The governor of Benue State, other top government officials, delegates, newsmen and other accredited officials were gathered for the rerun of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential primary, when the ground began to vibrate and no one was sure what was going to happen.
Tension was written on the faces of many and not a few were unease about what what was going on.
Few days earlier, the SDP conducted its presidential primary through the Option A4 system, and Wantaregh Paul Unongo was leading at the polls.
After the results were collated and taken to Abuja however, the party reviewed the processes and declared the state primary which was to pick the winner that will contest with other winners from other states for the coveted prize of the SDP presidential ticket which MKO Abiola won, inconclusive and ordered a rerun.
This did not go down well with supporters of the Wantaregh who felt that the charismatic politician was only being victimized due to his opposition to the then governor, Moses Orshio Adasu.
The contest for the SDP ticket was mainly between Unongo and Senator Jack Tilley-Gyado who was seen as the one favoured to win the election.
Unongo, was in a no-love-lost relationship with Adasu as he was known to have supported Engineer Igbeta for the SDP guber ticket against Adasu and after Adasu went ahead to win the governorship seat by defeating Dr. (As he then was) Ignatius Ayua of the NRC, Unongo did not spare the administration the rough edge of his tongue as he constantly excoriated the policies and programmes of that administration.
The effect was so much on the government of the day that every voice of dissent or opposition both within and outside the SDP to which both the governor and Unongo belonged, were directly or indirectly linked to Unongo.
When the Wantaregh indicated interest in vying for the presidential ticket of the SDP through a process that starts from the ward to local government and state before the national convention, not a few waited to see the outcome as Unongo, though quite popular and easily the man to beat, appeared to be riding for a fall due to his relationship with leaders of the SDP in the state.
As the man counted on his popularity, the powers that be had other plans and waited for him. Just as he was about to breast the tape, the wind was taken off his sail as the primary was cancelled and a rerun was ordered.
At the rerun, delegates for the primary which included the governor, the deputy governor, commissioners and other top government officials who were members of the party were all at the venue.
As the process was about to be concluded, the governor and his men must have observed the rising tension so immediately votes were cast, they left the venue.
The results were announced shortly after that and this time, Senator Tilley Gyado, was declared as Benue’s candidate for the final round of the presidential primary to be held in Jos.
In other words, Unongo lost!
The atmosphere was tense. People were not sure how Wantaregh and his supporters would react as everybody at the square knew that if the ‘man of the people’ had as much as raised his hands to protest, only a few would leave the place unhurt as his fanatical supporters were already threatening to ‘die there!’
But the eloquent politician from Kwande, who was instrumental to the formation of the NPP and had served as minister of Steel Development in the Second Republic had a different plan.
The action he took helped in defusing the tensed atmosphere.
He quickly embraced Tilley-Gyado.
It was a historic moment that was captured by press photographers and the photos made the front pages of a quite a few dailies.
At that moment, the anger that was building up in the minds of his supporters mellowed.
Seizing the microphone, the Wantaregh declared: “I will not mar my political career with bloodshed.”
He explained: “The governor’s gone, the deputy governor’s gone, the commissioner of police, the state police and security forces of Benue State; anticipating there’s going to be a crisis, have all gone.
“But I Paul Unongo, I’m not going to mar my political career with bloodshed. Senator Jack Tilley-Gyado and I are brothers, we are married to sisters and our children are first cousins.”
He then appealed to his supporters not to react violently but take things as they were.
All of a sudden the vibration stopped and the ground experienced peace.
He lost the primary, but won the hearts of the people.
Adieu Wantaregh.
