By Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor Benue State Governor, Rev Father Hyacinth Alia, is a man who makes no noise in the administration of the state and can rightly be described as one of the most peaceful governors in Nigeria, having not created any form of conflict within and outside the state. Alia has embarked on many projects and programmes aimed at changing the fortunes of his state and the people. He took advantage of the visit of the Presidential Media Team/Renewed Hope Ambassadors to the state to speak on what he has been doing to improve the fortunes of Benue. The governor decried the antics of those opposed to the reforms being implemented by President Bola Tinubu that have freed funds for the transformation of the country and asked them to have a rethink. You came from a different background to preside over the state. How are you able to govern the state in the past three years? That is a tough question. But I will answer it explicitly. We need to address the inefficiencies of certain leadership. The first thing we need to succeed is to have a clear and unambiguous direction. There has to be a mission and a vision. Benue State is 50 years old today, and in the 50 years, we have had a series of leaders. And, we need to have a master plan. We did not have one in 50 years. When others came in, they made some inroads on what they thought was best for the people. We had to go down to the trenches to ensure that this is what the market woman is needing at this particular time. This is what the farmers are desiring. And this is what everybody in the state truly seeks to have to take us from the so-called glorified village status to the proper status of citizenship. We need to improve the state capital, other townships and then move to work on the rural areas of the state to give people a sense of belonging and hope. We have established the Benue Food Basket Brewery in place of the one we lost. If you take the statistics from the people to know why we had beer breweries here during Aper Aku, it was simply because people desired it. When the brewery died, a lot of money was taken out from the state because the people who were enjoying its benefits had to rely on other breweries outside the state and there was a huge capital flight as a consequence. People love the beer because it is made from the local produce-from the Sorghum we produce, the cassava we produce, and the corn we make. If we are producing these raw materials, why are we not converting them so that we all have the benefits of the value chain being made? There are several things we put in place to ensure that the Food Basket Brewery that produces the Zeva Beer survives. We have the juice factory. We also have a separate factory from the juice, the concentrate factory. All three of those factories, which we established in the last three years, are functional and meant to remain as such because we will continue to monitor them. We have the right people to ensure that things work. In the last one year, the price of a bag of oranges has moved from N3,500 to N17,500 and there is a lot of competition on that. What do we do? The farmers are also going to enjoy it. We have already registered all the site rooms and those who have orchards. Those farmers are registered under cooperatives. They know that this is the source where the funds are coming to them: to keep their farms; expand them; and to keep smiling to the bank. There is assurance that what they do today sustains tomorrow. They know that we are going to be very constant. We are business-minded, which means we have put in place measures to ensure they stay. It is quite unfortunate that we lost the Taraku Mill which was one of the huge entities that was driving the economy in the state. That arm had died because people felt it was just a common cake. Get your knife, cut a chunk, and then leave. But at the end of the day, everybody lost in the state. Benue State was the number one producer of Soybeans nationwide. We are now working our way back to the front line again. What will that do to the farmers? They understand that the Taraku Mill has come back. It is going to be a market sustenance for the produce they are getting from the farms. Already, we have started giving farm incentives. We are giving some money to small farmers, to very big farmers, to go back into Soybeans farming. We are already giving farm inputs to those who have identified themselves. Some data was already taken. We are even intending to have a Benue Farm Market in Abuja. The road is now open. We used to do five and a half hours from here to Abuja. Now it is even shortened. It takes under three hours for us to get to Abuja. What stops us from taking the Benue fresh farms, oranges, yams, name them, over there? Because except if you do not plant, you must harvest on this land. These are the advantages we have. If people are making money co
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