Revealed! Fr. Alia’s sins

As the administration of Father Hyacinth Alia marches towards completing a second year, a cross-section of the people in the state has continued to identify what is regarded by pundits as the “sins” of the Benue State Governor.

While it is not a one-way traffic, with many who have given TNT audience applauding his unique administrative craftiness, others have pointed to his shortfalls as the governor’s sins.

According to Prof Qrisstuberg Amua, Interim Head of Benue State University Alumni Association (BSUAA) and Head of Benue Swine Project, Fr. Alia is “positively stubborn, and that is exactly what Benue needed.”

Prof Amua is of the view that in four years, Fr. Alia “would have matched if not surpassed what Aper Aku did.” He explained that the governor “is diametrically different from the lot that we had seen – different in many ways from what we have seen from many of his predecessors.”

According to Prof Amua, Fr. Alia has a very strong aversion to ripping off the state resources both directly and indirectly. “It has been common parlance with former leaders to say that there are not enough resources to develop Benue State. But you see His Excellency doing marvellously well, especially in the area of payment of salary to civil servants, payment of pension to pensioners and gratuity as it is and also the expansion of physical infrastructure, especially with respect to roads.

“These are very expensive ventures, and he has been doing them diligently, month in and month out. It proves positive that despite the fact that financial resources are never always enough, His Excellency has scored very well in the aspect of closing the loopholes, closing the leakages with respect to flittering away state resources that are generally and ordinarily scarce.”

“He is thinking big; Aper Aku thought big. The other predecessors did well in their capacity and in what they knew how to do, but I think most of them were thinking like what I will liken to what happened in the Bible: The Grasshopper mentality. His Excellency is not grasshoppish, at all. He thinks very big, he is thinking about very big projects, he is thinking of expanding Benue beyond the limits that are ordinarily known by Benue people and expected by Benue people. He is going to expand Benue beyond those limits.”

Prof Amua explained that Fr. Alia is thinking of a production economy for Benue State, and this, he said, is reflected in the “giant strides by Benue Investment and Property Company (BIPC)” in the area of industrial growth and price control.

One striking “sin” the governor has committed, according to pundits, is his “style of not bending or bulging to the enormous pressure of “stakeholders,” described by Prof Amua as “stateholders because they say they are stakeholders and in their definition of stakeholders they excluded the rest of Benue masses.

“And every citizen, indigene, and even resident of Benue is a stakeholder. So we refer to them as “stateholders” because they had held the state to its jugular in the past and, therefore, denied the state opportunities of the dividends of democracy that would have ushered in the much required or desired development.”

Within the one year plus of the Fr. Alia administration, BIPC has commissioned several production lines, including nails, bread, water, Zeva lager beer, and Oyi bitters, among other products, helping to check rising prices, pundits say.

Meanwhile, a senior civil servant in the state, who prefers to remain anonymous, told TNT that since the creation of the state in 1976, the Fr. Alia Administration has been the most passionate about the welfare of the state labour force. He mentioned the “swift implementation of the new minimum wage and not just implementation, increment of workers salary beyond the limit set by the Federal Government.”

“It is unprecedented. It has never been the case,” the senior staff went on, adding that the governor has demystified the trend of non-payment of salaries in the state while demonstrating that it is sufficient to “pay salaries and do projects.”

Elder statesman and erstwhile Consultant to Benue State Government on Projects Evaluation, Engr. Nath Apir, is confident that Fr. Alia is “determined to rejuvenate and expand the agricultural space so that where the state cannot generate employment, government will support young graduates with fertiliser, implement and other input so that they generate their own employment.”

Since 2023, when the governor came to power, he has ensured early provision of input to farmers in the state. It is understood that he has set aside Five Billion Naira for this dry season farming.

According to Engr. Apir, there have been massive changes since the coming to power of the governor. These changes, he said, are evident in the lightning of Makurdi, the state capital, the renewal of urban streets, and the construction of an underpass in Makurdi and Gboko.

Another area pundits have applauded the governor is in the area of investment in strengthening security. Only recently, the governor commissioned the Benue State Civil Protection Guards (BSCPG), launched Operation Anyam Nyôr and donated hundreds of vehicles to support mobility of security operatives in the state.

While the BSCPG are expected to support conventional security agencies in ensuring security of lives and property, Operation Anyam Nyôr, according to the governor, “will lay the foundation for lasting peace and security in all our communities.”

To Emmanuel Nyata, the Governor’s strides are changing the narratives in the state to the chagrin of those who held Benue by the jugular. Nyata thinks the governor “has done well,” while mentioning investment in education and health, particularly the laying of the foundation for cancer centre at Benue State University Teaching Hospital Makurdi, reviving the bond with students of Medicine at the College of Health Sciences Benue State University (BSU) Makurdi, over 100 per cent increase in local allowance for medical doctor Corps members serving in the state as some of the “monumental achievements of the governor,” that have earned him a bad name with “anti-development agents in the state.”

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state recently expressed “profound disappointment and deep concern regarding the current state of governance under the leadership of Governor Alia.”

In a statement, PDP’s Publicity Secretary in the state, Tim Nyor, says, “It has become increasingly apparent that the Alia administration operates more like a catholic parish than a democratic government, fundamentally undermining the principles and tenets of democracy that our citizens rightfully deserve.”

The party accused the governor of refusing to engage the people, settling for “secrecy and exclusion” of the people from “decision-making processes that affect our lives.”

Fr. Alia’s greatest sin appears to have been committed within his party. He is accused of jettisoning those who helped to bring him to power.

In November this year, at the burial of Wantaregh Paul Unongo, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Sen George Akume accused former Governor Gabriel Suswam and Chief Barnabas Gemade of misleading the governor while referring to the duo as “cheerleaders.”

The SGF said Fr. Alia is no longer the person that he used to know, urging the governor to retrace his steps.

Sen Akume lamented that he loves Fr. Alia, but the “cheerleaders” have taken the Governor away from him.

Fr. Alia, however, had earlier indicated that neither the SGF nor himself are the problem but “cheerleaders,” warning cheerleaders to shut up if they don’t have anything positive to contribute.

“There shouldn’t be Alia and Akume factor. Cheerleaders, Akume is not the problem; you, the cheerleaders, are the problem. I invite you to desist.”

“Akume, the great Senator and SGF, must have a place of honour, and no one must take that place.”

“I invite young people to see where we departed from the true leadership of honour and development. I invite all of us to take advantage of the passing of Unongo, who sought to govern this state but a governor we never got, and revive his own spirit. Let’s see what we can do to contribute, not what we can do to divide each other and Tiv politics.”

The Governor explained that success comes only when the people are united.

But it was James Ahungwa, a farmer and businessman, who summed it all up. He told TNT that the governor’s greatest sin is “showing that there is enough money in the state to pay salaries and execute projects.”

“He has exposed them, and they are not happy,” Ahungwa said. He, however, says, “They cannot prevail because the people are happy with the governor.”

Terkula Igidi, former Daily Trust journalist, reckons “in the tapestry of Benue’s story, one figure stands tall—a shepherd, a leader, and above all, a father to his people.”

Igidi describes Fr. Alia, as “the Godfather, not in the image of fiction, but in the embodiment of love and compassion, a beacon of hope in a world hungry for heroes and a godfather whose commitment to the people transcends the realms of faith, embodying the true essence of service.”