Those who know or have been following Governor Samuel Ortom in his six year rule as Benue State governor know that if there is one thing His Excellency is passionate about, it is the security of the lives and property of the people of the state.
The Defender of the Benue valley has never hidden the fact that nothing else matters but defending the people from external aggressors.
Benue has witnessed one too many attacks from suspected herdsmen that have sacked entire communities, rendering thousands of people displaced.
The displaced people, including women and children, now live in camps scattered around the state, exposed to the elements, with no source of livelihood and no basic amenities. People can no longer go to their farms for fear of their lives, houses, health centres, markets and schools have been destroyed and thousands of lives have been lost.
Sadly, the condition of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) has not attracted enough attention in the over four years that they have been detached from the life they were used to.
Their condition is pitiable, to say the least.
It was, therefore, understandable when the governor announced recently that the IDPs situation in the state was affecting and preventing him from carrying out his bedroom duties. The governor is fast losing his sexual drive over the issue.
According to Governor Ortom, even when he is already in the act, on top of his very beautiful wife and he remembers the IDPs, he loses his libido and is unable to continue with the business.
How pathetic!
What happens in the governor’s bedroom should ordinarily not be a matter for public discourse but when the man “on top” decides to bring it to the open, then the public is left no choice.
Sex is a very serious matter among couples and when a man can no longer meet this very important obligation to his spouse, it means there is a big problem and whatever it is that is responsible for the loss in sex drive needs to be squarely addressed.
It is perhaps because of how important bedroom matters are in marriage that the governor decided to use it to stress how much the insecurity in the state has affected him, both as a leader and personally, having escaped with the skin of his teeth when the attackers opened fire on him while visiting his farm on the fringe of the state capital some time back.
The governor has suffered physically, psychologically and now sexually because of the insecurity that has pervaded the state and may have distracted him from focusing on other important state functions.
However, Governor Ortom may not be the only one suffering loss of sexual drive in Benue. There are other groups who may be facing the same problem but have not come out to speak about it because they do not have the platforms such as are available to the governor, to make their voices heard.
One of these groups is pensioners, who are the governor’s age mates. The governor turned 60 in April this year, which is the retirement age of the state and ought to have retired if he was a civil servant.
Among the issues that can make a man lose his sexual drive are social and psychological issues. Psychological issues can lead a man to depression and make him hopeless.
Pensioners in Benue have not been paid their pensions for upwards of two years while many have been retired since Ortom became governor and have not been paid their gratuities.
Now, this is a situation can cause a man to be depressed and hopeless.
Depression can cause a loss in sexual desire and can also cause interpersonal problems in his marriage and affect his sexual drive because sex is presumably the last thing on the mind of a man who cannot meet his obligation to his family and even meet his own basic needs.
In the IDPs camps too, many men have lost their sexual drive because of the situation they’ve found themselves in. For some, they lost their wives to the crises while others cannot even think of sex at this time because of the bigger issues in front of them.
Then there are those who have been permanently scarred as a result of the psychological effects of the crises and may never have an opportunity to have their own libidos. This is not to talk of those who have even died.
The time has, therefore, come for all hands to be on deck to ensure that the issues of insecurity in Benue are resolved to the extent that those in IDPs camps can go back to their homes. And the person to lead this charge is none other than the governor, who is the chief security officer of the state.
Maybe when this happens, the governor’s libido will be restored and he’ll be well primed to do the needful to help others like the pensioners regain theirs as well.
Until then, we will keep praying and hoping that whatever steam is lost in our governor’s bedroom be restored.
