Governor Gabriel Suswam’s unfulfilled promises in Benue

Apart from his futile attempt to install a successor, Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam may be adjudged as “a failed governor” due to the myriad of unfulfilled promises in the name of his much talked about social contract with the people of the state.

While some believe that the present administration in the state may have thrived on deceit and gross fiscal irresponsibility, others say that Suswam who, on assumption of office in 2007 vowed to channel state fund into developmental projects to turn round the state and leave enduring legacies on the sands of history, is today exiting office with a catalogue of unfulfilled promises.

On assumption of office after an eight- year stint in the House of  Representatives, he made public pronouncement on his resolve to make the welfare of workers and pensioners his top priority. But today, he is leaving office with five months unpaid salaries. Most of the workers have either died in penury or fallen sick due to non-payment of their salaries and entitlements. 

During his inauguration on May 29, 2007, Governor
Suswam said: “In accepting your mandate here today, I pledge before you all, before my creator, the only living God I serve, that I desire to give my people no cause whatsoever to regret. I desire and pray that the Almighty God will make me surpass the achievements of my forbearers who have brought us this far….Our administration is committed to creating a transparent, honest and egalitarian society based on the rule of law.

“We shall therefore wage a war against corruption just as we shall insist on high standards of probity and accountability from public officers. This administration shall promote greater transparency in the handling of government business and shall insist on due process in all government transactions…
For, according to Thomas Jefferson; one of the foremost of American presidents, ‘when a man assumes a public trust, he must consider himself a public property’. I agree absolutely with this thesis.” 

Sunday Telegraph gathered that as at June 30, 2014, the external multilateral debt of Benue State, according to the Debt Management Office was $28,791,949. 55. The big question the Benue people are asking now is how did we get here after the debt relief by the Paris Club and other multilateral creditors in 2005? Under the Federal Government brokered agreement, Benue State enjoyed a debt relief of $242 million from the Paris Club and £92 million from London Club of creditors.
Similarly, domestic debts to contractors in the state were drastically reduced by the previous administration. It will, therefore, not be out of place to state that Governor Suswam began in 2007 on a clean slate.

However, within about seven years of the Suswam-led administration, the level of indebtedness of the state cannot be easily ascertained.
There is no gainsaying that Benue State is an agrarian state whose population depends on agriculture for survival. It is therefore, sad and most unfortunate that the Suswam’s administration has neglected this important sector. Today, eight years into his administration Suswam, the people of Benue seem to regret their choice of governor because he has distanced himself from his inaugural speech.

That is not all, the governor is believed to be singlehandedly responsible for the collapse of primary school education in the state. Though he had promised to accord top priority attention to the education sector, but the promises have turned out to be mere tales as evidenced in the closure of most tertiary institutions including the Benue State University which is currently on strike.

The sector has been paralysed for the past months. Suswam has also failed to revive nonfunctional industries as promised. In the state today, industries like Taraku Mills, Otukpo Burnt Bricks industry, Benue Breweries, Katsina Ala Fruit Juice Company, Makurdi Sheraton Hotel, the Greater Makurdi Water Works among others just to mention a few, have either been leased out, grounded to a halt or taken over by reptiles.

Various road projects for which huge sums of contract sum have been awarded have been abandoned. The governor had obtained a whooping N18 billion bond from the capital market to enable him fund what he described as ‘critical projects’ including: the reticulation and upgrading of water works in Makurdi, Otukpo and Katsina Ala; upgrading/ rehabilitation of Daudu-Gbajimba 48.50 km road; rehabilitation of township roads; construction Wannune-Ikpa-Igbor 36.732km road; construction of Oju-Obusa-Utonkon 51.48 km road; construction of Taraku- Naka-Agagbe 61 km road as well as the completion of rural electrification projects among others which have been captured in the 2015 budget, have been abandoned and the money has not been accounted for.

Some basic amenities which the Suswam administration has turned a blind eye at include electricity and the health sector where most general hospitals in the state have simply become mere consulting clinics.
Worse still is the abandonment of contract for the rehabilitation of the state-owned media establishments like Radio Benue, The Voice Newspaper and the Benue Television project which has gulped about N628, 889, 919 since it was started more than seven years ago.
The abandoned television station was conceived to enhance reception of interesting indigenous programmes and also promote local languages. 

The Commissioner for Information, Mr. Justin Amase said that construction work on the television project had reached 80 percent stage of completion.
He said transmission and broadcast services were yet to commence due to defective studio and inadequate antenna height.
“Permit me to underline the fact that concerted efforts to overcome these challenges are being pursued vigorously. 

Towards this end, I am pleased to inform you that the governor has graciously approved the release of the sum of N48.9m only for the completion of the project and for its license renewal and digitalization.” Amase stated.
Worried by the absence of visible sign of take-off, the Benue State Assembly House Committee on Information and Orientation has resolved to launch a full scale probe into the circumstances that led to the delay in commencement of operation by the station.
Source New Telegraph