As Fr. Hyacinth Alia takes Benue on a transformational journey, by Stephen Ortese

For the past two decades, Benue State has been in the news for varying reasons including insecurity and has often been used to cite an example of poor governance in Nigeria. Just two years ago, the state was swimming in a sea of debts. Workers were owed mountains of salary arrears; the education, health and infrastructure sectors were yearning for attention. The state became an IDP hub, and even the agricultural sector, which gave Benue its “Food Basket of the Nation” title was severely impacted by security issues and lack of government investment.

Benue people sent out a plea for help to the Diocese of Gboko called Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia decided to temporarily sacrifice his divine calling to join politics and try to change the governance story of Benue State. In the 2023 governorship election, the “Yes Father” wave literally swept across the entire Benue plains and Fr. Alia was elected as Governor defeating the then ruling party in the state, PDP.

BENUE EXPERIENCING A RESET UNDER FR. ALIA

Civil Service Reforms

The first major area Gov. Alia tried to face was the Benue state civil service, which had been bastardised due to irregular payment of salaries, pensions and gratuities, ghost workers and very poor working conditions. Gov. Alia started by ensuring prompt and early payment of workers salaries and retirees’ pensions. From an era of not knowing when their next salary would come, Benue civil servants began receiving their pay between the 22nd and 25th of every month and it has remained so for more than two years of Gov. Alia’s administration.

The Governor also began clearing the inherited backlog of salaries owed workers in the state by successive administrations. In fact within his first 100 days in office, Gov. Alia paid four months salary arrears to workers. Beyond this, the Governor uncovered over 2500 ghost workers many of whom were living outside Benue and even abroad while collecting salaries from the public treasury. The ghost workers syndrome was most rampant in the primary school system with many non-existent teachers on the government payroll.

Today, the Benue civil service is wearing a new face. Following the enactment of a new National Minimum Wage Act, Gov. Alia increased the minimum wage for Benue workers to N75,000 which is above the national minimum wage of N70,000. The Governor also carried out total renovation of the Benue State Secretariat complex which was built over 40 years ago. Civil servants can now work in a modern and conducive environment.

Infrastructural Revolution changing Benue landscape

Gov. Hyacinth Alia met a decrepit state of infrastructure across Benue state with Makurdi, the state capital, was a source of embarrassment. In the night, darkness envelopes the entire city, which encourages criminal activities. The Governor promised to tackle the huge infrastructural deficit headlong as he immediately began a massive urban renewal and road reconstruction spree across the state with particular focus on Makurdi the state capital. In under two years of Fr. Alia’s administration over twenty township roads have been reconstructed in Makurdi alone.

The Alia administration also began construction of two massive underpasses in Makurdi and Gboko – the first of its kind in Benue state. These huge projects are proceeding at a very rapid pace. There are at least 50 road projects ongoing across the 23 local government areas of Benue State and as at today a total of 394 kilometres of road have been completed by the Alia administration across the state with the quality of work being remarkable.

The Governor also began the lighting up of Makurdi with solar street lights. The N5 billion Light Up Makurdi project has transformed Makurdi from a city of darkness and gloom into a bubbling city with improved security. With the ongoing Makurdi underpass project, completed township roads within the capital city, installation of street lights and other urban renewal projects, Makurdi is gradually taking the shape of a truly modern and bustling capital city.

Gov. Alia repays N64 billion Benue debts

Gov. Hyacinth Alia inherited a domestic debt of N186 billion upon assumption of office. This is domestic debt owed commercial banks, contractors and even the federal government. Gov. Alia decided to adopt a disciplined fiscal model to enhance the state’s financial health. Thanks to prudent management of revenue inflows, Gov. Alia’s administration under 18 months in office paid N64.63 billion debt! as of December 31, 2024 the domestic debt profile of Benue State had climbed down from the over N186 billion Fr. Alia met it to N122 billion.

IGR Inflows Skyrocket from N700m per month to over N2B monthly

As a result of Gov. Alia’s introduction of e‑Governance and Digital tools in the running of government business as well as curbing MDAs’ financial leakages and implementing digital revenue tracking to boost collection efficiency, Benue State in the last two years has witnessed a meteoric rise in its internally generated revenue profile from an average of N700m when Fr. Alia came into office to over N2 billion per month in less than two years.

This increase did not come as a result of any increase in taxes but due to deliberate blockage of loopholes through which revenues were previously leaking into private pockets. The Alia administration is targeting a monthly IGR of at least N3 billion in 2025 and hopes to be financing most of its recurrent expenditure using IGR inflows.

Education Sector witnessing rapid transformation

Under the Alia administration, the education sector is witnessing a new lease of life. The Governor met a public school system battling with acute shortage of teachers, poor teachers welfare, absence of training and of course irregular payment of earned salaries. In addition to the poor learning environment, the general morale of both teachers and students was very low.

Governor Alia, understanding the urgency of tackling the crisis in the education sector immediately swung into action. Apart from cleaning up the personnel roll of public schools to weed out ghost workers, the Governor decided to make education attractive to students by remodelling classrooms. Consequently, in collaboration with the Universal Basic Education Board, the Benue State government is rehabilitating 52 schools with many approaching completion stage. Another set of 73 schools have also been equipped with school furniture and other educational supplies.

In total, the Alia administration has embarked on 374 school projects and educational supplies within the basic education category alone. These projects and educational supplies include classroom renovations, construction of hostels, perimeter fencing, borehole installations, and large-scale furniture distribution and other school needs. The Governor has also directed the remodelling of all public primary schools into storey buildings as a way of modernizing these schools. Already 13 schools are benefiting from the construction of storey buildings, early childhood care playrooms and libraries with work already at an advanced stage, playrooms and libraries with work already at advanced stage in these schools.

The Benue State government has also hired over 9000 teachers to address the personnel shortage being faced by many public schools in Benue. Also, in line with the Harmonized Retirement Age for Teachers in Nigeria, Gov. Alia approved 65 years of age or 40 years of pensionable service, whichever comes first to be the new retirement age for teachers in Benue State. Equally, the Alia administration, in a move aimed at alleviating the financial burden on families, began the laudable policy of paying WAEC, NECO and NABTEB exam fees for students in public schools.

The Alia administration is also investing heavily to boost tertiary education in the state. Fr. Alia has already established a state University of Agriculture, Science and Technology at Ihuge, Vandiekya LGA, to meet up with the growing quest for higher education in the state. Last month the University was approved by the National Universities Commission (NUC) and construction has since commenced at the site. The Governor re-initiated a bursary program for Benue students, which is set to provide bursary allowances to over 30,000 tertiary students of Benue origin.

Revamp of the Health Sector

In the health sector, Governor Hyacinth Alia has been very particular about improving the standard of facilities across different levels of healthcare delivery. At the tertiary level, Gov. Alia is revamping the Benue State University Teaching Hospital. A new cancer treatment center is under construction in the hospital. He has also donated medical equipment to the teaching hospital to enhance its capacity to carry out IVF procedures, fibroid surgery among others.

At the teaching hospital, the state government is also providing a pharmaco-surgical pharmacy, a VIP smart clinic, a water treatment plant, and a therapeutic centre for children with special needs. The state government has also renovated the amenity wards, distilled water plant, post-basic schools and the institute of health technology.

The Governor also approved the recruitment of around comprising approximately 400 staff including neurosurgeons, pediatric surgeons, plastic surgeons, dermatologists, 60 doctors and 140 nurses as well as other staffers.

At the secondary and primary healthcare level, the Alia administration is revitalising more than 98 healthcare centres across the state including General hospitals. The Governor has promised to modernise these health facilities and equip them adequately with trained personnel, medical supplies and machines in order to provide the best medical services possible to the Benue people and residents.

Agricultural productivity bouncing back

Benue State is the food basket of the country thanks to its vast fertile arable land. However, food production had been on the decline due to security challenges and the lack of incentives from the government to enable more farmers adopt mechanised agriculture. Gov. Alia, understanding that agriculture is the major occupation of his people has made it a priority.

The Governor started by resuscitating state agricultural agencies like Agricultural Development Company, (ADC), Benue Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (BENARDA) and Benue Tractor Hiring Agency (BENTHA). He then signed up fully to the Agro- Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscape (ACReSAL) project, a World Bank assisted Project aimed at addressing the challenges of land degradation and climate change.

Under the ACReSAL programme, Gov. Alia ensured the release of Benue State’s counterpart fund to unlock the many benefits for Benue farmers and farming communities impacted by climate change. Apart from the ACReSAL and other partnerships with international donor agencies, Gov. Alia administration has for the past two planting seasons distributed more than 100 trailer loads of NPK fertilisers to Benue farmers at 50% subsidy.

Gov. Alia also revived the moribund fertiliser blending plant owned by the Benue State government by going into a public private partnership (PPP) with Star Fertilisers. The Governor also purchased new tractors and other agricultural implements including irrigation pumps to enhance mechanised farming. Farmers are also benefiting from revolving grants being disbursed in partnership with the World Bank. All these and more are geared towards making Benue truly return to reclaim its place as the food basket of the nation.

Gov. Alia’s 5bn Investment in SMEs benefits 4000 business owners

Governor Alia in two years has demonstrated strong support for small and medium scale enterprises as well as vulnerable individuals and households through the Alia Cares programme. Under this scheme, over 4000 small businesses have received grants of N150,000 to invest in their businesses while some larger businesses like salons received N500,000 grants to aid their businesses. This is the governor’s way of injecting much-needed microcredit into the informal sector to aid business expansion and spur economic growth across the state.

Benue Transport Company revamped with 100 new buses

One of the first steps Gov. Hyacinth Alia took upon assumption of office was to resuscitate the comatose state-owned transport company, Benue Links by purchasing 100 new buses and expanding its services into haulage and even water transportation. The Governor did not just stop at providing a fleet of buses, the state government built new modern bus terminals within Benue and in other states where Benue Links ply.

Gov. Alia poised to find lasting solutions to insecurity

When Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia became governor of Benue State back in 2023, there were an estimated 4 million internally displaced people in Benue state who were displaced as a result of violent attacks or clashes with pastoralists. These IDPs basically abandoned their villages and means of livelihood to seek sanctuary in the IDP camps.

As the Chief Security Officer of Benue State, Gov. Alia moved to find immediate and lasting solutions to the longstanding security challenges in the state. Through stakeholder engagements as well as support to the security agencies to restore law and order, the Alia administration was able to bring about a return to normalcy in many of the troubled spots. Many IDPs consequently returned to their communities and resumed their daily activities including farming.

It is undeniable that over the first 18 months of Gov. Alia’s administration, there was relative peace across many parts of the state even though a lot of security challenges remained. The recent deterioration of security has been very unfortunate and the Governor is not leaving any stone unturned as he explores every possible option to find lasting solutions to these issues and stop the the constant atrocious waste of human lives and destruction of property.

A New Benue is Emerging

Despite the recent security challenge in parts of Benue, it is however clear that Benue state has made significant strides from where it used to be two years ago. Today, there is a growing optimism that the curse of under-development that had plagued Benue state is now waning and a vibrant and productive state is emerging. Across many economic and social sectors, visible progress is on display.

The journey will not be easy, as a matter of fact, no great revolution ever comes easily. However, the good news is that at this most important junction in its development history, Benue is lucky to have a very focused and passionate leader in Fr. Hyacinth Alia, who is very determined to change the story of his people for good. Like a phoenix that is reborn from its ashes, Benue and its resilient people will definitely rise!