Is Benue State Cursed with Governance Failure?

July 11, 2018

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There is no denying the fact that underdevelopment is evidently pervasive in Benue state because of incompetent governance and malicious corruption over the years.

The present system of governance in the state is not working for the over 6 million people in the state, rather its serving the interest of a very tiny minority who have continued to plunder and impoverish the people of the state.

On May 29 2015, Samuel Ortom was sworn in as the new Benue state Governor to take over reigns from the very much maligned outgoing Governor Gabriel Suswam who did not even showed up for the traditional ‘handing over’ ceremony at the IBB square in Makurdi for fear of been booed by the people who perceived his government failed them.

So much was expected from the new government of Samuel Ortom to fare better given all the promises it made. It’s been over three years since the administration came to power and the build up to the next election is already gathering momentum.

Has the APC led government in the state whom the people massively voted in 2015 delivered on its promises to the people?

How has the Ortom government fared?

Ortometer reading more failures

The readings from an independent performance tracking indicator Ortometer shows that the Government of Samuel Ortom is failing woefully on its promise to the Benue people as captured in its policy document ‘Our collective Vision for a new Benue’.

And from all indications, the Ortom’s government may not be able to meet up to 35% of its electoral promises to the people by the time of the next election in March 2019 (eight months away).

The perceived failure of Ortom’s government is its inability to account for how it has managed the huge funds it got.

Available information gathered from the National Bureau of Statistics show that Governor Samuel Ortom has gotten more money (from all sources) in his 3 years as Governor (June 2015- May 2018) than what former Governor Gabriel Suswam got in his first 3 years as Governor (June 2007-May 2010).

Benue state under Governor Ortom got as much as over N320bn, that is if you include the over N53bn loans the government had collected: N28bn bail out, N10bn for administration take off, N10bn for critical infrastructure and N5.5bn for counterpart funding.

The question that comes to mind is where is the evidence that Benue state government under Governor Samuel Ortom has fared better in the development of the state than what he met?

2017 High point of Ortom’s Government Plundering?

In 2017 the State Government under Ortom got over N100bn from all sources including: IGR, State share of FAAC, 23 LGAs share of FAAC including 2 tranches of Paris Club refund, yet it owed all category of workers in the state between 7- 10 months salary without any explanation. Why?

Benue on a Familiar path?

The failure of Ortom’s government to provide verifiable evidence for how Benue state fared better under his watch despite the huge money it has gotten in 3 years and still wants to seek re-election for a 2nd term is a sad reminder that the state could be moving on the familiar path of a failed government seeking another opportunity.

Sadly, to put it Simple terms – Benue people are being Short-changed by a corrupt and inferior political class in governance.

As things are now, the future of the state’s socioeconomic development is compromised.

Will the Benue people be courageous to issue a #Redcard to #PoorGovernance or the status quo will be upheld come March 2019?