By Achiri Igiri-West
In our constitutional history, few interventions have been as decisive and salvational as the Doctrine of Necessity invoked by the National Assembly in February 2010.
At the time, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was incapacitated abroad on medical grounds for months, without transmitting power to his Vice President. Governance was grinding to a halt. The nation was drifting into a dangerous vacuum, with no one to sign the budget, no one to take critical security decisions.
To save Nigeria from collapse, the National Assembly, led by an illustrious son of Benue South, Distinguished Senator David Mark as Senate President, rose above partisan and sectional sentiments and invoked the Doctrine of Necessity. Vice President Goodluck Jonathan was empowered to act as President. That singular act saved Nigeria.
The lesson from that episode is profound: Doctrine of Necessity is not issue-specific; it is necessity-based. It is invoked not because the law desires it, but because the survival, stability and progress of an entity demands it. When strict adherence to sentiment threatens the common good, necessity compels us to choose what works.
That is exactly where Benue South is today ahead of 2027. We all agreed, in principle, that power should rotate and that the Igede of Oju/Obi Federal Constituency should produce the next Senator. That expectation was genuine, popular and fair. But today, as we head towards 2027, the reality on ground compels a second look: No candidate from Oju/Obi axis is contesting as expected and promised.
The axis that should naturally lay claim to the seat has no frontline contender in the race. And those who are contesting against Senator Abba Moro from other axes do not measure up in terms of legislative experience, national network, capacity and capability.
Replacing Senator Moro, a ranking Senator and Senate Minority Leader who has brought Zone C unprecedented visibility and tangible development, with any of the current challengers would amount to a deliberate lowering of the standard of representation of Benue South.
That would be a disservice to Zone C.
In Benue politics, there is a time-honoured practice called “borrowing of a turn.” It says: We know it is not your turn, but because you have the capacity to represent us better at this critical time and protect our share of the national cake, please go and represent us again.
The aim of borrowing is not to marginalize any section. It is to ensure that the Zone does not lose out while we wait for a credible successor to emerge. This is the doctrine of necessity in our local context.
If Oju/Obi had produced a credible, generally accepted candidate as envisaged, the moral argument for rotation would be airtight. But in the absence of such a candidate, should Zone C punish itself by sending a neophyte to the Senate to learn on the job while ranking Senators from other Zones take the juiciest committees and projects?
Should Zone C trade a tested, tried and trusted voice for an experiment?
Senator Abba Moro has moved Zone C from the periphery to the centre:
- He delivered the Federal University of Health Sciences, Otukpo (FUHSO), the North Central Development Commission (NCDC), the Federal College of Agriculture and Technology, Opialu-Ojapo, and is pushing the Federal Institute of Science, Technology and Innovation, Obusa.
- His seniority as Minority Leader gives Zone C a seat at the table where national decisions are made.
- He has shown uncommon inclusion for Oju/Obi in projects, employment and empowerment.
To replace him now with a first-timer who will spend four years learning procedure and struggling for recognition is to unalive a burgeoning entity that is already delivering results.
Doctrine of Necessity demands that we sustain what is working for the greater good.
Let Oju/Obi prepare properly and take its rightful turn in 2031 with a formidable candidate, rather than be used as a political excuse in 2027 to install a weak representation for Zone C.
For now, let us invoke necessity; let Abba Moro borrow the Igede turn, and return Senator Abba Patrick Moro to the Senate in 2027.
It is not about Moro. It is about protecting the interest of Benue South.
