22/07/2025
I saw this piece written by Austine Torkuma and i couldn’t help laughing very very hard 😄
Benue: The Construction Site with 2 Excavators. (1)
I like the way Seniorman Jayms picks on appointees of the Alia Administration, Isolates them and tackles them head long.
He does it so smartly with only one intent- to absolve the Governor of any blame.
The CPS, SAs, Commissioners and Security Advisor have been Victims of his Pen Sword at different times.
It reminds me of how people made excuses for Buhari while he sank Nigeria. Some because they were NPower/School feeding Program beneficiaries. A program that still kept them below poverty line.
Today they all agree that Buhari was a disaster.
Seniorman is in the same boat with those who accuse Zam of sacking LG workers while absolving Ortom of any wrong Doings.
What my good friend here knows but shies away from is that- This Governor's posturing is to give an illusion of performance without actually performing.
The problem with this kind of posturing is that, you could get away with it in areas of infrastructure, but not with security and Economy.
I'll give examples
1) The Aper Akume stadium has been under renovation for over 18 months they turned the place upside down, replaced chairs, snapped photos and suspended work. Athletes have not trained there and Benue hasn't won hold in any Major sport at any festival since this government came onboard.
What this means is, the government can gold onto the narrative "The Aper Aku stadium is under renovation" until elections are over.
2) The House of assembly has been under renovation since the day the governor came onboard. Assembly members have been siting on plastic chairs in a low budget hall similar to council halls built by the same assembly members for their constituents.
Every 3 months, Photos of the renovation works taken a year ago are being circulated on this space to remind people that the governor is working.
3. Benue State started 2 UnderPasses 8 months before the governor of Nassarawa began building. Nassarawa 's oun included a Flyover which is 5X More demanding, in terms of design, construction and ex*****on.
Nassarawa commissioned theirs 2 months ago, yet there is no guarantee that any of these in Benue will be ready by December.
In fact it serves the government a great deal to keep people retaking photos of the flyover until election cycle begins.
The Drone pilots have taken drone shots and are tired.
4) The Mr Biggs to Wurukum section of the road that was graded and left 18months ago has not seen Asphalt, it will have to wait for the Wurukum to Air force base section which started a few months ago and may go on till 2026.
So, the government has a lot of Anniversaries to include these projects as "ongoing" projects and use it a as a campaign tool.
It is also important to note that all of these projects with the few seemingly completed have a value less than 15% of the over accrued to the state in the last 27months.
So Benue is a "Construction site" with 2 excavators, 2 motor graders, 1 road roller machine and 1 motor grader- carrying out construction across 23 local governments of the state
When Gboko people have seen the excavator for 2 weeks, it is Transported to Makurdi on a trailer for Makurdi people to see it for the next 2 weeks.
So while it is important to the governor for people to continue talking about his projects "under construction" (which works quite well with infrastructure) , Our people are dieing because those antics are not sufficient for security.
His 230million (10 Million/LG) handout to chairmen monthly for security (Barely 10% of the monthly 3Billion given by the federal government) cannot keep the people talking about his "Giant" strides in security.
So the government resorts to denying attacks, reducing the number of Casualties in official statements and in this case Seniorman is concerned about_?- Disowning the Victim.
I'll never subscribe to the perpetuity of Mediocrity in Benue.
