From okada riding to Benue governor’s seat : The Unique story of Tarzoor, Benue PDP guber candidate

The story of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial candi­date of Benue State in the coming election would baffle and astound anybody any day.

This is a man of 43 years with a master’s degree in Monetary Eco­nomics and a PhD student of Internation­al Economics. The same man had been a Speaker of the Benue House of Assembly, during which he featured as the secre­tary of the council of House of Assembly Speakers of Nigeria.

What is amazing about Terhemen Tarzoor, the very hopeful guber candidate is that he lifted himself from the streets, where he was a commercial motorcycle operator (okada rider) to climb fast into fame, power, and intellectual heights. Yes, tell anybody that would listen to you without any fear of contradiction that Tarzoor, whom his supporters call The Man wey sabi, was true and true an okada rider in Makurdi.

In the same city where he rode okada to earn a living some years ago, he would very likely sit as the number one citizen of the state and the most powerful individual there.

Listening to Tarzoor makes you guess if it’s a tale from a storybook crafted by the best of inspiration writers just to excite. But it is real, especially when the character involved is the one telling the story. Tarzoor’s is not a film act. He is not a character in fiction, but reality walking on flour legs.

At an interaction in Benue recently, Tarzoor admitted being an okada rider, saying: “Let me tell you the story of who I am. After leaving secondary school, there was nothing to do. The conditions were not right for me to go for further study. I am a 100 per cent Makurdi boy, with both parents from here. So I grew up the hard way in the streets of this city. Those days, because there was nothing to keep me busy after secondary school, my elder brother felt he should buy me a bike to get busy and possibly find livelihood. That is how I got into okada riding in this city. I lived that way for quite sometime.

“But one night, I was at a spot waiting for passengers when a young student of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria came around with the girlfriend to engage my service. I remember I used to cover my face partly with cap to avoid some people spotting me out, especially those that were my classmates in secondary school, who were undergraduates then.

As I was there, this young man came around. He was my classmate in the secondary school, and by all standards, he wasn’t brighter than I was, but he was an undergraduate already. So, before he engaged me to drop off the girlfriend, he tapped me on the head and said: “This man, make sure you ride my baby gently. I don’t want you to injure her. You know you okada riders don’t have brain.

“As he said the last words, he tapped my head to demonstrate that okada riders actually don’t have brain, like he said.”

That incident that humiliated Tarzoor was actually what started pointing his compass in another direction. He rode off with the lady, psychologically hurt and the impact was so deep that it got him thinking.

At last, to resolve the dilemma, he assured himself of the possibility of himself also becoming an undergraduate. Just the same year, some months after, the JAMB forms were out and Tarzoor picked one, wrote the exam and got admission into the Benue University. Today, TT, as they also call him, has not just caught up with his classmates, including the one who insulted him, but has overtaken them to an extent it might be quite impossible for most of them to catch up.

Tarzoor, today, has become a factor in self-actualisation. He has become a great hope for the downtrodden in the streets. He serves as pointer that the lowly can rise as high as the heavens, provided he decides to make a move, even when the factors of grace from providence wait on the wings to lift him higher than his dreams can ever go.

That factor of coming from among the commoners, working one’s way to the top from the very bottom, more than the popularity of his party, seem to have paved the way for Tarzoor to take over from the incumbent governor, Dr. Gabriel Suswam.

It was the impetus that gave him victory earlier when he vied for the state House of Assembly seat, and some people Daily Sun interacted with say with confidence that the benefit of his past will, this time, once again do the wonders of making the people vote him because, “they see him as one of them and he remains their hope of emancipation and growth.”

As he spoke eloquently on issues of governance and his preparedness to take the mantle of leadership of the state, the flow of his intellectual depth tells a bigger story of how enlightenment and development of the mind can turn a street boy in menial job around.

Proud to say I rode okada

He stated: “We all have our pasts. No one can walk away from his past or roots. I hail from Makurdi. And you know, growing up in the streets of Makurdi wasn’t easy, especially coming from a very humble peasant home. I remember very vividly when I was out of secondary school, instead of idling away, my elder brother bought a bike for me to engage in okada in order to take care of some of my little financial needs.

That okada experience is one that I will never ever forget. That is why I have passionate feeling for them. I still see some of the people I did the business at the same time with. Whenever I see them, sometimes I stop and chat with them and say, o boy you still dey, abeg hold this one. You must grow in whatever you do. I felt that was not my calling and I left and went to the university. Some also, when they saw that Tarzoor was in the university, it moved many to also join me.

“What took me to the university was this fateful day while riding. That day I saw a young lady who was a girlfriend to my secondary school classmate. Her boyfriend knew me very well and when we were in secondary school, he was not up to me in brilliance, but he was looking down on me because I was okada rider and when I was to pick his girlfriend, he tapped me at the back of my head and told me to be careful with his girlfriend that we okada people don’t reason, and I felt challenged and told myself that I must go to this university. Is it because this young man is in ABU that he is talking to me like this? I asked myself. When I got home that night, I thought deeply about the incident and started pursuing the processes for university admission. That was what inspired me to go to higher school. And when I got to school, in my own annoyance, I discovered it was even better being a student, than being outside.

So I would call on other youths to emulate me and understand that you can be what you want to be and no one would stop you provided you prepare yourself and you have zero negativity around you. So I think riding okada, for me, was not a bad experience at all

Governor in harsh economy

Commenting on revenue, he said: “The issue of drop in oil price is a natural concern for me, as it is nationally known. We operate a mono production economy that relies basically on oil. Nations like Nigeria face the same disaster, and it is a worldwide problem. We know the politics involved in international trade. I am majoring in international economics in my doctorate and I know the politics involved in that. Then you will agree with me that anytime America sneezes, the whole world catches cold. And Nigeria, as part of the oil selling states, also catches cold because of the sneeze. At a time like this, there is need for every individual component that makes up Nigeria to look inwards. The good thing about Benue is that God has given us the opportunity to rise and shine to prove to Nigerians that truly. Benue is a treasure for being the food basket of the nation because people must eat. People can afford to do without oil, as was done in the olden days, but you can’t do without food. That is our own natural endowment and it is our oil. So, what we want to do in the state for development is to harness our natural potentials and look inwards to build on agriculture. I call it agricultural industrialization, which is not synonymous with mechanisation. It is a set up that will begin to process our agricultural produce. We in this era are not talking about pyramid agriculture. We are talking of processing of agric produce. Now we are saying we won’t store yam, we will process yam and others in large quantities and avail our economy of the opportunity of selling them out. People will buy.

If you go to Lagos, people will demand for oranges coming from Benue. If you go to Kano, our dear bothers while breaking their fast would want to do it with Benue oranges. If you go to Akwa Ibom and Rivers states, they would want our yams.

So, the strategy to be employed is that we have to involve tactical economics. Tactical economics in that the monies are no longer there from the federation account, we must employ a deliberately and balanced growth.

The little that is coming in would be plugged into the cardinal areas. I feel if growth is achieved, it will communicate to other sectors of the economy. I am not just spread­ing to every sector because the resources are meagre so we will concentrate on agriculture and tourism. This is where we have two very great comparative advantages over others. And in that regard, we will be in the position to augment the little that is coming in from the federation account. So that is our own thinking that we would le­verage on and move Benue to greater heights.

The Man Wey Sabi

Tarzoor said: “Well, that was way back in 2010 when I was vying for a second term as a legislator to represent Makurdi again in the state assembly and some supporters where like ahhh, this young man, you have been good to us so we will print posters for you. And someone came up with a slogan on a poster; the man wey sabi. To them it is a slogan that is generic because it cuts across all strata of knowledge. The literate, the illiterate and all classifications. So, the man wey sabi became a very popular slogan in Benue and no one cares to know who the man is. But wherever you go, even if it is in a beer parlour, they would say they should be given the man wey sabi as if it became a drink. Then it calls for a question, who is the man wey sabi? But that was just a party slogan on my person that I could not resist because many attempts to say no would blow it the more.

“So the name lingers on, but the right thing for Benue for now, just like I said, is to deliberately choose to prioritise some cardinal areas with the proviso that if you perfect and develop them, you will ensure growth and development in them to drag other sectors on board. These cardinal areas are agriculture where we have the natural endowment and super comparative advantage over other states. Outside agriculture, we talk about education. You know that an educated state is liber­ated and better managed and ruled than an unschooled community. So we are also going to look into the area of education thoroughly. And education here you will agree with me that it is the matter of government maintain­ing the status quo by providing infrastructure where necessary. For instance you can’t discuss the welfare of university lecturers, it is the responsibility of ASUU.

Yours is to comply and make adjustments where necessary given the numbers you have as a governor. “So what we should do in the area of educa­tion basically is to provide infrastructure, lecture halls, hostels and where necessary, road network within the schools. But we have to emphasis technical education. That’s why in our strategic models, we have made provisions to set up technical colleges in Zones A, B and C where students are enrolled to learn techni­cal skills so that if they come out of schools, some will be opportune to pick up jobs with construction companies or if somebody is building, you can go there, handle electrical works and earn an income. That will help divert their attention from off the streets as jobless people.

“Beyond these areas, we are also looking at health. As you know, health is wealth. A healthy society gives you more time to work than a society that is ill. And a healthy society saves cost than a society that is sick where government pays more bills. And in this area of health, we want to emphasise on the syn­ergy between faith- based health centres and government health centres. There are several health-based centres here in Benue State that are owned by churches. You have the NKST, Catholic and Anglican hospitals. We want to see a partnership that works between the government hospitals and those owned by the churches.”

By  Ikenna Emewu of the Sun