News in brief: The new governor of Benue state, Hyacinth Alia, plans to industrialize the state’s economy through agriculture and rural development, with private sector participation. He acknowledges that addressing the security issue is crucial for attracting investments.
Hyacinth Alia, the new Benue state governor, has promised that his administration will industrialise the state’s economy through agriculture and rural development. He mentions that the industrialisation will be led by private sector participation.
However, he acknowledges that he needs to fix the security issue to ‘create the conditions’ that will encourage investments in the state. “One of the most pressing issues facing our state today is insecurity. We cannot achieve any meaningful development in an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty,” a portion of his inaugural address read.
Benue state has been in the terror grip of insecurity for years. In a 2022 report, Victims Support Fund (VSF) chairperson, Toyosi Ogunsinji Akerele, said that crises had overrun 21 of the 23 local government areas (LGAs) of the state. Another source said that the state shut down more than 40 primary and secondary schools because of insecurity.
Benue State Emergency and Management Agency said that armed herders killed about 5,138 people between 2015 and 2022.
Alia has promised to ensure safety and address root causes of insecurity, which he claims are poverty, unemployment, and social exclusion.
He adds that he will review and possibly reform the anti-open grazing law, which prohibits movement of cattle by herders in public places in the state to curb incidents of clashes between herders and farmers. Although, the former governor also temporarily suspended the law a month before handing over power.
Governor Hyacinth Alia agriculture plans require total infrastructure revamp
His pledge to industrialise agriculture will also no doubt include developing infrastructure, increasing mechanisation adoption, providing financing, encouraging research, training and capacity building, sharing information through extension services, market linkage, policy support, and so much more. It will be encouraging when we start seeing the governor making these essential moves, otherwise, his promises may just as well be words on paper.
He appears to hang the financing aspect of his plans on private sector-led investments. So, it will make his insecurity moves a priority and launchpad for his industrialisation plans. He adds fixing up the Benue Microfinance Bank and turning it into a ‘microcredit delivery’ to help with financing.
The governor also mentions that his predecessor did not fund the parastatals and extra-ministerial departments to deliver their services, which led to depleted infrastructure and devastating annual flooding incidents.
“In view of this uncanny state of affairs, Government would immediately set in motion, machinery for clearing blocked drainage systems in Makurdi metropolis to address avoidable flooding, pending when a comprehensive solution would be found to the perennial flooding of the state capital,” Alia said.
The state’s flooding predicament has been a major cause of sorrow for farmers. For a state nicknamed ‘food basket of the nation’ because of its role in the country’s nutrition, its flooding has hindered its output in recent years. If Alia can solve this problem, the farmers will sigh in relief and be encouraged to cultivate more lands. He said that one of the first things his administration will do is engage the federal government on dredging River Benue.
