Former Benue State Governor, Reverend Father, Moses Adasu
By TYAV SAM TYAV, Makurdi –
A famous group known as Apostles of Reverend Father, Moses Adasu, the second democratically elected Governor of Benue State has canvassed for national honour for the late Governor of the state.
The group queried the non inclusion of the former Benue Governor on the list of those that fought for the survival of democracy in the country.
They wondered why his name was conspicuously absent from the list.
The group leader, who is a lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the Rev. Fr. Moses Orshio Adasu University, Makurdi, Dr Sebastian Agbinda, disclosed this in Makurdi in a statement to mark the 80th posthumous birthday anniversary of Adasu on June 12, 2025.
Dr Agbinda expressed the belief that including the former Benue Governor on the list of those that are being honored for their contributions to Democracy in Nigeria would confer more integrity on the pantheon and the entire exercise.
Arguing further, the university don noted that the immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari in his decision to declare June 12 as Nigeria’s Democracy Day may not have contemplated Adasu’s role in its construction and described the action as mere coincidence and reminded Nigerians that the late cleric Benue Governor even as a Catholic Priest was at the forefront in midwifing a Muslim- Muslim (Abiola- Kingibe) presidential ticket.
Agbinda viewed that this remarkable contribution underscored Adasu’s firm belief in power shift and rotation and stressed that the late cleric equally believed that if Muslim- Muslim ticket was allowed to scale through, there was a possibility of Christian-Christian ticket some day.
“If Adasu a Christian Catholic Priest had raised an objection to the 1993 presidential ticket of his party the Social Democratic Party, SDP,M.K.O Abiola’s prospects would have been imperiled.”
He recalled that when the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) was birthed, “Adasu was at the forefront of the struggle dissuading the Yoruba and the South- West from ethnicizing and mismanaging June 12, pointing out that the late Catholic Priest, Adasu, himself Agbinda and other persons from the North West supported the South- West leadership.”
He emphasised that Adasu stood with NADECO refusing to work with the Abacha Government even after an olive branch was extended to him through Professor Jerry Gana, adding that “Adasu’s position on June 12 which providentially also his birthday was for justice and personal sacrifice for democracy.”
He appreciated the Benue State Governor, Hyacinth Alia for actualizing the immortalization of Fr. Adasu by renaming the State University after him, stating that much more needs to be done, especially in the context of utilizing his values, attributes, perspectives and vision for the State and Nigeria.
