BY PETER DURU

Governor Gabriel Suswam in an interaction with newsmen in Makurdi spoke on several issues pertaining to the governance of the state and on national issues including the proposal for a single term for the President and Governors. Excerpts:

We see some new roads being constructed. Have you started drawing from theN13 billion bond?

Yes, we have started drawing from the funds and most of the projects that we started, we intend to exit them possibly at the end of this year or early next year. We are hoping that by the end of this month or early next month, the President will agree to come here and commission the water project and some of the roads that we have completed.

Benue State governor, Gabriel Suswam

We are drawing from the bonds and we are paying the contractors. That is why you see that everywhere you go, the contractors are on site in spite of the rains. The water treatment plants in Makurdi, Otobi and Katsina-Ala are all being test-run now.

What is your government doing in the area of giving the state befitting relaxation/ recreation centers, parks and gardens?

The essence of creating the Ministry of Tourism and Culture was for us to have a ministry to properly focus on areas of recreation and tourism. One of the points of reference we have given to the commissioner is to make sure that we develop these parks and she has been putting a lot of materials together as to how they can turn these parks to recreation centers for our children and even for adults. That is ongoing. I am also aware that most of them have been turned into gossip centers where people sit down, drink and gossip.

There were no memorable ceremonies to mark your first hundred days in office. Why?

Hundred days to me is a media hype. If I have a tenure of four years why should I be assessed in three months? If you need to put proper planning in place, it would take more than three months. If you are doing an economic plan or a feasibility study, it takes between one to six months. And so, I don’t think that we should lay much emphasis on hundred days. Hundred days is a creation of the media which puts people on edge and creates unnecessary anxiety. But within the first three months, I have done a lot of street roads. Also there are a lot of rural electrification that are outstanding for commissioning. We have also formed an economic team and names of the members are going to be announced very soon. The essence is to properly settle down and refocus ourselves.

So, I would say that if we are going to talk about the first hundred days which is about three months, then we have properly settled down. But I don’t think I would want to be judged within hundred days if I have a tenure of four years. The road from Otukpo to Utonkon was well constructed but now, heavy vehicles are passing that place and have spoilt the road. The design for trunk A roads which are federal highways is different from the design for rural roads. The money you use in constructing trunk A roads is so much that most states can’t pay. But unfortunately, most roads which you design as rural roads are now being used 24 hours by trailers and you know the heavy traffic coming from the south, all of them have been diverted to this road.

Recently, I went to Otobi to inspect the water works and I saw trailers plying that road because the trunk A road is bad. And that is why we are having the situation that we are having. I think it’s very bad that roads that are meant for the rural people are now being used by heavy vehicles. That explains why the Federal Ministry of Works would have to do quite a lot in addressing the issue of rehabilitation of their roads.

What is your reaction to complaints from pensioners in Benue state that they have no future?

I inherited accumulated pension arrears of close to N3 billion. But since I became governor I have been paying pensioners. I think every month we use about N30 million to pay them. We are trying to see if we can get some financial institutions to fight that debt and the Head of service is working on it so that we will be able to pay the backlog. And once we pay the backlog, we will be up to date.

It’s the backlog that is the problem. Those that I met, we pay them their entitlements every month but the backlog is the one they are complaining of. To get N3 Billion to offset that one is the problem. So, we are negotiating with some banks to buy the debt. It means that there must be some discount.

When is the Local Government Elections going to hold?

We intend that Local government elections be held early next year. The BSIEC has given me the cost and it’s a lot of money and we are trying to put that money in place. We need to also properly settle down. So, we will hold the election first quarter of next year.

Recently, a section of the Modern Market was demolished. Are you aware that a number of your citizens have been displaced economically because of that demolition and there is no arrangement to give them another place to do business?

If you have been to the Modern Market, what was there was an eye sore. It’s either that we allow illegal structures to take over the place or we demolish it and properly refocus the market. Any person who wants to do business in a well constructed market must have a shop. If you don’t have a shop, it is not on sentiment, it is business. It is not that Benue people want to have shops there and they were refused. Any person who comes there to take a shop pays.

So, we are doing business and business is not operated on sentiments. And so, for those that illegally put those structures, we are demolishing them. I have allowed the commissioner to refocus the market, we are going to repair the market and make it a Limited Liability Company and those who own shops there will know that they have protection. The way the market was, there were a lot of criminal activities going on because there were a lot of illegal structures. People who were not paying any revenue to the government were occupying the place.

You once promised that you would focus on housing after your efforts on roads. But till date there seems to be no sign of new estates to show your focus on housing?

On the estates, I don’t think you investigated. I have always had quarrels with journalists who don’t do proper investigation before asking a question so that you don’t ask question wrongly. As I speak now, the state is constructing an estate close to the Owner Occupier on the new road that I built there. There is also an estate which has been completed along Abuja Road. That estate is done in partnership with the state government. We have 100 units of flats there for civil servants. But people need to pay. In Naka Road, we also have 45 units of flats.

At the beginning of your second term you sacked your Special Assistants and Personal Assistants. Up till date, you have not re-appointed them. Are you burdened by the financial implication of sustaining them?

We will appoint SAs but we are now doing it properly. We want people who can add value. So, we have been working on it so that we get individuals who can add value. It’s not just going to be appointment based on political patronage. Yes, we will patronize our supporters but only those who can add value to what we are doing.

What is your position on the Seven years single tenure being canvassed by the President?

I have said this several times. Personally, I will support a single tenure of seven years for governors and for the president. And I have reasons for that. For a very long period of time, people have agitated that they are being marginalized. How do we solve this given the fact that Nigerians are very impatient? I think the president has this at the back of his mind that if we have a single tenure of seven years; it reduces a lot of things.

First, it addresses the issue of people feeling that certain groups of people are monopolizing the presidency or governorship. So, you have single tenure of seven years in the constitution. I want to add a proviso to that, that the issue of zoning must also be constitutional so that we have single tenure of seven years from this zone and once it finishes, it moves to another zone.

So, it’s not just a seven years single tenure that should be provided for in the constitution, zoning also should be constitutionalized so that no single group of persons monopolize the highest office even in the state or in the country. That would solve the problem. There is also another proviso. Provided that those of us who are exiting, that is any person who is exiting does not benefit from it.

The governors who are elected for the first tenure under the constitution were elected under the constitution that provides them to contest for a second tenure. Those ones will continue. But for those of us who are doing our second tenure already, we should not come back and say this is a new constitution and we want to contest.

That should also be made clear to Nigerians that those who are exiting should not benefit from the seven years single tenure. If we say for instance in Benue that it’s a single tenure of office for governors and that it should be zoned such that once this zone finishes, it moves to the next zone and on and on like that, it addresses a lot of issues.

It also reduces the acrimonies that go with second term elections. You know what I experienced, how you the media people were highly divided. If I was exiting at the end of my seven year tenure, these acrimonies won’t come in, other new persons would be coming in and so, people would not be that anxious and edgy.

And so, I think that the seven years single tenure proposal will address a lot of problems in this country, and I think that people should support it. People are trying to play politics with it. Well, the President has not presented that proposal yet but if that proposal is presented, I as a person will support it but I will not be a beneficiary of the single tenure.

So, I don’t think there is anything wrong with the proposal. We should all support it so as to address the issue of acrimony and marginalization that most Nigerians have cried of. It will help. So, I am in full support of that proposal when it is eventually presented to the National Assembly and I urge you to also support me in my support for the seven year single tenure of office provided that I do not benefit from it.

Sometime in your first tenure, you promised to make Makurdi, a state capital that is second to none in the country. You actually commenced work with the roads and then, you also installed the street lights. Most of those street lights are no longer working and a lot of people are worried. So, what is actually happening?

You know the problem with new technologies is that most times when we rush into it without knowing the nitty-gritty, we run into problems. We put those street lights with the understanding that since we have epileptic power supply, this will be more sustainable.

But we discovered that the maintenance of those street lights to a large extent are more than even having light from PHCN. However, we have invited some foreign company based in Abuja that produces some of these lights. They have come and done an assessment.

There is a modern technology that the bulbs can last for two years. Though that is slightly more expensive, we have asked them to come and they are coming back to give us the bills and I hope that we will have them back in the next few months. I have also been very worried. When I go out in the night and we don’t see the street lights. We have taken note of that and we are working on it.