Benue State governor-elect, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, has described the current state of affairs in the State’s civil service as that of one in critical condition and admitted to a hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
He spoke to State House correspondents on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, after a ‘thank you’ visit to President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to the governor-elect, he came to lead the state in order to infuse life into it and keep it moving.
Explaining why the state was in dire strait, the Fr. Alia said the state owes backlog of salaries, pensions and gratuities and he hoped to remain focussed and tackle the myriad of issues on his desk when he takes over office from May 29, 2023.
The governor-elect, who was accompanied on the visit to President Buhari by the Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Senator George Akume, also lamented the ethnic divisions that reared its ugly head between the people of the state and Fulani herders, which he said was strange to the state.
Speaking to how he intends to revive the state from what he described as a state of near collapse, Alia said: “Once I’m sworn in, I know that what the good people of Benue want is progress and development and there’s so much that we need to put on track for things to work. Benue state is an agrarian zone and so we must focus on agriculture and upgrade it.
“Benue is very capable of feeding the whole nation, so we are not just the Food Basket of the Nation by name and I am hoping that we will up our game in agriculture and take care of the rest as well.
“It is sad that the life of civil service in the state is in near collapse, it’s in the ICU, so I just need to get in there and infuse life in it and keep it moving. We have a lot of backlog of unpaid salaries, pensions and gratuities. So, already I got much on the desk to keep a good focus on and I remain hopeful that I am going to do just that,” he stated.
He commended President Buhari for making a firm decision for the 2023 elections to take place, noting that although people were expecting a perfect election even though it may not have been perfect, but a number of areas in the country recorded a near perfection in the outcome of the results.
“For someone to feel that we have never made the stride in the right directions, I think that would be flaw of logic. So, we have done so much and I remain quite grateful. My visit is a solidarity visit and President leaves office in a matter of months, I came to wish him well. He has done so much for the nation. Remember, I am a Catholic priest and I prayed for all of us too and shared the blessings with him too,” he added.
Asked what he was going to do to address the animosity that pervades the state over the anti-grazing law, Alia said: “one thing must remain clear, when you say that the atmosphere was quite tensed, let it be on record that the Benue people are very hospitable people.
“We are very friendly people and over the ages, we’ve lived all cultures and different people. And so if some mishap had happened in the last eight years, thank God the eight years have expired.
“I want everyone to feel that Benue is a home for everyone. Remember, before I am stepping in there as a governor, our history reveals that we have all cultures in Benue and so it is, we have all cultures in Nigeria in Benue. So I believe my time will not be any different.
“If there were some errors, I am coming to correct them. But I know for sure we are hospitable, we are friendly and the Benue State Assembly is also a knowledgeable Assembly. So the 10th Assembly is going to work for the people and do the work of the people. If by chance anybody perceived us to be a hostile state, please we are a renewed hope of Benue, a hospitable, friendly, law and order people. So, we are all welcome to Benue as we move in there,” he said.
Asked if he would be probing his predecessor against the backdrop of his letter to the Benue Investment Property Company, warning them of financial transactions with the outgoing governor, Alia said, “I haven’t looked at the books, so I wouldn’t want to be quite preemptive.”
