“The new First Lady of Benue State is the Blessed Virgin Mary,” joked a Twitter user, after Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia was declared the winner of Benue State’s gubernatorial election, which was held on March 18. Being a Catholic priest, Alia is sworn to an oath of chastity and cannot marry, hence the Twitter quip. Alia, who contested under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), won the election by 473,933 votes, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission. Alia’s main rival in the election, Titus Uba of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), polled 223,913 votes. In third place was Labour Party’s Herman Hembe, who managed 41,881 votes.
Not only is Benue the only Nigerian state that has had a Catholic priest as its governor, it has now had two. On 2 January 1992, Moses Orshio Adasu, a Catholic priest, became the state’s governor, under the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Adasu was in office for a year and ten months, before he was ousted in November 1993 by the military dictator General Sani Abacha. Among Adasu’s achievements in his short time as governor was the establishment of Benue State University on 27 December 1992.
While he is not the first clergyman to become the first citizen of the state, Alia has made history by being the first Catholic priest to become the governor-elect in Nigeria’s fourth republic. Alia will be succeeding Samuel Ortom, who has been Benue’s governor since 2015. Last year Alia had criticised Ortom for having spent “almost eight years with literally nothing to show for it by way of infrastructural development.”
Historically, Catholic priests have been allowed to hold political office. Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, the 18th-century Catholic bishop of Autun, was also France’s prime minister at one point. But in 1980, during the reign of Pope John Paul II as the vicar of Rome, Catholic priests were barred from occupying political office. Thus, Alia’s decision to join Benue’s gubernatorial race had put him at odds with the Catholic Church, specifically the Gboko diocese in Benue, under which he had served. After announcing his intent to run for the state’s gubernatorial office, the diocese’s bishop William Avenya suspended Alia, a punishment that will endure until “he [Alia] ceases from contumacy.” Avenya also said that Alia had been admonished severally before he was suspended.
This means Alia, though a priest, cannot perform priestly duties, such as conducting a mass or performing the rites of baptism.
Background
Alia was born on 15 May 1966 to Mr and Mrs Thomas Katsina Alia. The 56-year-old hails from Mbangur, Mbadede, in the Vandeikya local government area in Benue State.
Education
Alia attended St Francis Primary School in Agidi, in Gboko local government area. Then, in 1983, he received his secondary school certificate in education from St James Minor Seminary, in Makurdi. Feeling called to the pulpit, Alia went to St Augustine’s Major Seminary, in Jos, where in 1987 he was awarded a diploma in religious studies. In 1990 he bagged a bachelor’s degree in sacred theology from an affiliate of Urbaniana University, Rome.
In July 1990 Alia was ordained a Catholic Priest by the late Bishop Athanasius Atule Usuh of Makurdi Catholic Diocese.
In 1999 Alia proceeded to Fordham University, in the Bronx area of New York, where he obtained a master’s of arts degree in religious education (psychology and counselling). In 2004 he earned another master’s degree, this time in Biomedical Ethics, from Duquesne University, in Pittsburgh.
Career
Alia has been the director of pastoral services at the Catholic Health Services, North Campus Lauderdale Lakes, in Florida, where he oversaw five full-time contract chaplains and coordinated an ethics advisory committee.
He was a chaplain at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and at St Joseph Mercy Health System Ann Arbor. He also was a coordinator and chaplain at Jamaica Hospital and Medical Queens, in New York. He was the parochial vicar at the Immaculate Conception Parish, Astoria and Our Lady of the Cenacle Parish, Richmond Hill, both in New York.
On returning to Nigeria he served as the parochial vicar at St John’s Parish, in Gboko, Benue State. Later he was the assistant cathedral administrator at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cathedral, in Makurdi.
He has been a parish priest at several churches, including St Jude, Koti-Yough; St Thomas, Anum, Makurdi; and Christ the King, Adi Etilo, Benue.
First brush with the Church
Before Alia’s investment in partisan politics created a rift between him and the Church, his deeds as a priest had first done so. His supposed ability to work miracles—heal the sick, cure mental disorders and suchlike—had earned him a cult following in Benue, like it did Father Mbaka of Adoration Ministries in Enugu State and some other parts of South-East Nigeria. But Alia’s much-touted powers of healing had also raised the suspicion of the Catholic Church, a denomination which, unlike most pentecostal sects, does not foreground the working of miracles.
On that account Alia was sent to the Vatican, in Rome, to ascertain the veracity of his powers of healing. The Vatican vindicated him, after which Alia was transferred to St Thomas Catholic Church, in Anum.
Entry to politics
Before competing for the office of governor, Alia had held no political office. And while he has won the state elections, his was anything but an easy ride to glory. Though he was declared the winner of APC’s primary in May 2022, the Court of Appeal in Benue ordered a rerun in 11 out of the 28 local government areas in the state. The matter reached the appellate court after Terhemba Sjija, a governorship aspirant, appealed the decision of the trial court that upheld the election of the priest.
However, this February Alia won the primary rerun, beating Matthias Byuan and Barnabas Gemade.
Mandate from God
Alia has said he was compelled to exchange his priestly robes for the toga of political office because he could not ignore the suffering of the people of Benue State. Alia traced the plight of many Benue citizens to poor governance.
In his manifesto Alia wrote:
“Our vision is to build an economy based on functional education, employment generation, agricultural development and growth with a focus on food production and processing in a secured environment that ensures food security, wealth creation and poverty reduction.”
Return to the pulpit
Alia has said he will return to being a fully fledged priest after finishing his term as governor. In his words:
“As stated in the last paragraph of the suspension letter, I shall return to the public pulpit after I must have served out my mandate as the Governor of Benue State.”