CHANGE HAS COME TO BENUE



Being a speech of the Governorship Candidate at the People’s Campaign Flag-off by ACN for the April General Elections in Benue State.



By



Professor Steve Torkuma Ugbah



Protocol

1. Let me begin by saying thank you to all who have travelled from, far and wide to grace this occasion which will go down in the annals of history of Benue State, as the day, the people of Benue have decided to take their destinies into their hands in order to secure their own future and that of the children yet unborn. We all made this journey for a reason. I am deeply humbled by your presence, but in my heart I know you did not just come here for me, you came here because you believe in what this state can be. In the face of despair, you believe there can be hope.



2. My good people of Benue State, as you all know,2011, the year that you longed for, the year that you prayed for, the year that you waited patiently for is here with us. It is the year in the democratic sequence that gives us the opportunity to assess our leaders, assess our governments, and demonstrate through the ballot box that power truly belongs to the people.



3. Power belongs to the people. As you vote leaders into positions this year, you have the power to either vote them out or re-elect them come 2015.Your vote is your power that is why power belongs to the people. When you cast your vote conscientiously, it attests to whether you agree that you have been led well, and whether you have been represented well in the past four years. Wehave a duty and a responsibility to our children to make this assessment very honestly. After the honest assessment you can withdraw the mandate you gave or revalidate it.



4. My dear people of Benue State, we have to ask ourselves these questions. In the past four years, has government implemented policies that have improved your agricultural yields? Have you got fertilizer and other inputs? Why is there so much hunger on your faces? Is the food basket empty? Were you able to access good medical facilities and could you afford it? Were teachers taken good care of, so that they had the comfort to train our children properly? Why were our University lecturers on strike for so long? The little stipend that is paid to students by way of scholarship, was it paid as at when due? Have we thought that the stipend is grossly inadequate and we have overburdened the parents? As parents, did you find it easy to register your children for Exams such as NECO, WAEC and JAMB? Why has so much money been released from the federation account to the local governments, and yet nothing in terms of development has reached our rural areas? Why? Why? The questions are many and bother on our lives, and on the responsibility of Government. I know that most Benue people will answer these questions without a resounding NO!.



5. This means that there is need for change. Positive change needs to come to Benue. We need a change that will address the issues of our collective welfare. We cannot continue to be the food basket of the nation and die of hunger. Benue state is a land of promise. God has blessed us with material, human, spiritual and cultural resources that can be the basis for building a prosperous and sustainable state. We need change because we cannot afford to allow these potentials to waste.



6. The desire of the Benue electorate to effect change in the state has not been met by genuine aspiration. Unbelievably, up to this moment, only a few have come out to formally declare their interest to contest for the governorship of the state. This scenario is quite unusual. Benue people have been intimidated to a state of unusual fear that is not in the character of its courageous citizenry. This apathy is not unconnected with the rumored capacity perfected by the incumbent government to intimidate and harass interested qualified people to keep off the race.



7. My dear people of Benue State, ladies and gentlemen of the Press, history is replete with all these tactics. These cannot postpone the judgment of the people. I have taken time to reflect on the situation and consulted widely with the people and I have decided to brave the situation and rise up to this challenge. Honestly, my life will be meaningless, if I sit idly and watch Benue State and the labour of our heroes past, Chief Dr. Senator Joseph SaawuanTarka, Chief J. C. Obande, Mr. ApollosAperAku, all of blessed memories, end up in vain. I prefer to die a brave man fighting to emancipate my people than to live in our collective cowardice. Why for heaven’s sake will everybody know that something is wrong yet nobody is ready to speak out?



8. I am aware of the enormity of desperate moves that will be employed to frustrate this mission. I am consoled by the undying words of Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim:

“If they do not succeed by false propaganda, by calling us all sorts of names, if they fail to make us unpopular in order to win… they can arrange assassination. They can do it by poison or by setting our own people against us. They can go to any length”.



9. It is true that I was part of the process that produced the present administration. It is also true that, I have not lived in Nigeria for many years, but I have a family here and this is my state.

- Benue State does not belong to governments.

- Benue state does not belong to political parties.

- Benue state belongs to us, ordinary people.



I have remained in constant touch with the ordinary people of Benue. I know what goes on in Owukpa, Edumoga, Ugboju. I know the suffering in Adi Etulo, Kur, Agwabi, Ikpa – Mbatierev, Gwarche, Mkar. I have enough knowledge of the problems in Ugba, Anyiin, Sai, Ikowe, Gbeji, Abako, Kpor, Anshagba, Jato – Aka,Udeadeku, Ajio, Tsar, Kornya and everywhere.



10. The fundamental questions now begging for answers are: how do we get Benue out of the present level of penury? How do we revive our political culture to enable people have confidence in the system and cooperate, for the overall development of our state? I strongly believe we have the answers to these questions.



11. To actualize our vision for a greater Benue, my Administration has outlined five (5) critical areas of intervention which includes:

- Good governance

- Economic revitalization and job creation

- Accessible, quality health care

- Accessible, quality education

- Targeted Infrastructural development



12. We have all witnessed the complete strangulation of the Local Government system in the state through draconian enactments. In this law, local governments have been reduced to the status of pay points and places for siphoning funds meant for rural development by government officials. Local government chairmen have been given the status of pay masters and clerks responsible for doctoring records to cover up the looting.



13. When I am elected Governor, we will rescue the local governments in the state, and make them regain their pride as the third tier of government. I will grant autonomy to the local councils and make conditions favourable for Council Chairmen to embark on massive development of rural areas. I will also channel other programmes to the council to further improve the quality of life of rural dwellers.



14. Staff welfare will be given adequate priority by our administration. We shall implement the new salary structure proposed by the federal government as well as clear the backlog of salaries and allowances being owed civil servants in the state. We understand Teachers have not been paid their leave grants and others entitlements since the inception of the present administration. Our administration upon assumption of office, will urgently review and clear all that is due to the Teachers.



15. Pension is another area that will be properly addressed by our administration. How can someone after spending 35 years of meritorious service to the state, be denied his monthly pension and gratuity? A pension reform policy will be introduced by our administration in such a manner that, as you are disengaging from the civil service, your gratuity will be paid at the point of exit while you pension will start running immediately. Money will be made available to pay all outstanding pension arrears in the state.



16. Industrialization and modernized agricultural system are the ‘two legs’ upon which the Benue economy must stand if Benue is to be counted among states with viable economies. Accordingly, my government will set up agro – based and other relevant industries in every senatorial zone within the state. Thus, thousands of tons of oranges, mangoes, tomatoes, pepper, tubers of yams, rice etc. produced in the state will be channeled into these industries. Apart from absorbing the army of unemployed graduates within the state, these industries will attract millions of dollars through exports and billions of naira from Nigerian markets for our dear state. The moribund industries will be revived and privatized for efficiency.



17. I am very mindful of the fact that power and energy are critical variables affecting industrialization. Power supply in the state is simply grossly inadequate to service the industries envisaged above.



18. Our agricultural policy aims at modernizing agriculture through mechanization and introduction of improved variety of crops and livestock. Herbicides, pesticides, fertilizer and other farm inputs will be made available to farmers at the onset of the farming season, and at affordable rates. Silos, cold-rooms and other storage facilities will be installed at strategic places to improve the preservation of agricultural products. Agro- service centers which were conceived to play a critical role of facilitating rural agricultural revolution have all been abandoned. My government will revive, renovate and reposition them to provide extension and demonstration services to farmers at designated points across the state. Bearing in mind that the value of perishable crops like tomato, pepper etc. diminish during rainy season, but regain an astonishingly high value during the dry season, our administration will encourage serious irrigation farming. We shall encourage Benue farmers to organize cooperative societies where government shall give them irrigation machines for use in dry season. Fortunately, Benue state is blessed with major rivers and streams which flow all year round, such machines can be used effectively. Besides, we shall sink motorized boreholes in extremely dry places to avail farmers in such areas the opportunity of embarking on all - year - round farming.





19. Our health institutions will be given sufficient attention. This can be done through provision of modern equipment, supply of authentic drugs, construction and renovation of blocks in state owned general hospitals. Each local government will have a standard general hospital with quality health personnel. In consultation with College of Medical Sciences and other relevant bodies, we shall set up pharmaceutical companies that will manufacture quality drugs to service our hospitals and other healthcare centers across the state. Knowing that our Teaching Hospital is strategic in providing quality manpower to our numerous hospitals across the state, we shall hasten work and ensure its completion in the shortest possible time. We will take over the treatment of HIV/AIDS and other life threatening transmittable and non – transmittable diseases free of charge at our various general Hospitals across the state.



20. My good people of Benue State, we all know that quality education is an indispensable tool in achieving social economic development. It is therefore so disheartening that the present administration has completely abandoned the educational sector to deteriorate to a point of total collapse. Never in the history of Benue state have we experienced complete systematic collapse in education such as we are experiencing under this administration.



21. Let us be a generation that will reshape the Benue economy to compete in the 21st Century. Let us set high standards for our schools and give them the resources they need to succeed. Let us recruit a new army of teachers, give them better pay and more support in exchange for efficient and quality service delivery in terms of quality graduates. My government will take over the responsibility of registering all students in public secondary schools for both Junior and Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations in line with the ideology of the Action Congress of Nigeria. I will ensure that bursary allowances to students are reviewed upward to an appreciable level and paid on time. The culture of academic excellence through hard work and honesty will be inculcated in students. Very importantly, we shall require that all public officers must necessarily enroll their children and wards in public schools. What is good for the goose has to be good for the gander.



22. No responsible government can afford to produce and abandon graduates to roam the streets, for we know that such attitude will force them into crime as a way of earning a living. We shall device methods of taking statistics on the number of graduates Benue state turns out every year. This will enable us to provide employment opportunities and meaningfully engage them in other positive areas of livelihood. Our commitment to gainful employment will have the vulnerable groups particularly the youth and women as the main targets. We shall therefore bring to reality the small and medium scale industries that will engage our youths and women so as to enable them achieve economic empowerment and self reliance. Every single person willing to work should be able to get job training that leads to a job and earn a decent living.



23. My good people of Benue State, our greatest developmental challenge in Benue State remain Accelerated Rural Development. In spite of the fact that the present government has spent billions of naira supposedly on rural roads, our rural roads are still in extremely deplorable condition. In the last three years no meaningful program has been put in place for comprehensive rural development in the state. We intend to embark on massive construction of rural roads with a bid to opening up rural communities for development. Such rural roads will ease the process of marketing agricultural products by local farmers. In addition, we aim to reorganize the settlement pattern of the rural people into semi urban areas for easy provision of electricity and pipe borne water. This will lift the burden off the shoulders of the typical villager who lives at the borderline of animal existence without these amenities. This will also curb cases of waterborne diseases in rural communities as well as create an enabling environment for establishment of small scale businesses in rural areas to boost their economy.



24. Our government will embark on independent power generation. River Benue, solid waste, abundant sunlight, and silicon in the state constitute a great potential for alternative energy. I wish to assure you that all these are not empty promises; they are achievable projects. This is time for real business; this is the time for action.



25. In spite of the abysmal performance of this administration and despite the huge allocations collected from the Federation Account more than ever since the creation of the state in 1976, the debt profile of this administration is very astonishing and is still increasing. We have been committed to unreasonable debts without justification. One wonders why such financial recklessness! As at now, Benue State has been mortgaged for over twenty years to come. If you don’t rise up now and effect change, our Benue will have no future or there will be no Benue to deserve a future!



26. For far too long have we acted out the proverbial man who lives by the riverside but washes his hands with spittle! Up to this moment, no town in Benue State, including Makurdi the state capital, has a functional water works that is adequately catering for the water needs of its inhabitants. We will embark on water resource development and conservation for domestic, industrial and agricultural use. Water works in various places begging for completion will be completed within the shortest possible time. There will be water everywhere all the time.



27. All of us know what those challenges are today – a dependence on oil revenues that threatens our future, schools where too many children are not learning, and families struggling to have access to the basic necessities of life such as food, shelter and clothing despite working as hard as they can. We know the challenges. We have heard them. We have talked about them for years.



28. What has stopped us from meeting these challenges is not the absence of economic and human resources, sound policies and sensible plans. The major obstacle is the failure of leadership, the smallness of our politics-the ease with which we are distracted by the petty and trivial, our chronic avoidance of tough decisions and our preference for scoring cheap political points instead of building a working consensus to tackle big problems.This is the gap I have come to fill. I believe that the experience of the past few years has made us all a lot more wiser; I am confident that we all realize that it is now time we subtract the mediocrity factor from our leadership equation. This however cannot be accomplished without your support. I hereby solicit your much needed support as I run for the governorship of Benue State in 2011 on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN.



29. My dear good people of Benue State, I have great faith in the promising future of our beloved state. Benue is richly endowed with natural and human resources worthy to be counted among the leading states in Nigeria. Perhaps, the only factor that is responsible for its backwardness is lack of focused, determined and visionary leadership.



30. Action Congress of Nigeria ACN is the party for now and the future. Nigerians are tired of the deceit and the dishonesty of the PDP. Nigerians who desire democracy cannot live under the autocratic rule of the PDP. The Peoples Democratic Party has lost confidence in the people. The founding fathers of the party have declared that the umbrella cannot provide the desired shade. They are leaving en masse; our own Sen. George Akume, Sen. IyorchiaAyu, Sen. JubrilAminu, Gen. BubaMarwa, Prof. Dora Akunyili, Chief Dr. Sen. OlusolaSaraki etc etc. Every citizen of conscience is picking the broom to sweep out the mess of the PDP. To sweep out the PDP mess in Benue is a task that must be done.



31. Together, starting today, let us finish the work that needs to be done, and usher in a new birth of freedom in Benue State.



Thank you so sincerely for coming and God bless.



Long live, Federal Republic of Nigeria

Long live, Benue State

Long live, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)





Prof Steve Torkuma Ugbah

March 3, 2011