From Rose Ejembi, Makurdi

When on May 29, 2015, Dr. Samuel

Ortom took over the mantle of leadership as governor of Benue State, hopes were high that the ‘Food Basket state of the Nation’ was eventually going to take its rightful place in the comity of states and partake in the national cake.

On assumption of office, the governor had hinged his policy trust on five major pillars as enshrined in the policy document; ‘Our Collective Vision for a New Benue.

The five pillars are: to (a) ensure good governance and revenue security, (b) provide an Agricultural-Driven Industrialization, (c) provide Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM)-Based Education and Health Services, (d) invest in critical infrastructure and (e) promote gender equality, empower women, youth, and persons with disabilities.

But two years down the line, the question on the lips of many is whether the governor has been able to deliver on his electoral promises to the people or not.

While some believe that the Ortom-led administration has performed well, others hold the opinion that his masquerade had not danced well at the village square.

Industrialisation

In his inaugural speech, Governor Ortom promised that his administration would build private sector capacity by creating enabling environment for it to thrive.

But in spite of his efforts to remain true to his word, two years into his four-year tenure, there is no industry that one could point to in the state even as moribund industries such as the Otukpo Burnt Bricks, Taraku Mills as well as the Wannunne Tomato factories among others are still far from being revived.

Workers’ welfare

Also at inception, the governor, who lamented the pains workers were going through as a result of nonpayment of three months salaries owed them by the former administration, led by Governor Gabriel Suswam, promised to immediately make arrangements for the payment of salary arrears and outstanding allowances to pensioners.

Again, the governor tried to redeem his promise to workers and pensioners by taking some bonds and loans to offset salary arrears and ensure that workers get their pay as and when due.

It would be recalled that the Ortom administration had initially headed for the Bond market to obtain a loan of N10billion to pay May and June (2015) salaries of the state workers and running of government.

He followed this up with a commercial bank loan of N5.5billion which he used for the payment of counterpart funding with various international partners.

The state also accessed the N28billion bailout funds from the federal government which was used to offset the backlog of salary arrears to the tune of N12.5billion for state workers and N15.5 for local government workers as well as another loan of N10 billion and a Paris Club Refund of 12.5 billion even as another Paris Club Refund is being awaited at the moment.

But despite all these loans and Refunds as well as the monthly allocation accruing to the state from the federation account and monies accruing from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), the state is still grappling with payment of salaries as state workers are being owed six months’ salary at the moment (November 2016 to April this year) with teachers and local government workers as well as pensioners owed even higher.

This however has continued to be a big pain for the governor who at several fora lamented his inability to attend to workers’ welfare, as he wanted due to paucity of funds occasioned by the biting economic recession.

Education and Agriculture

The governor had promised that education would be promoted as the backbone of the Benue vision focusing on quality, access and relevance at all levels.

And true to his words, the education sector has received a boost with the ongoing renovation of primary and secondary schools across the state and that of the School of Nursing and Midwifery which had lost accreditation for two years.

Ortom’s administration also secured accreditation of the Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH) leading to the graduation of three sets of medical doctors, totaling 152, as well as the placement of salary of Benue State University (BSU) workers on first line charge to nip the incessant strike in the bud.

In the area of agriculture, the governor had promised that the expected outcome of his administration was to extend the name of the state as ‘Food Basket of the Nation”, to include processing of agro-products.

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Speaking at an Agriculture Summit organized by the state ministry of Agriculture sometime in December last year, deputy governor of the state, Engr. Benson Abounu listed the objectives of the administration on agriculture to include promoting access to safe nutrition, sufficient and affordable food all year round for Benue citizens.

Others are: to make agriculture a business, contributing substantially to the economic growth of the state and increasing the income of farmers up to 80percent by the year 2019 and; to identify and facilitate access to local, national and international markets for the mandate crops, prioritized by agricultural cooperatives.

Abounu also reiterated government’s decision to urgently promote and pursue the objectives of agricultural sustainable industrialization with the target of ensuring that agro-processing is one of the top ten contributors to the GDP of the state by 2019 and one of the top three by 2025.

Abounu stated that the vision of the state government is to ensure that the state becomes the preferred agro-industrial hub in the country and the preferred source of high quality processed products to the Nigerian market and the West African sub region.

He further disclosed that through collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria in the Anchor Borrowers programme, Bank of Industries and Bank of Agriculture, Benue farmers have been trained in rice and soya beans production and provision of inputs, adding that as a result of this, the crop yield of Benue farmers have shown tremendous improvement this harvest season with the mean yield of rice per hectare rising from 2.5 MT per hectare in 2014/2015 to 4.5MT per hectare this year and that of soya bean rising to 3.5MT per hectare from 1.5MT per hectare in 2014/2015.

Security

Ortom who had promised to partner with local communities to ensure the security of lives and property immediately instituted an amnesty programme where he called on all those with illegal weapons in the state to surrender them.

He identified attacks by criminal gangs and herders attack as two major threats to the security of the state, and as such promised to seek ways to forestall the incessant herders’ clashes on Benue farmers through appropriate legislation.

Terwase Akwaza alias ‘Ghana’, a dreaded militia leader was among the first to come forward and embraced the amnesty programme when he surrendered over 80 assorted weapons at the Government House in Makurdi.

Unfortunately, ‘Ghana’ soon returned to his ‘trade’ following his alleged involvement in the killing of the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Special Security, Denen Igbana over a year ago and his subsequent placement on the wanted list of the Police since then.

Sadly, up till now, several efforts to nab him have failed while the killing spree including the recent broad day invasion of Zaki-Biam Yam Market and many others had been linked to him.

Benue people react

A widow and mother of eight children, Mrs. Christiana Akase from Akile Village located on Kilometre 15, Makurdi/Gboko Road, lamented that the administration of Governor Ortom had not impacted on her living standard in any way.

Madam Akase who is a farmer maintained that promises made to farmers by the Ortom’s administration to provide farm inputs and improved seedlings as well as money to enhance their farm business had not been fulfilled.

“I have not seen Ortom fulfilling any of his promises to us. For instance, I am a farmer and he promised to give us money for our farming business but nothing has come to me. I am a widow with eight children who are all in school. I suffer a lot to ensure they go to school. But it is now pretty difficult for me to continue sponsoring them in school with my very meager income. These are areas Ortom should look into; free education for indigent students.”

But Terdoo Atagher, a security guard differs from Madam Akase’s opinion, insisting that Governor Ortom has performed well in all areas of governance and that he would still vote for him again if he contests in 2019.

However, in a chat with Daily Sun, the PDP state Secretary, Bemgba Iyortom who described Ortom’s two-year performance as a failure said there was nothing to point to as a success story of the Ortom-led administration.

“This is a government that came with the promise to pay salaries but we all know how much salary workers and pensioners are being owed in the state despite the billions of naira that had been borrowed. Crime is on the rise in the state. No project has been completed or commissioned in two years. They only came with a promise of change and we have not yet seen any positive change so far.”

Reacting however, Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and ICT, Tahav Agerzua who insisted that the Ortom administration had performed well in two years listed some of its achievements to include construction of 42 new primary health care centers across the state, construction of roads, as well as the ongoing face lifts for all government primary schools in the state.

He further listed other achievement as the accreditation of the Medical school at the Benue State University which had seen to the graduation of 152 medical doctors in three batches from the institution, the renovation and building of the school of Nursing and Midwifery which lost accreditation for two years as well as several ongoing rural roads and electrification projects across the state.

Agerzua who agreed that the Ortom’s administration had not been able to fulfill all the promises it made to the people yet due largely to recession noted that this is so because most of the projects have gestation periods which would have to take a while before they can come to life.

He identified the issue of security and nonpayment of salary as the major concern of the Ortom- led administration. He was however quick to assure the people of the state that the governor, who has continued to trust in God would not fail them.

On why no project had been commissioned yet since assumption of office, the governor’s spokesman said, “Commissioning is a mere ceremony that can be done anytime but the good thing is that people are already using some of these projects.”