By Ben Atonko
Since January 2026, Prof. Sebastine Tartenger Hon SAN has been on the road across Benue State. Not with fanfare but with questions. Town hall to village square, palace to market, the senior lawyer has been holding consultations with the people on one simple matter: “Do I have what it takes to govern the Food Basket State?”
The answer coming back, ward after ward, is increasingly clear.
Benue is beleaguered. For years, the state has been trapped between needless killings, grinding poverty and a leadership deficit that has left communities feeling abandoned.
What the people are asking for now is not another run-of-the-mill politician with big promises and empty scorecards.
They are asking for a philosopher king — a leader who thinks deeply, acts swiftly and governs with both wisdom and courage.
Benue State today is immersed in high-level insecurity. Villages are sacked. Farms are taken. Families are displaced.
In the early hours of just last Sunday, about 200 people were reportedly killed in Otukpo. That is a wound.
In this climate, the people have had their teeth cut on what they really need. They know the difference between rhetoric and results. They know that a state under siege cannot be governed with business-as-usual.
It must move from the ordinary to the serious — to a level where problems are diagnosed creatively and fixed swiftly. Anything short of that is toying with the people’s survival.
That is why Prof. Hon’s message is resonating.
From Makurdi to Kwande, from Gboko to Otukpo, same themes come up in his consultations: insecurity, poverty, unemployment and the collapse of agriculture.
His response has been consistent. First, tackle insecurity head on. He has already shown this in action — writing petitions, demanding N50 billion against the Nigerian Army over Turan killings and pushing for the Coroners’ report that has now been produced.
Late last year, he successfully prosecuted a case against the governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, in favour of a Benue State-born professor of archaeology, Zakarys Gundu.
Benue State is an agrarian state that has been sustainably terrorised for decades and abandoned to destitution.
Prof. Hon is promising subsidies, dry-season farming support and industrialisation to move youths from idleness to productivity.
He has pledged grants for the vulnerable and proper welfare for traditional rulers, whom he says “deserve honour.”
The people are marvelling at the clarity. Some now call him the emancipator. Not because he says so, but because his ideas match the moment.
Unlike candidates who appear only at election time, Prof. Hon has presented a scorecard that the people can touch. Legal battles are fought for communities. Interventions in mining disputes. Advocacy when the government looked the other way.
He has demonstrated the capacity to tackle the very issues holding back Benue State. And in a state tired of excuses, that counts for a lot.
The consultations are no longer about “if” he should run. They are about “how soon.”
Traditional rulers are offering royal blessings. Youths are pledging support. Elders are decorating him in Tiv attire. Across party lines, the verdict is the same: he gets the nod to carry on. He is the preferred one.
Come May 29, 2027, the senior lawyer says he will put his hands on the Food Basket. Not to hold it for himself but to steady it for 6 million Benue people who deserve peace, food and dignity.
Benue State does not need another experiment. It needs a leader who understands the law, understands the land and understands the pain of the people.
From the consultations so far, the people believe that the leader is Prof. Sebastine Tartenger Hon SAN.
The consultation continues. But the direction is set.
