Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has done a mid-term review of his tenure in an interview with reporters. According to him, in spite of the twin-problems of lack of funds and insecurity, he is determined to make a success of his mandate. Uja Emmanuel was there. Excerpts:
What were your expectations when you were vying for the office, what you saw when you came in and how has it been?
I must say that as a Christian, the Bible says “all things worketh together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose.” I will not say I’m regretting and that I’m disappointed with what I saw on ground. But honestly, I met a deficit treasury when I came in – in the midst of very high expectations from the people especially looking at my tract record. I’ve never been a failure despite the challenges that I met in my life since I was born. I’ve always overcome, and I’ve always been positive about life and the records are there, it has shown. I was born from a very poor background; I dropped out of school in form two and despite all these, I was able to overcome my academic challenges and I had to crown it up with a Ph.D through very difficult circumstances but God saw me through. I started work as a motor park tout and by the grace of God, I went through; I became a conductor, I became a driver and went on and saw myself in leadership positions at the local government, state and national levels. My last appointment before becoming governor was as a minister.
As a Tiv man, we are known for farming and I started at a very small level, but today I’m one of the biggest farmers not just in Benue State but in Nigeria and I’m into various segments of agriculture – livestock, poultry, grains, tubers and citrus. I’m also into fishery. So, it has been a success story all along. Everything I lay my hands on has always succeeded, so even though the people were expecting so much from me to take them out of poverty, ignorance and disease and I was quite prepared and ready to do it and that I’ve been doing. But the fact is that I met a deficit treasury and having salary arrears and pensions and gratuity of over N69 billion was quite tasking. Almost all the institutions of government were grounded – schools were on strike; primary schools, Benue State University and several other unions were on strike. So to contend with this, the first thing we did was to seek for an approval from the House of Assembly to borrow N10 billion to at least serve as a cushion for the hardship that salary earners were having. And we all know that Benue State is a civil service state. Agriculture comes in to support the people but they are doing it at a very small level; no much commercial agriculture that is going on in Benue so it has been very difficult. And so the civil service is the main economic driver of the state. And so once salaries are not paid, it becomes a very big challenge..
The Federal Government came in with a bailout. We had wanted them to bail us out with N69 billion, but only N28 billion was approved. N15.5 billion for the local government and N12.5 billion for the state. These we paid to workers and because of the screening we undertook, we were able to save at the state level more than one billion naira which we injected back into the treasury for other government activities. At the local government level, we were able to save up to N1.4 billion after the screening and it was garnished by the Industrial Court order and so we had gone on appeal and we’re looking forward that we can inject it back to settle some arrears also. So it has been a very difficult problem – trying to update salaries of workers in the state. But one thing that we’ve noticed also is that there is a cartel, a syndicate that is responsible for the over bloated wage bill we have. We have set up various committees and they are working and I think that we are trying to get it right now because the interim report that was submitted to me two weeks ago, there is a clear indication that we’ll get it this time right.
Because, honestly, I believe having a wage bill at the local government level of N3.7 billion, is a big challenge. And at the state level, when you put it together, it’s N4.2 billion and so, you are talking about contending with N7.8 billion for a state like ours. Meanwhile in the actual sense, at the local government level, we get an average of N2.4 billion from the Federation Account; at the state level we get an average of about N2.5 billion. So, this becomes a very difficult problem. But there was also this arrangement from the Federal Government – the budget support fund which is an average of N1.1 billion that comes in to support. So when you put all these together, there is still a short fall contending with N7.8 billion. This is what has been responsible for the arrears of salaries we have today. At the state level, we have four months, at the local government, we have seven months. And we are working closely with the labour unions in the state and that is why you’ve not seen strike in the civil service, the reason being that we’re transparent. Whatever comes in from the Federation Account, from the IGR; we put it on the table and we are able to make distribution with the knowledge of the Labour Unions.
But, despite all these, by the grace of God, we’ve been able to do milestones in several sectors. In education, we have done so much. If you look at what is happening at the primary school today, we were able to secure a loan of N3.8 billion to match with the counterpart funding of UBEC and we have N7.6 billion and we are executing about 740 projects in various primary schools– renovation and construction of new blocks and provision of instructional materials.
When we came in, Benue State University for instance was on strike; we were able to negotiate with them and they came back. We have succeeded in securing accreditation for several courses that were left out including at the School of Health Sciences. The Schools of Nursing and Midwifery; the accreditation was also withdrawn and for four years, there was no admission. We came and we provided the equipment and upgraded the facilities and today the school has been given accreditation and we’ve also recruited additional employees and the school is on and today admissions are being made and the students are back to school.
In our secondary schools, we are working to renovate and upgrade the structures in the 64 government schools. We’ve taken education as a priority and that is where we are so far despite the challenges we have in funding, we have been able to provide minimum facilities in all the schools.
We have successfully inaugurated the Primary Health Care Board. Our general hospitals have also been providing services for our people. We’ve also provided through Sustainable Development Goals and with the counterpart funding, we were able to secure N1.2 billion matching with what we provided and we have N2.4 billion and we have been able to provide more than 42 primary health care clinics and we have also provided facilities and equipment to all these.
On Sustainable Development Goals again, we were able to provide Skills Acquisition Centres and also water in several communities of the state. On infrastructure, we are upgrading various facilities of government, and have also provided roads. When we came, we met about 13 road projects which contractors had abandoned the sites due to non-payment of their certificates and we were able to call them back to some of these roads and some of them have been completed. Like, Oshigbudu-Ubagaji road in Agatu local government; that one is completed and of course Zaki-Biam-Afia road too is completed and others are on-going including Daudu-Gbajimba and then we awarded contract for the Uni-Agric-Gbajimba road.
On security, we discovered that politicians bought weapons and gave them to many of our youths to help them prosecute the elections. I was attacked during one of my outings during the electioneering campaign to Kwande Local Government.
Five of my vehicles were shot at and destroyed and there was criminality going on in all the local governments – killings, assassinations, kidnappings, and armed robbery was the order of the day and we felt that for the kind of thing we were planning to do, it would be difficult for us to be able to execute it. For me, I was coming from the background of the private sector and I felt that no investor would come to Benue State if he knows that his investment will one day be destroyed or he will be killed or he will be kidnapped and so on. And so we took on this matter of security very seriously and the wisdom we applied initially was to invite the young men especially who were involved in these criminal acts by granting amnesty to whosoever will be ready to surrender his arms. And it was successful. More than 900 of these youths came and surrendered their arms and we were able to receive more than 700 different guns and several explosives and thousands of ammunition. And then the notorious gang leader that has been declared wanted; Terwase Akwaza, alias Ghana also came forward and was granted amnesty and later went back underground and continued his criminal acts and we had issues with him and we declared him wanted.
How are you addressing the issue of attacks by herdsmen?
The issue of herdsmen was a big challenge. I inherited it. While serving as Minister in 2013, my ancestral home was destroyed by these herdsmen and my kinsmen; more than 52 were killed in one day. The militia group came and they dealt with us. In fact, the entire local government of Guma was under siege. It was amazing for something that our people did not participate in rustling their cattle but we were accused that the cattle were rustled within our area and so these militia men came and took on the helpless and armless people and killed them in that area and so it was a big challenge. By the time I took over, more than 13 local governments were under siege. Some local governments were taken over completely by these herdsmen. We were able to control the criminality through this amnesty programme, but the herdsmen were a big challenge.
It was a big challenge – trying to get the herdsmen to understand and trying to get the farmers to understand too. But of course, we soon discovered that grazing and agriculture cannot go together and that was what motivated us. So, we decided that the only way out is for the herdsmen to continue to breed their cattle but they will have to learn the modern way of breeding cattle which is ranching and this is what is being practiced globally.
The Fulani men are free and any other person is also free to secure land in Benue State and ranch their cattle for peace to reign.
While serving as minister in 2013, my entire ancestral home was burnt down, 52 of my people were killed in one day, old women, old men, and young men and so on were killed in one day. That is the extent the herdsmen issue has affected us in this state.
How has the Paris Club refund helped you?
The Paris Club refund helped us very well. In fact it came at the right time for us in Benue. It came during Christmas. So all the trouble that I had, I think at the state level, I had six months arrears that was hanging on my head and everywhere you went, they will say Ortom did not pay us and that is why we could not… and even the children were on my neck that Ortom did not pay, so the thing landed at the right time. Luckily the money I had at that time, I paid December salaries and had the opportunity of paying two months arrears during Christmas, it was a big relief and it really helped and I’m waiting for this second tranche, if it comes. The second one is not coming; I don’t know what is wrong. But when it comes, I think it will go a long way in reducing the salary arrears.
Is it true that the Nigerian Governors’ Forum warehoused part of the Paris Club refund for consultancy?
It’s true. The funds were warehoused by the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and that is a fact and I’m aware of that. But it was meant to be the consultancy for those who worked for us to get the fund. This is an on-going thing, I inherited it. For instance, for us in Benue State, a contract was signed by a consultant with the then Benue State Government, the previous government and there the agreement was that the consultant will get 18% of the amount. So, when we got on board and this issue came up again, we decided to negotiate at the Nigerian Governor’s Forum level and so it came to 10%; 5% for consultancy, and 5% for legal fee. So that was what was deducted from our own money and so we even saved 8% as far as Benue State is concerned. So the problem was that there were several consultants because several other states had engaged other consultants who were doing this. In my own case, the consultant that took over the job at the national level was the same consultant that had signed 18% agreement with the Benue State Government. So it was easy for me but for other states which had other consultants, there was a problem. So the Governors’ Forum had warehoused this money to sort out with them and then pay. But then I hear a lot of things and I was going to take it up when we meet at the Governors’ Forum; we’ll have more information as to what is actually happening.
How much is the state losing to ghost workers; I’m even surprised that Benue is paying that much, N4.2 billion monthly. Why is local government also your problem?
I hear that Local Governments are seeking for autonomy. I was privileged to be Local Government Chairman of this local government from 1991 to 1993; then we had autonomy. So I understand that they are also looking for autonomy now. But that autonomy then ran into troubled waters. Local governments elsewhere in the world are an appendage of State Government. You know, we say that we have three tiers of government but you know that the local government operates under the supervision of the state. I don’t have anything to do with local government funds as it is today. I met a system that was operated by my predecessor where local government puts money together and the state adds to execute projects; they called it projects account. But since I came in and discovered that the funds were not enough for the local governments and there was no point making that and a lot of people trying to accuse us here and there, I decided to ban that account. So whatever comes for the local government goes to them. I have no business interfering in their accounts and all that. But the challenge I have is the issue of arbitrary employment at the local government level. I can tell you because I served in this local government that even now this local government does not need 250 staff to make it functional and there are over 1,200 and so it is to several other local governments and in fact all the local governments. Local government politicians derive pleasure from coming to just do recruitment. Each group when they come, they do recruitment until they don’t know what to do again. And I tell you, very few local government staff come to work. If you want, go to any of the local government in Benue State; even the one in Makurdi.
