•Says IDPs are in 17 out of 23 LGs in Benue

•There is plan to destabiliss our state 

By Dapo Akinrefon  

As a priest into politics and governance, what is it like transitioning into politics and eventually being elected as governor?  

By July 7 this year, I will be 35 years as a priest. I have worked all my life or most of it within the state in the suburbs. I know the area, like the palm of my hand. I understand what our problems are, what the challenges in homes are and the inability of our leadership to fix, support and bring change. From the last station where I was, there was an urgency for me to join the ranks of partisan politics. I was in charge of a proposed Catholic University in Vandeikya my local government, but then I had to take a leave of absence to come into partisan politics. I think the transition was not quite difficult. As priests, we spend all our lives supporting people, trying to fix the immediate environmental problems, family problems and all. So, it was not so difficult for me to understand what my role in this new task would be.

However, back in the church, we are not too accustomed to making so much noise and lying. If it is blue, it has to be blue. If it is red, you have to maintain that.  

It was not until I joined the political ranks that I discovered several things. I understand the human psyche, which is part of the intensive and extensive studies I have made over time in human psychology. I understand how that could play out. When working with our people in the suburbs, you must understand the orientation, know what they believe in, where they are coming from and what can set them on a new pedestal.  

Having understood all those, as I came in, those have been our actual principles. Again, in the church, we try to apply the principle of subsidiary. The principle of subsidiarity is very simple. I will give you fish, and teach you how to catch the fish. Then you begin to catch the fish yourself. Over here, I attempted to do that but it is something new so there was a kind of back and forth on acceptability. Majorly, you are giving them fish, they just want to continue getting the fish. Overall, the transition was quite smooth, experiences were quite enormous. I am looking forward to several chapters and textbooks on such experiences.

Speaking about insecurity which has been a challenge in Benue, what is the reality and how are you addressing it?

Let me first of all build a context to this. Benue became independent in 1976, and several dynamics came into play.  

During the military administration, it was quite different. On May 28, 1975, the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, came up with a proposal suggesting that West African countries should try to see how they can absolve pastoralists crossing the borders for grazing. I think it kind of took Nigeria quite some time to accept it. In 1998, Nigeria adopted this, so Nigeria had now accepted the crossborder and trans-humans portfolio that was proposed in 1975 by the Organisation of African Union, OAU, which came into being in 1963 and then lasted till 1999. We had lived by this axis even as children growing up.  

We knew that the traditional herders during summer came and left for their destinations. During the rainy season, they would not be there until the dry seasons came in the following year. There wasn’t any friction per se, but since the adaptation in 1999, there was a very drastic change. I am not sure that several things were conceived for this protocol – trans-human and the border crossing between goods and humans by the ECOWAS borders were considered so much. If they were, I think they would require a revisiting.

We have 23 local governments in the state. As I speak now, about 17 local governments are housed at the internally displaced persons’ camps, IDPs.  

Up till now, we have several local governments (nine) that are on the frontlines of the insecurity. As bad as these might sound, and as horrible as they may sound, remember we share a population of about 7 million, over a quarter before I came into government. It is on the records everywhere. Before we came in, we heard, we saw and we were told that 1.5 million of the people were in the bondage of the IDPs. As of June last year 2024, we recorded 500,000 people approximately which speaks about over 870,000 families that became displaced.  

How did we get the data? Before we came in, there was no data until we did it through the assistance of the United Nations, and we got that established via the IOM. A fully recorded deliberate data was created. Our people are primarily agrarian because this is the headquarters of the food zone. We are quite good. We were the first producers of yam in the world. It is on the record. We were the number one producer of soybeans; we recorded number four on sesame production and even on rice. On rice, we were feeding northern Nigeria and most of eastern Nigeria as well. We were quite good at what we were doing until nomadism came into play and the pastoralists had to source for the lean resources that now came into play.

I think several factors may have even caused some of these things. Increase in population (the routes are no longer there, they are closed), climate change and several issues that come with such changes. By the UN standard, those are the things that emerge and push even the pastoralists. The challenges are there, with the traditional herders. They only come with their cattle; at most, sticks and cutlasses also some machetes. But that is no longer the case. What we are experiencing today is calculated, calibrated, planned, strategised and then executed. There are several things attached to this. It is not the usual form and frame we know, what happens now is that as they walk through, there is a planned destabilisation. The locals are driven out via killings and then pushed away. 

 

The mercenaries will come in first, they will attack. Once we cry and we are settled down and then we put some measures in place after a little while, they show up again. By this time, we see a lot of herds and several human beings coming in just to occupy the places. I think I would not be wrong to say that land grabbing is part of these challenges.  

Here is the thing, when the destabilising, the maiming, the land grabbing, and the killings, took place, we lost so many human lives and the land. Since there was no data, no plan, no strategy, it was quite challenging initially when we came in. This is why we had to seek intervention from the United Nations for us to be able to know the numbers that are displaced, the families affected and the number of destructions we have incurred. 

So, having been able to assemble all the data and information, we took a further step, we have now come up with a Benue State doable solution for the IDPs and it is meant to fulfil three major roles. It talks about several factors one being that these displaced people, their brothers and sisters, what do we do? We still have to accept them and assimilate them, I mean we share the same culture and everything, so that is one and then the second one is relocation. They are displaced, they cannot just be hanging out there in a vacuum.  

So we had to look for a short-term scheme for them, which is the IDP camps. Now, the state holds up to 14 IDP camps all over the state. And one of the third pivotal aims of the solution on IDPs is to get them back to their ancestral lands. If you have an old wound, which has been infected, even if you give an injection, one injection cannot suffice. It has to be a series of injections. This is what we have been doing and the federal government has been on this with us as well, putting in their efforts as well.  

Let me quickly call on the Federal Government to go the extra mile. If the ECOWAS trans-humans protocol is reversed, at least for Nigeria, we would be in the best position. Meaning if the Federal Government gets back there, it should tell ECOWAS that although it was made on a friendly basis, with no evil intent, the opposite is the result and there is a need for us to retreat, let us see what we can do to fix the internal insecurities we have before any other thing. 

I think that would be a very huge milestone for the Federal Government and the sub-nationals that are facing all the insecurities. Let it be on record that it is not only Benue that has this. Several places do too.  

Again, what we have noticed is that a lot of the attacks are in the North-East and the North-Central. For some reason, it is spreading to other ends of the sub-nationals as well. The entire North-Central has so much, that I think it is even becoming more convoluted. 

Take Benue for instance, we have a lot of natural resources. We have the land, we have the water, we have the gold, we have the lithium, we have the uranium and everything. Instead of these things being a blessing, it has become a curse. If the Federal Government moves, some steps forward to do these, the national internal security would also be fixed.

What you have just said is suggestive that the bulk of the pastoralists are from neighbouring countries and may not be directly indigenous…

There is no question about that, this is a fact. We share borders, our local government in Kwanda shares borders with Cameroon, very porous borders. Internally, we also share borders with Taraba, Nasarawa is quite vast as well, Kogi, Enugu, Ebonyi and Cross River. But where we have several persistent attacks is from this axis, so they have to find their way all through to get into us. You know it is also indicative of the porousness of our borders but we are Nigerians, we know our faces, and we share the same features. 

We understand all these. So when we see those who are mercenaries, those who are fighters, those who look very different from the associated herders we know, we understand that.  

You have been nicknamed Mr 25 meaning you pay on the 25th of every month, something that looked impossible before you came. Do you think this is sustainable to the end of your tenure?  

If my cronies tell you that my administration is being fought left, right and centre, that is one of the reasons. By the way, it is not just 25, we have shifted the decimal between 22nd and 23rd because I want my folks in here to plan and plan well.  

My father was also a civil servant and then a teacher, so they had a lot of wiggle room in their planning. Unlike before, salaries were not paid, pensioners were never paid, entitlements were never given and a lot of other excuses were given. They attributed it to the federal government, saying it was no longer doing its part of sending in some financial support. But when I came in, that wasn’t what I discovered. By the way, I had inherited N359 billion at my advent into governance. 

So when we took a deeper look into the books, we now realised that the federal government gave their subventions, their support and everything. 

But just along the line between Abuja and Makurdi, several things happened that the money could not reach the poor teachers, the poor civil servants and the pensioners. 

I think the dynamic is very easy. We have come in with a new thinking for the state, and I believe that a new Benue is possible to be created and this is where we are. It only deals with proper planning, proper strategy, proper execution and monitoring. 

And this is what we have been trying to do. We ensure that our civil servants get their money early enough. If in between those dates, there is a public holiday or it falls on the weekend, whether it is Sunday, they are simply sure of getting their money on that Sunday. This has come to be and believe me it has come to stay.  

We have come to set a standard and the Benue people have now seen the differences. If there was no money, how come all of a sudden, Father Alia came in with money? Initially, when we began the payment, conduction and execution of the project, they said Rome, the Vatican City, was sponsoring me so that the state would come out of shame and all that but that is not the fact. It is due to the support from the Federal Government, the normal thing that is being done to every other governor. 

In the church, since we don’t have money, we pinch the penny so this is the newness again that I have brought into the system, pinching the penny which again has created so many enemies because they are only used to taking fish, they don’t want to learn to catch the fish themselves. Who are those groups of people? Some sizable number of the elites. 

To the rest of the folks in the state, it is something new, it is something very welcoming, it is something they had prayed for and it is something they are experiencing. Believe me, if the need arises, I will be able to pay the salaries in June because we have prepared ourselves for this. There is the planning, good thinking, the strategy and then the right people and apparatuses to execute it. That is all we do then the monitoring, so it has come to stay.

Before now, payment of salary was capital intensive. Everything in the state was so. Again, this is about the strategy, the planning, the focus and the willpower to ensure that it is done. Is it my administration that brought in the contractors on the Otobi/Otukpo and Katsina-Ala Water Works? The answer is no. The previous administration owed them millions of money but we came in, and we had to settle that. In strategising, if you want to introduce someone to something new, you first of all have to do the education. Then you get into the field to let them understand what the issues are before you start bringing the newness of it. 

Water should be fetching a lot of money even for this state, but unfortunately, we haven’t got there. I don’t know when you came to town, but I wish you had had some conversations, even with the commissioners and people. The Commissioner for Water, Works and Environment will even tell you that as I am speaking, contractors are going about the urban areas to do a feasibility study to see how damaged those things are. Unfortunately, the water reticulation was bad in Makurdi.

With 2027 almost here, how do you solve your relationship with your party and your relationship with the Judiciary?  

Let me begin with the Judiciary. We don’t have any anxieties with the judiciary. For the record, we don’t at all. There were requisitions for the removal of the serving Chief Judge but the law permits that I sign. I haven’t signed anything. But then there is a protocol to all this. It has to go through the National Judicial Council, NJC, and all that. 

So it was an onus on me to transfer whatever anxieties that the CJ had created within the system in the state to the NJC and we have done that. So, the NJC is the master handling everything. That is their area. I think part of the angst on the CJ was for him to call for the judiciary workers to go on strike.  

Recently, we just upgraded our salary scheme and instead of 70 minimum, we went to 75 And the workers are quite excited about that and happy. The first time I came into administration, I granted the judiciary independence. I granted autonomy also to the local government. It was already in practice before the official local government autonomy came. We were already putting it into practice. 

The judiciary was already on its own, doing its stuff, doing its macro and micro-management of whatever resources. The divide was just made in a way that I know what it is, the headman gets a lot of change in there. Instead of fixing what he started as an anxiety, he now shifted to us. If you ask members of the judiciary, they will explain that to you. I even picked this up from them. This information I have let out is coming from me for the first time, but it is a fact because the records are there. It is not even an anxiety. He was now calling on some documentation for an increment. If any salaries were increased in the state, the establishment should also have theirs, very separate and all that. 

Now politically, I want to establish that when newness comes, certain people who are feeding on unapportioned largesse would not want it to go to the common masses. You expect a fight back. It is like you’re fighting corruption; it fights back and bites hard. This is the experience here. Some people within the political ranks feel that there should be no projects, salaries should not be paid, pensions should never be paid, hospitals should never be fixed, and schools should be left unfixed. Once we get the Federal Allocation and accounts, you tell them, sir, here it is. And then they take what they want and then give the rest to you, saying go manage this with the state. There are too many things at stake.  

Although there can still be evils, it is an option that serves the majority of the people so settle for the lesser evil.