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Secretary to Benue State Government DR. AUDU ACHIGILI speaks to JOHN EWAOCHE GABRIEL at the recent Idoma Forum held in Kaduna. He spoke on the level of infrastructural development in the state, and said, the state government is not interested in establishing industries rather; individual investors should come and invest.

NNW: What is the level of infrastructural development in Benue State?

DR. ACHIGILI: Before the government of Governor Gabriel Suswan came in, the infrastructural development was at zero level. But today, if you get to Markudi now, every thing is in order, we thank God for the level we have reached so far. Initially, we started with 24 km road, and we added another 10 kilometers in Agbaji, 8 kilometers of abstract road in Gboko, 22 in Oturkpo. The essence of the rehabilitation is to make our cities attractive for people, visitors and others to come and invest in our state. We are happy today that the problem of water in the state, is now a thing of the past, we have sign a contract with an international agency who is doing a hundred water treatment plant, and that will take some time to complete. We believe that by the time that project is completed; the shortage of water supply in Makurdi and its environs will be a thing of the past. Apart from all these efforts, we are also calling on foreign investors to come and invest in our state, like you see when you come to Benue State, government is not a good business man. The governor is very open to people who want to invest in some of our industries to come and run it, and employ our people. The development in Benue State is not just Makurdi alone, we extended to all our urban centres like Gboko, Katsina-Ala, Oturkpo etc. and all local governments in the state will also be touched. Recently, the governor flagged off the construction of about 5 rural roads.

Thank God, we are using competent contractors, PW, Dantata and others. So it’s not a short job we are doing.

What effort is Benue State doing towards resolving political crisis in the state?

You should expect that if you contest an election, and you are not satisfied with the outcome of election, you can go to court. The government is making effort to resolve them for the benefit of Benue State.

In the recent times, Idoma people feel cheated in the administration of the state, and sharing of resources between Idoma and TIV who constitute the majority. What is the government doing now to ensure equal distribution of resources?

Maybe am ignorant of what you are saying, I am an Idoma man, I have been in Benue all this while, I have never felt cheated. Probably you are talking about a case of 11 people who were to see an elephant. Some said you should call the elephant different names. But you see, in politics which is sharing of resources. Somebody must complain and so, when somebody is complaining, and the government has addressed those complaints I don’t think there is need for further complain any more. As I said before, the same quantity of road we are constructing in zone A, is the same thing we are constructing in zone B, and C. No body is been marginalized. If you observed carefully, we try to restructure our secondary schools. And the same number we are restructuring in zone A, is what we are doing in zone B and C. The state by this administration is a new Benue; we are trying to live above ethnic sentiment.

Benue State indigenes have cried out several times of non viable industry to create employment for the indigenes. What is the state government doing to alleviate people from poverty?

I have earlier said, government is not a good business man. We do not want to get involve in running industries. For those industries that are in place, we said, let our people come, and take over these industries, in order to revive the industries, we are going to employ our people and empower them. So government is not going to run the industries. Everybody is expecting us to run the industries, government will never do that on its own, but if our people take the responsibility and provide the technical know how, they can employ our people. Look, we are not saying individual should come and buy our industries, No. They should come with their expertise and run it for the benefit of our indigenes. We have an uncompleted international hotel in Makurdi, government is now inviting people who have the expertise to come and run it in order to employ our people.