…Why Benue’s old political order is deeply uncomfortable
By Angula Bishop Reuben | 15th December, 2025
For decades, Benue politics followed a predictable pattern: politicians made grand promises during campaigns, only to withdraw into the comfort of party politics once in office. “We have suffered for the party,” they would say. “It is time to enjoy.” Public service became secondary; the people were left to fend for themselves.
But that era is being confronted, and that is the real problem.
For the first time in many years, Benue State has a leader in Asôrtar-u-Tiv, Rev. Fr. Dr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia, the Executive Governor, who has broken this evil cycle and refuses to play the same dirty games that have stolen decades from the state.
From day one, Governor Alia made it clear that Government House is for results, not for rewarding lazy politicians and opportunists who enriched themselves while the people suffered. He came fully prepared to work, and the results are already everywhere for all to see.
When Governor Alia took office on 29th May, 2023, Benue was suffocating under unpaid salaries and pensions, a stagnant economy, collapsed schools and hospitals, a very tall debt profile, and a frightening security challenges and infrastructure deficit. Many before him chose politics over solutions. But Alia chose responsibility over excuses. He became assignment-conscious, not party-conscious, and that single decision has unsettled the political establishment. Instead of political calculations, he has focused on a recovery agenda to build a new Benue from the ground up.
Today, Benue has been transformed into what can only be described as ONE BIG CONSTRUCTION SITE. From Zone A to Zone B, and from Zone B to Zone C, bulldozers are moving in. New roads are being constructed, schools renovated, hospitals equipped, and long-abandoned projects revived. Salaries and pensions, once weapons of political manipulation are being paid. For the first time in years, workers and retirees can now plan their lives again.
Makurdi and Gboko are witnessing the construction of modern underpasses, projects once dismissed as impossible, while Otukpo is set to follow. Benue is stepping out of stagnation and into a new development era.
But this administration did not stop at physical infrastructure. The Alia-led government is reforming the civil service, digitising governance, strengthening healthcare, tackling insecurity through intelligence-driven and community-based approaches, and directly investing in youth through skills acquisition. Moribund industries are being revived, jobs are returning, and agriculture is being repositioned to serve the people of Benue, not middlemen or political cronies. For the first time in decades, Benue residents are beginning to trust and have confidence in their Governor.
This is what putting the people first looks like, and it is exactly why some politicians are uncomfortable with Governor Alia.
Residents are also taking notice of the changes.
“For years, we begged for a Governor who would think about ordinary people,” said Mrs. Helen Dajoh, a pensioner in Makurdi. “Now, for the first time, my pension is regular. I feel human again.”
“This administration is showing that governance can work if leaders put the people first,” said Dr. Terhemba Ageva, a public affairs analyst based in Adikpo. “For the first time in many years, we are seeing a Governor who is more concerned about delivering results than rewarding political godfathers.”
“This is the first administration that has reached our rural community with real development,” said Mr. John Onoja, a farmer from Otukpo. “We have access to clean water for the first time in over 20 years. Please, let the Governor continue beyond 2027.”
“You cannot drive around Makurdi metropolis without seeing road construction projects everywhere,” added Mr. James Agbese. “This is the kind of leadership we have prayed for.”
“The Governor has set a new standard. He must not be distracted by politicians who put party interest above public interest,” said Mrs. Aondover Kwagh, a market woman in Buruku. “We want him to finish what he has started.”
That is the real tension in Benue today. Not ideology. Not party rivalry. But a battle between service and entitlement, between results and rhetoric, between light and darkness, between a Governor focused on his assignment and politicians desperate to reclaim lost privileges.
This is why majority of Benue people are urging Governor Alia not to be distracted by politicians who wish to drag the state back to the era of political sharing formula. The people are calling on the Governor to seek re-election and consolidate the transformation he has started.
The resistance Governor Alia faces today is not surprising. Meaningful change always threatens those who benefitted from the accumulation of failures over the years. But Benue cannot afford to surrender this momentum to noise, sabotage, or recycled politicians with nothing new to offer the people.
Benue has waited too long to get it right.
This is not the time to slow down, now that we have gotten it right. This is not the time to compromise progress. And this is certainly not the time to hand the state back to the men who ruined it. Benue must move forward. No going back to Egypt.
The people of Benue have a simple message for their Governor: stay the course, finish the work, and do not allow the old order, full of evil men with zero conscience, parading as politicians to distract you.
Again I write not to please men, but God and my conscience.
