Q: What will you say are your achievements in the past three years?  A: Some three years ago, we came into governance w

Q: What will you say are your achievements in the past three years? 

A: Some three years ago, we came into governance with our own blueprint, and we identified on the project we deemed fit for the good people of the state. Much has been done, and I thank you so much to have gone out to the field to see what our blueprint has prescribed, what we’ve been able to achieve. The moment we came in, we had declared a state of emergency on our road’s infrastructure. And this is why if you go all around the 23 local governments, there’s been a very good connectivity of road networks now in most parts of the state. In a number of our urban places, we are doing urban renewal roads, and all the arterial roads within some major townships here have also been converted into new.

We have achieved quite enormous on the reformation and revamping our primary schools. They were in the ICUs. Local government primary schools were no longer being attended to. So, hundreds of primary schools in the local governments are back to life. We’re able to hire 9,700 teachers for the primary schools. And then we also went statewide to take care of the primary health institutions. Life was literally running out from the tertiary the teaching hospital, but it is fixed now to the to a point that we’re having medical tourists coming from all the surrounding states here. We also have a VIP wing of it, and in fact, this is one of the units that is most attended by those who come from outside of the state here. I think it is simply due to the fact that we have a number of specialists to cover those areas.

Now we have to get back to the basics – the primary healthcare establishments. They had vanished because no attention was given to them, so we had to recreate some traction in there. Hundreds of our primary healthcare establishments have been brought back to life. As I speak here now, we’re expecting some consignment to come in from the United States. These are meant to be delivered in different local governments. We received good enough funds from even the federal government as well, and that gained a lot of support to us. We had a hiccup, and the hiccup being the insecurity, and insurgencies that had crawled in. But again, thank God that the federal government immediately swung in and we have – I would call it amount of relative peace in the state. How do we get the indices? Through our security apparatuses who are out there in all the local government, and then through the traditional institutions as well, and then also through our own very people, the citizenry of the state who are there. We had a chunk of the IDPs, 15 IDP camps were set around the state. We are just already making some plans to close down some because the IDP occupants have very directly and voluntarily gone back to do their farming with the collaboration and the partnership of the international community, the United Nations, the IOM, the UNHCR, and we truly appreciate the effort and the support they sent to us. We’ve made so much inroads into ensuring that the IDPs are returned to their homelands and back to their farms. It is not just for them to go back farm and then come back again. You continue to see a dwindling number from the IDP camps, and this is because they are out there not just farming but now constructing their own homes back. So, it is our hope that we’ll continue to pump in, by various forms and shades, our security framing so that they remain back there, and they do what they know how to do best, the farming. So, we remain very grateful to the federal government, whose gratuitousness has made us to be able to execute quite a number of projects here. And that is the only way to go for people to experience dividends of this democracy. They have to feel, see, and know that, yes, we wanted this, it’s done, and we are using it. We intend to continue with that role.

You are revamping some of the abandoned enterprises that have become moribound over the years as we have witnessed during the tour of the state. What are you doing to make sure that the next set of projects, the ones you’re resuscitating, and the ones you’re starting today, do not suffer the same fate of abandonment after your second tenure ends?

On a number of projects we have done, there is some caveat to enable them to stay sustained. People say the government does not have business in business. If government does not have those whose minds are hung on business, and then every little effort made, you know it’s going down to the drain. We have established, very fresh, the Benue Food Basket Brewery. We had one before. why we have more brewery here during our period was simply because people desired it. It’s not that we have people who love to drink so much. After all, it’s food. People love it. We make it from local produce, from the sorghum we produce, from the cassava we produce, from the corn we make. So, if we are producing this, why are we not converting it so that we all have the rippling effect of the value chain? So, this is being made, and there are a number of things that are put in place to ensure that the Ziva factory survives. We have the juice factory. We also have a separate factory from the juice, the concentrate factory. All those three factories made in the last three years are functional, and they’re meant to remain as such because we continue to monitor. We have the right people to ensure that things work. Now, we’re also gaining some partnership from the civil society out there who want to have this. Now, in the last one year, a bag of orange shots up from 3,500 naira to 17,500 naira. There’s a lot of competition on that. The farmers are also going to enjoy. We have already registered all the citrus farms and those who have their orchards, different frames of farms are being registered under cooperatives. They know that this is the source of where the funds are coming for them, one, to keep their farms, two, to expand the farms, and then to keep smiling to the bank. So there is a full assurance of what they do today sustains tomorrow, and they know that we’re going to be very constant. So, we are business thoughtful and wise, which means we have put in guard what is going to make them stay. It’s quite unfortunate that we had lost the Taraku Mills, one of the very huge components to driving the economy here in the state. That arm of commerce had died because people felt it was just ‘come and get your knife, cut a chunk, and then you leave’. But end of the day, everybody lost in the state. Benue State was number one producer of soybeans here, nationwide. So, we’re now trying to work our way back to the frontline again. And what is that going to do to the farmers? They understand that the Taraku Mills comeback is going to be a market sustenance on the produce they are doing on the farm. Already, we’ve started giving farm incentives by giving some money to known farmers, to very big farmers, to go and get back onto the soybean farming. We’re already giving farm inputs to those who have identified themselves. Some data was already taken. I want to believe that we’re going to even to raise more companies here. The cottage industries – once they are in place here, a number of lives are going to be changed. We are even intending to have a Benue farm market even in Abuja. The road is now express. We used to do five and a half hours from here to Abuja. Now it’s even shortened. It takes under three hours for us to get to Abuja. So, what stops us from bringing the Benue fresh farms, oranges, yams, you name them, over there? Because except if you do not plant, you harvest on this land. So these are the advantages we have. And if people are making money consistently from their produce, we’re going to remain on the path we have now taken. So, we did not just bring back to life the Taraku Mills. It’s just one factory that we have resurrected. But all the other new ones are also going to be sustained. And I’m very hopeful that as people get more money and smile to the bank, they’re also going to ensure that they will keep coming back to us.

Q: One of our former military governors described Makurdi, the state capital, as a very big village. He left. Many governors have come Today, Makurdi status is changing to that of a big city. How have you been able to achieve this And what are the plans to expand with the hope that the people of Benue State will renew the mandate which you have now, and even in the next one year and few months of this first lap of your administration?

A: I think development is one consistent thing that must happen in our lives, like it or not. So, I know we’re still going to stay on that path. And more so that Benue at 50, we began a 30-year master plan, to ensure that even after power is changed, the same developmental dynamics are still kept, same vision is being shared, and same mission is being embarked upon through this developmental plan. These are people-driven projects. Gboko underpass, for instance – you could just count a number of houses further down towards the northwest where you stood to see it. I was there, and I witnessed how people were being crushed by trucks, by trailers in the morning. Poor women who are doing breakfast, selling their daily bread, pushing their wheelbarrows to cross the road. Many bikes’ people were also being jammed and killed there. So, the memories were still on my psyche. And even recently, shortly before we got into the stage of governance, I know two Okada people who had lost their lives. I’m a patron of Okada, so I understand, I know what they do and where they are. So, we had to do this road. These are people-driven projects, and they are made not just for the fun of the day. The roads we’re doing are very different from the roads done previously and in a number of places elsewhere. The roads we are constructing are stone-based roads that have a guarantee of over 30 years. I’m giving so much life and and traction to the road projects, not only in town here, in different parts of our suburbs, so that as we begin to build the master developmental plan of the state. We have taken care of the primary healthcare. We have already embarked on the secondary tier of the health system. If those are done and subsequent administrations come, they will have less concentration on those because they are fundamentally and diligently done in a manner that durability is guaranteed and is visibly also felt. This was the mandate you gave us. There are many, many more things I have to do going forward in the second term. So, am I a worthy servant just to keep going forward? Because when you send me, I go and you see results, and these are results. So, is it ideal that you send me again? They have already given me the answer that, “Yes, Father, you are worth our send, and then we’re going to do this.” So, I’m all into their hands. But what we have on the ground, it’s what they desire. They kept me accountable. Thank you. And the federal government had supplied much for us, so we were able to ensure that what we got is being felt, seen, and used by the very people who sent us.

Q: The projects we have seen indicate that you have a very good vision of development for your people, and you are indeed a servant leader. But you would agree with us that Nigeria embarked on the sale, commercialization, and privatization of its industries many decades ago. But here in Benue, you are going into the revival of economic ventures, like the Taraku Mill, like the brewery we saw yesterday. Under what arrangements, financial, economic arrangements, are you embarking on this? Is the state going directly to use public funds to revive them, or are you partnering? What method are you going to use to ensure that these projects work well for the Benue people? Thank you, Your Excellency.

A: We are going into certain partnerships. In fact, this afternoon we were about to sign something, but the point man who is supposed to do this had another function, so we had to wait. Some project on food city. This is going to be an agricultural zone in Otukpo axis, where much land has been given these people. We have done our part by giving the land. We’re taking care by constructing the road to this space, and then they bring in their own facilities. We share in the residues that are going to come from here. So I think it is one quick way to do this. Let us not be deceived. I think what we know this day is superior to what people knew and were practicing yesteryears. Meaning simply that for us to get more mileage on the produce we make on our farm, for us to be able to expand our farms, and for us to be able to create more economy from the drive we do on those farms and different forms of commerce, we have to be mindful of the value chain in between. So anything short of that would never work. People want this. People have a desire for it. They go back to their farms. They are now expanding their farms because of the support we give them and the support. We just distributed over 11 trucks of fertilizer from the federal government. We did ours some two months back, at the level of the state, to our own farmers. And when we do this, it’s at the subsidized rate. So why are we doing this? To ensure that there is continuity on their own farm, and then we want them to expand those farms. And then we also want them, the gains they make from here, they do not just carry the raw materials straight to the buyer’s hands. And this is why the establishment or the revival of the Taraku Mills is being done. Already, people are coming to the table to partner on this. If we, the state, never use our public funds to revive the Taraku Mills, we’d only be the pot that cooks the rice, but never eats the rice. So, we want a share in what we spent our money in establishing. So, as we bring it back to life, already those that are being attracted, the fat companies that want to come in and join us on this already have their documents on the table for us. So we’ve been going through four separate companies to see how they can come in to partner with us. I think it is one quick way that our farmers are going to have their full value chain. We had traveled with Mr. President, to France, and some Frenchman businessman who is conversant with some parts of Nigeria was asking why Benue State has so much soybeans, but we were not exporting our soybeans. So the simple answer I had given was, after a presentation I made, was that what we need is for us to be able to use every part of this soybean back home. They can come to us with their own factories and every other form of partnership they want to do, rather than us trying to struggle with this soybean and take it over there. The value chain remains very limited, so we want it a full scale.

Q: Okay. In responding to a question earlier, you mentioned insecurity as a hiccup. You also thanked the federal government for quickly coming to the rescue. In responding to another question, you mentioned inefficiency at some level. But my question to you tonight, Your Excellency, what is the hardest part of governing a state like Benue, that the people outside of this government house don’t really see?

Q: That’s a very big question. A number of things keep me awake. For those who were in Benue, say, five years back, you knew what it looked like, and by coming back now, you can tell what it is, because there is a political will. Benue is large, quite all right – 23 local governments with large land mass, with population of about seven million. It’s large. But again, what modus operandi was being exhibited and being executed by leadership previously? I believe that you cannot keep doing one thing all the time and expect a different result. So we had a need to bring in reforms. And when you bring in reforms 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 you sweat bad. The reforms we have brought to bear are the ones that are giving us results. But then reforms present a pushback from those who had enjoyed the old status quo – “Don’t do this” “It was not here, but we still lived and existed.” So, would the earth stop going round if we do them? The answer is no. But status quo now becomes a problem. Is it roads that we would eat? No, it’s not road that we will eat, but at the same time, intrinsically, you enjoy the roads and you eat the roads because they have gone through your farms, they have gone through the market square, and then from the produce on the farm, they’re coming back to the buyer in the town or in some suburb area. So, it means you are still eating the roads. But at the same time, a 50-year-old boy that doesn’t have anything to show is a problematic child. So, he has to augment himself. We’re augmenting the state in a manner that people have already started enjoying the reforms that are here. Parents are enjoying not paying any school fees to their children from basic one to basic nine, because we are using their own money given under the custody of government leadership to take care of this. So, in other words, we’re pinching the pennies to ensure that we do these things. We have taken care of the primary health system now. If you have malaria, you don’t have to leave your village to come all the way to Makurdi to spend three and a half hours that you are coming to treat malaria here – with the clinics we have, with the hospital we have, with the general hospital we have. So, we have the primary, and then we have the second tier, the general hospital, by the same axis. I think that takes care of a number of things. And it’s the same thing with the primary schools and all that. So, why we’re able to do this, initially, there was kind of a resistance If you go back into history, reforms bring resistance. And I think it’s part of what even the federal government might be suffering from. So much is done. I just made a pronouncement here that with the much money that the federal government is giving us, thank God you have been out there, you have said that this money is being translated into those projects, into Otobi Water Works, into the series of roads and the underpasses you’re seeing, into the schools, into the hospital systems you’re seeing. And I think it’s the only way to go. And in fact, part of your question, it’s calling for an immediate establishment of these master plan on our development. Because each administration that comes in now takes a look at this, one, two, three, four taken care of, so I’m going to take care of one, two, three, four, and then we’re moving forward. This is how Lagos also began. This is why I was highly enthused on President Bola Ahmed becoming the president. I’d been there as a younger man many times. I knew what we went through. I knew how the city was. And in the last 25 years, the master plan that was made has been religiously executed. So, if we have similar thing, and this is the trend we have actually taken, but reforms have to be brought in so that the newness of what we seek is being established. So, as we continue to do this, it’s going to be very helpful. Since we came in, we have never ceased paying any salaries – three years and counting now. We’ve never stopped paying pensioners.

A few years ago, governors were running to Abuja cap in hands, begging for monies to pay salaries. Now, you’ve hinted that you said, one of your last statements, you said with the much money the government is giving. Please, can you just really expatiate to us? Is the president giving you a special money or what? Because you are talking about upscaling all your projects. Upscaling, expanding. We are really curious to know.

The president loves the state so much, but at the same time, what he gives is what is being distributed elsewhere as well. So we all have just a very common share. In fact, we have so much on the ground, but since the harnessing of what we have hasn’t fully taken its position on the table, we are yet to have 13% derivatives. I think quite soon we are going to be there. We may hear the announcement on the oil and gas that is found in the state here. Much attention is already given there. We’re also not just having a pipeline. Work is already begun on harnessing the series of minerals we have, solid minerals we have. Nigeria has quite a chunk. Benue has a share in that of 43 varied solid minerals, and quite a number are at a commercial basis. So, once we go in there, we’re also going to continue to support. The (removal of) oil subsidy, I think is what has thrown much money back to us. We must say it. Previous administrations tell me, I hear what a number of people, including the state here, speak with the media. I read on the papers, I see some clips also on the screens, that the amount of money we are receiving is way much more than what they were receiving. Let me try to be very cautious so that I don’t make it very personal. The management skills of those funds, it’s what would be of import here. If we had this, as someone with a background from the church, if you come and request a mass, say, offer this mass for my relative who wants to get married- It simply means as I’m there on the altar, that is the exact intention that I have to apply on this mass request you have made. So, I’m not expected to go and say, “I’m offering this intention for the family of this person that requested the mass.” It was specific, and by the mention of it, also by the directedness of it in the prayer I’m going to offer, this component has to be brought in. So, if the intent for what we receive, it’s meant to take care of salaries, it’s meant to take care of the infrastructure, it’s meant to take care of our security, then it simply means the intention of the donor has to be respected. And in this case, what we receive, it’s not for individual pockets, it’s meant for the common good. So, if you understand the common good, the poor masses, then they must be in the front burner of everything you do. I want to come back. People with God willing, and the people, again, seeking and willing, they sent me. If I perform abysmally, then they’re not going to look at my directions. So, I also had to walk this, not the fine line, but how to make it in a manner that they know that I’m worthy as a messenger. And this is why I had mentioned pinching the pennies. If we are able to hold ourselves accountable and to govern ourselves, and then we will then be able to govern also all the resources that come our way for the people, and that is what makes democracy.

Q: With regards to the federal government and your collaboration with them, how would you assess it? And since I’m asking the last question, I also want you to add as to, in terms of your visions and dreams for Benue State, how would you say how far you’ve gone? And looking forward, what are other things you intend to make sure you put in place before the end of your administration?

A: Prior to my coming in, there was no love lost between us and the federal government. Things had gone sour, really sour. So, the end result was that the state lost so much. People did not have relevance in the federation, and they did not know what was actually happening from the central government. So, we had to renew our relationship. And I thank God, you even asked, it is superb, quite superb. And this is why the federal government, the Mr. President, has been quite good to us, the subnational. Remember, we are running a federation. We have the federation, then the federal government, then the sub nationals here. What we receive from our federation account is what enables us to do what we do. The attention we have given to re-energizing our internally generated revenue, it’s what enables us to do what we are doing today and to ensure we are paying without owing anybody. So, there is a very good relationship 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. So why so much attention being given us? There are lots of appointments that we enjoy due to this friendship. We didn’t have that prior to my coming in. There’s so much that the federal government is giving because of our positioning. In fact, at the end of the month, we’re also going to be the state host to the entire nation here on security summit. They are coming over here. Why us? Again, I feel that it’s because of this very great relationship. So, we’re going to represent the entire North Central. Everybody’s coming in here. The entire nation is coming in here for us to share ideas, for us to see possible ways of curbing all the insecurities and all that, and then to explore the different dynamics on how these things work. So, we have this great relationship, and we must remain very grateful again to the president. It’s not just myself as a governor, but all the governors, at least of this administration. And there is this very healthy competition amongst us. I have a name I’m bearing. I didn’t give it myself. It is a family name I bear. So, if I perform very badly, it’s going also to leave some imprint on my siblings, even way after me as well. We’re talking about Aper Aku today. So why is he on the minds of so many? He came with the interest of the people, and he created a good relationship, and there was a fine synergy, and this is why we had the number of things we had back then in the day. Again, this deals with contacts. And when you talk contacts now, what you have come to see, and now they’re talking about AI. Anything you do, you say, they say it’s AI. When we went somewhere on some of the roads, we did, shortly before the Minister Umahi came to the state here to monitor some federal projects, and then we asked him also to monitor the state project, and then he accepted. So, he now kept asking us, “Is this part of the federal project?” We say, “No, this is the state project.” He said, “Where are you getting the money from?” It’s the reality of what we have on the ground. So, the naysayers have to shine their eyes and say that no, there is change and we are moving. The reforms that are brought in place are bearing fruits. It’s difficult to change a certain fixed mind, to change a status quo. But what is even most permanent is that change itself. For those who may still want to doubt, those who may still have their agitations or reservations that the economy is not working, the economy in the state here is improved. I must say that it’s improved. If a bag of orange was sold for 3,500 naira, and people even had to beg for the oranges to be bought. But because we’ve gained a lot of financial support and we chose to do some factories and already there is a lot of competitiveness on the oranges from the farms already. So how would you say it’s not spreading? The poor woman out there, we have cushioned them. It is their money we’re using even to cushion them. If you do not pay your child’s school fees for nine solid years, definitely there is some saving in there for you. Reforms are new. But then if you give it patience, if you study it, if you look and look again at the differences – they are dropping bit by bit- you come to realize that reforms are the way to go. Change is another way to go. And then patience so that we get everything, not just in part, and not just by bit, but in total.