A businessman and former senatorial aspirant in Benue North-East, Jenkins Shande, has warned politicians named on Governor Hyacinth Alia’s 2027 campaign council that membership of a campaign team does not automatically lead to a government appointment. His comments come as the ruling party in the state is already struggling with a public row over the council, a dispute that Daily Talk has followed closely in its report on how Akume’s allies disowned Alia’s campaign council.
Key points at a glance
- Jenkins Shande, a businessman and former senatorial aspirant in Benue North-East, says being listed on a campaign council does not translate into an appointment.
- He says he served as deputy director of finance in the 2023 Alia/Ode campaign, and that after the election, new faces were brought in to run the government.
- He says those who worked hardest in the campaign were later given mocking nicknames.
- Earlier this year, he said he would never go into politics again because of what he experienced with politicians especially Alia.
- His remarks follow a move by allies of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, to publicly distance themselves from the council.
- These are Mr. Shande’s personal claims. Daily Talk has not independently verified them, and the governor’s office has not yet responded in the reports reviewed.
What Jenkins Shande said
Jenkins made his comments on Facebook, where he said he knows from experience what it means to be named on a campaign council. He recalled that during the 2023 election cycle he was appointed deputy director of finance in the campaign council of Governor Alia.
According to him, the story changed once the election was won. He said that after the victory, new people were brought in and appointed to run the government, while many of those who had laboured through the campaign were left behind. He added that those who had worked for the victory were then tagged with mocking names.
His message to the current members of the 2027 campaign council of the governor was simple and direct: being on the list is not the same as being given a job in government. In his view, those who accept roles in the campaign should not assume that a place in the next administration is waiting for them.
In the same post, he described how the 2023 campaign finance structure worked from the inside. In his words, as posted on Facebook:
“I was the deputy finance director for Alia/Ode campaign organizations not for once we held a meeting. where the main thing dey happen, you will not know, only selected persons.”
Put in plain English, he is saying that although he held a senior-sounding title in the finance team, the team held meetings, and the real decisions were made by a few selected people.
It is important to be clear about what this is. The statement is a personal account from one political figure. Daily Talk has no way, from public records, to confirm how the 2023 finance team operated, how often it met, or how appointments were made afterwards. Readers should treat the account as his view and his experience, not as a proven fact. The governor’s camp has the right to respond, and this publication will report any response in full.
Why a campaign council seat is not an appointment
For readers who do not follow politics closely, the point Mr. Shande is making is easier to understand when two ideas are separated.
A campaign council is a temporary team set up by a political party or candidate before an election. Its job is to organise rallies, raise and manage funds, mobilise voters, handle publicity and coordinate the work of local leaders. When the election is over, the council’s job ends.
A government appointment is a position in the government itself, such as a commissioner, a special adviser, a board member or the head of an agency. These jobs are given by the governor, usually after the new government is formed, and the governor has wide freedom in choosing who gets them.
There is no rule saying that a person on the first list must be placed on the second. In practice, many campaign members hope their service will be rewarded, and some are. But there is no guarantee, and a governor may bring in technocrats, relatives, allies from other camps or new supporters for reasons that have nothing to do with the campaign.
This is the gap that Mr. Shande is pointing at. He is telling members that the promise of a reward is not a legal or political guarantee. Anyone who is listed on the 2027 campaign council hoping for a reward should therefore understand the risk.
There is also a practical side. Campaign work often costs time and money. People travel, host meetings, print materials and mobilise supporters at their own expense. When a person does this work with the expectation of a future position, and that position does not come, the sense of loss can be large. That feeling, in his telling, is what many past campaigners have carried.
The Alia and Akume crisis
The backdrop to Mr. Shande’s warning is a long-running power struggle inside the Benue chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) between Governor Alia, who is seeking a second term, and the SGF, Senator George Akume, who governed the state from 1999 to 2007 and is widely seen as the party’s senior political leader in Benue. The two men announced a reconciliation after a stakeholders’ meeting in Makurdi in May, but the peace has repeatedly been tested by disputes over party tickets, with each camp winning some contests and losing others, and by reports that the two sides have been running separate campaign activities. The latest flashpoint is the joint Tinubu/Alia campaign council, which lists the governor as chairman and Mr. Akume only as a member, a structure that groups linked to the SGF have rejected. For the full background, readers can follow Daily Talk’s timeline in its report on how Alia named Asema as director-general and listed Akume and Haakyav Peter on the council.
How the campaign council row began
According to Vanguard, the row started after the APC State Organising Secretary, James Ornguga, announced on Monday a joint campaign council of about 500 members for President Bola Tinubu and Governor Alia ahead of the 2027 general elections. The party also fixed Thursday, November 5, for the inauguration of the council in Makurdi, and later released a supplementary list.
The reaction came quickly. The Benue Strategic Alliance for Tinubu 2027, a group associated with Ortom and Akume’s camps, issued a disclaimer on Tuesday. The statement, signed by its Director-General, Chief Akange Audu, disowned the structure and said the names of its conveners, members and political candidates had been included without its agreement.
The alliance specifically objected to the listing of its conveners, Senator Jack Tilley-Gyado and Elder Simon Shango, along with its candidates for the National Assembly and the Benue State House of Assembly. It also questioned an arrangement that, in its view, placed the governor as chairman while listing Akume, whom it described as the founder and foremost political leader of the APC in Benue, as merely a member.
At the same time, the alliance made clear that it was not turning its back on the President. It said it remains committed to mobilising support for Mr. Tinubu’s re-election in 2027. A separate report by Nigerian Eye said the alliance was not consulted before the list was published and urged party members, executives and the public to disregard it.
Daily Talk reported the release of the supplementary list in its coverage of how the Benue APC released a supplementary Tinubu/Alia campaign list as the row with Akume’s camp deepened.
What the governor’s camp has said so far
In the reports reviewed, the governor’s office has not responded directly to Mr. Shande’s Facebook post. It has also not, in those reports, replied to the alliance’s disclaimer in detail.
What is on record is the camp’s general position. According to Leadership’s coverage of the parallel campaigns by the Alia and Akume camps, the APC’s state publicity secretary, Benedict Yawe, said the party’s hands were open for the other side to join. In May, the governor described the reconciliation meeting as an effort to bring everyone together, and the News Agency of Nigeria reported that Akume told journalists that members had agreed to support the governor’s return as the party’s candidate.
Daily Talk will publish any statement from the governor’s office, the state APC or Sen. Akume’s office as soon as it is available.
Editor’s note
This article is based on a Facebook post by Jenkins Shande and on published reports from other news organisations. The claims about the 2023 campaign are Mr. Shande’s personal account and have not been independently verified by Daily Talk. No wrongdoing by any person is alleged by this publication. The governor, the APC and any person mentioned are welcome to send a response, which will be published. To follow the countdown to the polls, visit the Daily Talk Election Countdown page, and for the latest developments from Benue and across the country, see the Daily Talk Politics section.
Sources
- Vanguard: 2027, Akume’s allies disown Alia’s campaign council as Benue APC supremacy war deepens
- Nigerian Eye: Akume loyalists reject inclusion in Alia’s campaign council
- Leadership: Alia, Akume camps embark on parallel campaigns in Benue
- News Agency of Nigeria: Reconciliation in Benue APC
- Facebook post by Jenkins Shande (as reported to Daily Talk)
