On Monday, 7 September 2026, the Governor of Benue State—a Catholic priest—formally commissioned an office for the Coordinator of the office of the First Lady.
Let us be clear: the office of the First Lady does not exist in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is an extra-constitutional creation.
The Governor himself is unmarried. One is therefore compelled to ask, with both gravity and clarity: on what constitutional, moral, or practical foundation is such an office being established and publicly inaugurated with the full weight of state authority?
The individual occupying this role is a married woman, Her Excellency Hon. Scholastica Ben-Sor. That title, “Her Excellency”, appears on her official Facebook page. The elevation is deliberate and public. It is not an informal courtesy; it is presented as an official designation.
The following day, armed thugs prevented Mr. Peter Obi from visiting the families of the 270 people killed in Benue State. The Governor stated that he was unaware of the visit. One must then ask, with equal seriousness: if a sitting Governor can claim ignorance of a high-profile visit concerning mass loss of life in his own state, is he also unaware that the office he has just commissioned finds no place in our Constitution?
These are not minor procedural questions. They go to the heart of constitutional fidelity, the responsible use of public resources, and the moral consistency expected of those who hold both spiritual and temporal authority.
The people of Benue—and of Nigeria—deserve governance anchored on the Constitution, not in invented titles and offices.
Since he became the Benue State governor, Alia, has had issues with both the political and religious class in the state. It is common knowledge that he has been having running battles with his political godfather, His Excellency, Senator George Akume, former state governor and currently, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).
In 2022, prior to his winning the election and becoming the state governor, the Catholic Diocese of Gboko in Benue State suspended Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia, for joining the governorship race in the state.
Alia had picked up the N50m governorship form of the All Progressives Congress and had been cleared by the ruling party to participate alongside eleven other successful aspirants in the party’s primary.
His suspension was announced by the Bishop, Catholic Diocese of Gboko, William Avenya, in a letter dated May 20, 2022, “after series of admonitions” to him.
Avenya noted in the letter made public that “the Mother Church does not allow her clerics to get involved in partisan politics on their own”.
The letter partly reads, “I write to communicate to you the suspension of my priest, Revd. Fr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia from public ministry after series of admonitions to him.
“The Mother Church does not allow her clerics to get involved in partisan politics on their own.
“You are aware that my son, your brother and your priest has purchased the party forms to contest for the Office of the Governor of Benue State under the All Progressives’ Congress which is totally against our vocation.
“Therefore, to respond to the spiritual and pastoral needs of the Church in the Catholic Diocese of Gboko, I have suspended him from the exercise of sacred ministry.
“This canonical suspension takes effect from the moment it is communicated to him and lasts until he ceases from contumacy.” , the letter stated.
Before he entered politics, Alia was best known for his healing ministry.
“He healed people who were possessed by evil spirits, and he was very effective at it,” Father Vitalis Torwel, who attended seminary with Alia, told CNA.
“People who came and received healing from their various sicknesses started circulating the message to their friends and family and from there, Rev. Father Hyacinth Alia’s healing Mass became the talk of every house in the state and across the country,” it was reported. It was said that his ministry became a theme of his campaign for governor: “Heal the Land. Heal Benue,”.
Unfortunately, today, all that has changed. One wonders if Gov. Alia can cast out any demon now that he is deeply engrossed with politics.
Alia has extensive experience in the United States of America as a student, priest, and chaplain. He earned a master’s degree in education from Fordham University in the Bronx, New York, and he earned another master’s degree and a doctoral degree, both in biomedical ethics, from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.
While in the U.S., Alia served as a parish priest at Immaculate Conception Church and Our Lady of the Cenacle Church, both in Queens, New York, where he also exercised chaplain duties at Jamaica Hospital. He also worked as a chaplaincy administrator at Catholic Health Services in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida; the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; and St. Joseph’s Mercy Health System in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He returned to Benue in 2005.
His suspension according to insiders, was because he ran afoul of the Catholic canonical oath which he took as a priest.
The Catholic Church Canon 287, Paragraph 2, states: “Clerics are not to play an active role in political parties or in directing trade unions unless, in the judgment of competent ecclesiastical authority, this is required for the defense of the rights of the Church or to promote the common good,”.
But the suspension did little to Alia’s popularity in Benue, a predominantly Catholic state. He wasn’t the first priest to run for office there: Father Moses Orshio Adasu accepted suspension from the priesthood and was elected governor on 2nd January, 1992. Adasu managed to found Benue State University and jumpstart the economy before he was forced to retire two years later after a military coup, and he remains a popular figure among Benue Catholics.
Despite his suspension, Alia continued to wear his clerical collar during his nine-month campaign, grating against the sensibilities of many fellow priests who knew of his suspension, but since wearing his priestly garb at his inauguration he has donned traditional clothing or Western business suits. Alia has said he plans to return to the ministry after his public service.
Aside religion, Alia has been facing tall challenges in governing Benue, a state located at the confluence of Nigeria’s two great rivers, the Niger and the Benue, which boasts some of the nation’s richest soil. Due to terrorism and land grabs by unknown gunmen and bandits, Benue is home to some of the nation’s poorest people. At least 2million are reportedly languishing in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps.
In one of the press conferences, Alia stressed his determination to secure Benue’s border with neighboring Nasarawa State. “We have a lot of loopholes at the border. Last Sunday I called for all illegal points to vanish. We have 16 checkpoints, and only those should be in place. They have to function,” he said.
Benue has a history of tribal warfare, but a decade-long conflict between the Fulani tribe and the dominant tribes indigenous to the state has left tens of thousands of farming families homeless.