We’ve reset Benue’s devt blueprint — Gov Alia
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By Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor
Benue State Governor, Rev Father Hyacinth Alia, is a man who makes no noise in the administration of the state and can rightly be described as one of the most peaceful governors in Nigeria, having not created any form of conflict within and outside the state. Alia has embarked on many projects and programmes aimed at changing the fortunes of his state and the people. He took advantage of the visit of the Presidential Media Team/Renewed Hope Ambassadors to the state to speak on what he has been doing to improve the fortunes of Benue. The governor decried the antics of those opposed to the reforms being implemented by President Bola Tinubu that have freed funds for the transformation of the country and asked them to have a rethink.
You came from a different background to preside over the state. How are you able to govern the state in the past three years?
That is a tough question. But I will answer it explicitly. We need to address the inefficiencies of certain leadership. The first thing we need to succeed is to have a clear and unambiguous direction. There has to be a mission and a vision. Benue State is 50 years old today, and in the 50 years, we have had a series of leaders. And, we need to have a master plan. We did not have one in 50 years. When others came in, they made some inroads on what they thought was best for the people.
We had to go down to the trenches to ensure that this is what the market woman is needing at this particular time. This is what the farmers are desiring. And this is what everybody in the state truly seeks to have to take us from the so-called glorified village status to the proper status of citizenship. We need to improve the state capital, other townships and then move to work on the rural areas of the state to give people a sense of belonging and hope.
We have established the Benue Food Basket Brewery in place of the one we lost. If you take the statistics from the people to know why we had beer breweries here during Aper Aku, it was simply because people desired it. When the brewery died, a lot of money was taken out from the state because the people who were enjoying its benefits had to rely on other breweries outside the state and there was a huge capital flight as a consequence. People love the beer because it is made from the local produce-from the Sorghum we produce, the cassava we produce, and the corn we make.
If we are producing these raw materials, why are we not converting them so that we all have the benefits of the value chain being made? There are several things we put in place to ensure that the Food Basket Brewery that produces the Zeva Beer survives.
We have the juice factory. We also have a separate factory from the juice, the concentrate factory. All three of those factories, which we established in the last three years, are functional and meant to remain as such because we will continue to monitor them. We have the right people to ensure that things work.
In the last one year, the price of a bag of oranges has moved from N3,500 to N17,500 and there is a lot of competition on that. What do we do? The farmers are also going to enjoy it. We have already registered all the site rooms and those who have orchards.
Those farmers are registered under cooperatives. They know that this is the source where the funds are coming to them: to keep their farms; expand them; and to keep smiling to the bank. There is assurance that what they do today sustains tomorrow. They know that we are going to be very constant. We are business-minded, which means we have put in place measures to ensure they stay.
It is quite unfortunate that we lost the Taraku Mill which was one of the huge entities that was driving the economy in the state. That arm had died because people felt it was just a common cake. Get your knife, cut a chunk, and then leave. But at the end of the day, everybody lost in the state. Benue State was the number one producer of Soybeans nationwide. We are now working our way back to the front line again. What will that do to the farmers? They understand that the Taraku Mill has come back. It is going to be a market sustenance for the produce they are getting from the farms.
Already, we have started giving farm incentives. We are giving some money to small farmers, to very big farmers, to go back into Soybeans farming. We are already giving farm inputs to those who have identified themselves. Some data was already taken.
We are even intending to have a Benue Farm Market in Abuja. The road is now open. We used to do five and a half hours from here to Abuja. Now it is even shortened. It takes under three hours for us to get to Abuja. What stops us from taking the Benue fresh farms, oranges, yams, name them, over there? Because except if you do not plant, you must harvest on this land. These are the advantages we have. If people are making money consistently from their produce, we are going to remain on the path we have now taken. We did not just bring back to life the Taraku Mill, it is just one factory that we have resurrected.
Are you satisfied with the progress made since you came in as governor?
It is good that you have gone round to see what we have been able to achieve from the blueprint we have. And even as much has been done, I know that more is still left to be done. When we came in, we declared a state of emergency on road infrastructure. This is why if you move around the 23 Local Government Areas of the state, there is a very good connectivity of road networks in most parts of the state. In a number of our urban places, we are doing urban renewal roads. All the roads within some major townships here have also been transformed.
We have achieved enormously on reformation and revamping of our primary schools. They were in the ICUs before we came in. It was so deplorable that in many places the children were not attending primary schools in the local governments. We were able to give some priority attention just to revamp the primary schools and as of today, hundreds of primary schools are now back to life. We were also able to hire 9,700 teachers just for the primary schools.
We have also revamped primary health institutions statewide. Life was literally running out from the Teaching Hospital. Since it was fixed, we are witnessing medical tourists from all the surrounding states. We are very grateful that we also have a VIP wing in the Benue State University Teaching Hospital, which is catering for those who need such attention. The patronage is simply due to the fact that we have several specialists to cover those areas. It is quite welcome to have them.
We have to get back to the basics-our primary healthcare establishment, which had virtually vanished because no attention was given. We had to recreate some traction there. And what we did was to ensure that hundreds of established primary healthcare facilities were brought back to life. We intend to do more, and as I speak, we are expecting some consignment from the United States. We have been in some collaboration and partnership with some US subnational governments on health. We ordered some instruments that will be arriving very soon. They are meant to be delivered for primary healthcare in different local governments.
We had a hiccup, and the hiccup was insecurity and insurgencies that cropped up. Thank God the federal government swung in immediately. And we have relative peace in this state. How did we get the indices? It was through our security apparatuses in all the local governments, then through the traditional institutions as well as our own people, the citizenry of the state who are there.
We had a chunk of 15 IDP camps in the state. In a few of the camps we were privileged to visit, we are already making some plans to close down many of them because the IDP occupants have voluntarily gone back to do their farming.
What is the financial situation in Benue State today and how much are you getting from the federal government to develop the state?
We are getting a fair share from the federal purse and we hope to get more when we begin to receive 13 percent derivation from what is coming out of Benue State very soon. You might have heard the announcement on the oil and gas found in this state. We are not just having a pipeline, work has already begun on harnessing the series of solid minerals we have, Nigeria has quite a chunk, Benue has a share in 43 varied solid minerals, and quite a number is on a commercial basis. Our IGR has been increased. The oil subsidy is the one throwing more money back to us as a state and this is very good for the whole country.
How would you describe the relationship between Benue and the federal government today?
I would describe it as superb. And this is why the Federal Government led by President Tinubu, has been quite good to us, the subnational. What we receive from our federation account is what enables us to do what we do. The attention we have given to re-energising our internally generated revenue is what enables us to do what we are doing today and to ensure we are paying salaries without owing anybody. There is a very good love lost here between us and the federal government. This is why when we are rejoicing, they are here rejoicing with us. When we are mourning, they are also feeling the pinch, and they are here with us also to mourn.
Why is so much attention given to us? There are lots of appointments that we enjoy due to this friendship. We didn’t have that prior to my coming in. There is so much that the federal government is giving because of our position and where we are. In fact, at the end of the month, the state is going to host the entire nation here at the Security Summit.
We want to state that the reforms of Mr. President are bearing fruits but those who have fixated minds have refused to admit that. I must admit that things have improved. If a bag of oranges was sold for N3,500, and then people even had to beg for the oranges to be bought, and then because we have gained a lot of financial support, we chose to do some factories, and there is a lot of competitiveness on the oranges from the farms already, how would you say it is not spreading?
What challenges are you facing as a governor?
I want to say that the things that were keeping Benue leaders awake five years ago are different from what they are today. You knew what it looked like then and coming back now, you can tell what it is. There is a political will. Benue has 23 local governments with a large land mass and a population of about seven million. It is large.
But again, what was exhibited and executed by the leadership previously, you cannot keep doing one thing all the time and expect a different result. We have to bring in reforms, but in doing so where there is so much drought of funds, drought of ideas, again, drought of implemented projects on the ground, you really have to sweat, and sweat badly.
The reforms we have brought to bear are the ones that are giving us results. But then reforms present a push back from those who had enjoyed the situation.
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