simply because your preferred candidate has ascended? Or will it still be carrying the weight of the destruction sown by careless statements and inflammatory posts on Facebook and other social media platforms, long after the political actors of today have moved on?
I make this appeal to one and all but it is directed, in particular, at our dear brothers and sisters in the social media space, our activists and commentators, who wield real influence over how Benue is perceived, both within and beyond our borders. We must learn to see our state beyond the politics of today. We must stop chasing away prospective investors with a steady stream of negative posts. We must stop manufacturing destructive “breaking news” for the sake of a headline or a moment of viral attention. Those posts do not vanish the day power changes hands. They remain, etched into the public record of who we are and how we treat one another.
Let us not, in the pursuit of discrediting a government, mortgage the future of our children and their children. Let us not, in the name of opposition to an administration, tear at the very fabric that holds our society together. Benue is the only home we have. There can only be one governor at a time, but that singular office does not change the fact that the state belongs to all of us, government and governed, supporter and critic alike.
Just take a moment and do a brief survey of public discourse across Nigeria’s states. Discussions elsewhere tend to be issue-based, even in criticism, while still preserving the integrity and reputation of the state itself. When lives are lost to violence in Plateau State, for instance, citizens do not typically turn on their governor and brand him a failure. They rally instead to call on the Federal Government to intervene. In Benue, the pattern is too often the reverse. It is worth pausing to ask: to what end? Remember that We are Benue, and Benue is us. If we destroy the state, we destroy ourselves.
This is the spirit at the core of the IAM Benue and Benue is Me campaign: a call to responsible citizenship, to issue-based engagement, and to a shared sense of ownership over our state’s reputation and future. It does not ask anyone to abandon scrutiny of government or to fall silent in the face of poor governance. It asks only that we conduct that scrutiny in a manner that builds rather than burns, that corrects rather than condemns, and that keeps faith with the Benue of tomorrow even as we contend with the Benue of today.
As Reverend Leva’s sermon reminded the congregation on this Independence anniversary, he who destroys another in order to succeed will find destruction waiting for him at the very post of his success. May that word find good soil among us, especially among those who shape public opinion in the digital public square. Benue’s future, ultimately, is not the property of any single administration or opposition figure. It belongs to all of us, and it is ours to build or to break. I’m hopeful that we will choose to build.
Hon. Chief Solomon Iorpev,
Honourable Commissioner,
Information and Orientation,
Benue State
