Still on David Mark and Agatu - A reply to David Mark’s Statement by Akioyamen Josephine

I have read the statement put out by Comrade James Oche on
behalf of the distinguished Senator Mark pertaining to my question
about his legislative activities with respect to the Agatu issue and I
failed to find any answer in the entire gamut of it.
It is obvious to me that he didn't understand the full import of my
question before putting pen to paper.
For the record, I never questioned Senator David Mark personal
love for Agatu. I know he does. Nor did I question David Mark
personal generosity to the Agatu. I know he was very generous for
after all in the aftermath of the attack he showered the victims who
had then become IDPs with materials to ease their pain. It is also a
credit to him that he visited Agatu at a risk of his life. He was even
said to have been shot at. I thank him for his personal generosity.
I’m proud of him for that. It is the same way I’m proud of the
generosity of the many Idoma sons and daughters who contributed
personally to the IDPs.
But the fact remains that we didn’t elect Senator David Mark
because we want him to display personal generosity. We elected
him to help shape policies that could be beneficial to us his
constituents.
In this wise, since the attack of February 2016, the question
becomes, what has the distinguished Senator David Mark done on
the floor of the Senate by way of shaping the federal government
policies in response to our people? This is the gravamen of my
post.
Comrade James Oche has failed to answer this question in any
way, shape or form. Instead, he sought to deflect from the real
issue by well-worn bloviating into ad hominem and non-sequitur
arguments. Where I talk policy, he replies with what David Mark
has done personally for the Agatu people as if they are one and the
same and as if one could make up for the other.
It is not a condition precedent that Senator David Mark must be a
Senator to have done everything that was catalogued in James
Oche's reply. However, he needed to be a Senator to move the
senate to push the Federal government to make a more aggressive
response to the plight of his constituents in Agatu. This is what I
was talking about. I was talking to him not as David Mark qua
David Mark but as the SENATOR representing Benue South. To do
that which is necessary and within his legislative powers to ensure
that Agatu is not allowed to fall from the public burner. To take up
the gauntlet and become the champion for our people in Agatu not
only personally but through his legislative activities. I don’t think
this is too much to ask.
It is worthy of note that his silence on this matter on the Senate
floor provided the lacuna for the Senators to sweep Agatu
massacre under the red rugs of the Senate. The Chairman of the
Joint Senate Committees on Agriculture and National Security and
Intelligence, Senator Abdullahi Adamu said so himself. He told a
representative of ours during the one-day public hearing of that
committee on farmers and herdsmen clashes held Tuesday the
11th of May, 2016, that Agatu was never mentioned on the floor of
the senate because Senator David never brought it up on the floor
of the Senate even though he had then been sworn back into the
Senate on the 2nd of March 2016.
The question of whether I have visited Agatu or not is red herring, it
is meant to serve one purpose that is to conflate the issue.
Senator David Mark was elected because he said he could provide
great representation in the Senate for Agatu and the rest of the
Benue South Senatorial District. I wasn’t. As his constituent, it is
my responsibility to hold him to account on this. This is exactly
what I'm doing. It is my right and it is not contingent on whether I
have visited Agatu or not.
On the charge that I have never taken the state government to task
for its failings on Agatu, there is nothing that could be further from
the truth. I have done so copiously and on various occasions. At
any event, the issue I raised in my post has nothing to do with the
state government. It was purely a legislative question. That the
state government is silent, is fumbling, has provided no lasting
solution to the crisis, has failed to compensate, resettle or
rehabilitate the victims of that gruesome attack is not enough for
Senator David Mark to maintain legislative silence with respect to
this issue. This is what I’m saying.
There is no Senator that could be as effective as David Mark when
he chooses to be. Just saying