Honourable Gabriel Suswam, the Executive Governor of Benue State bares his mind on his stewardship in the state that prides itself as the Food Basket of the nation, while admiting difficulties in the implementation of the minimum wage. SOLOMON AYADO was there for LEADERSHIP.
What can the people expect as you clock 100 days in office and could you point out your achievements?
Now, one hundred days to me is media hype because if I have tenure of four years then why should I be assessed in 3 months. If you properly need to plan yourself and put any proper planning in place, it takes more than three months. If you are doing an economic plan or a feasibility study it takes at least between one month and six months. I don’t think we should lay much emphasis on 100 days. Actually, this put people on edge, it creates anxiety and when one is not careful, you may rush into things that ordinarily you wouldn’t have rushed to do. Within these three months as one may rightly observe I have done a lot of construction of township roads, rural electricity that is outstanding for commissioning in Benue State. This we have done. We have just properly settled down now, already an economic team has been formed in the State. The essence is for us to properly settle down, structure and refocused our state government. If at all we are going to talk about the 100 days, I can say that physical development we have done but I don’t think I want to be judged within 100 days when I have tenure of four years.
What is the difference between the highways and rural roads which you are constructing?
These roads are designed as trunk A Roads, not as rural roads.
The money you use in constructing a trunk A Road which is federal highway is different. But unfortunately, the roads which we designed as rural roads are now been used 24 hours by trailers coming from the southern part of the country, all of them have diverted to these rural roads constructed by the state, leaving the federal highways because the federal highways are bad. This explains that the federal government needs to do rehabilitation of their roads. In Benue State, the Naka road would soon be completed as well as the Ugba-Anyiin road among others. President Jonathan is to commission them as soon as it is completed.
Would you say the construction of the roads is drawn from the N13b bond recently sourced by State Government
Yes, we have started drawing on the N 13b bond and most of the projects that we started, I have said this time without numbers, and we intend to exit them possibly at the end of this year or early next year. A lot of them we are inviting the president, I have already mentioned it to him. We are hoping that either at the end of this September or early October President Jonathan would visit Benue State to commission some of the roads and water works projects that would be completed. So we are drawing down on the bond and we are paying to the projects contractors and that is why everywhere you go in the State, the contractors are on site in spite of the rains. All the water projects in the State are now undergoing test running of the plants. We are trying to see where we have problems with pipes. And anytime the president agrees on the visit we would be commissioning most of the completed projects. So we are really making use of the bond.
What is the position of the State government on the implementation of the N18, 000 minimum wages?
The issue of the implementation of minimum wage I have said it time without number. In fact I am having a meeting with the Nigerian Labour Congress Benue State branch and we are nearly completing our negotiations, but the fact with other fundamental issues which are realistic is that some calculations have been done. We have also put different strategies. But it is going to be a very difficult situation for the State. Now, Benue State is moving from N1 billion to about N 2.4 billion and if we have to pay the minimum wage in Benue a lot of things need to be done. We are going to pay. We would probably hold our final meeting with NLC to agree on the modalities but then as I kept saying, the civil servants are the ones that handle the money that come in. For example, in a month on the average we take N2 billion. Now in any month that we have this, it therefore means that all the money would be consumed on a current expenditure, and we would be running like the local governments. I don’t think anybody would want that. When this happens people will start accusing me of not developing the state and I can’t cut my fingers and ensure this development. It is the money that comes into the state that I should use in fostering development for both in urban and rural areas.
And the total population of civil servants in Benue is about 20 thousand, core civil service about twenty one thousand, if you add the local government is about 89 thousand out of the total population of 4.5 million people. So should we frankly take 89 thousand people who do not constitute even one percent population of Benue State and allow them to consume the entire money meant for the development of the state? I just want us to be realistic about this. We need to develop. We are talking about projects, we are talking about roads, water projects, and we are also talking about schools and hospitals. How do we generate money to also execute these projects? And so in my previous discussion with NLC I said we are all Benue indigenes, but if only one people want to consume all of the money, we would be unable to complete some of the road projects and the water works. So, while we meet with NLC we shall put all our cards on the table for them so that whatever we agree to do would be something that is sustainable. Of course we need to pay the minimum wage but a lot of things need to be done before that. The issue of staff auditing will have to be done for us to be sure that ghost workers are eradicated.
But the law was signed for the minimum wage implementation and effective date given was August and not when it was signed. And when it was signed there were issues that are given from Salary and Budget Commission. All states needed to assess the financial implications before paying but there is confusion between minimum wage and salary increase. Minimum wage is that there must be a threshold of 18,000 for every civil or public servant, he or she must not be paid less than this amount. But if studies are carefully done, how much would it take a state like Benue to pay everybody within that threshold. We are just gambling with it now. Even if people have said they are going to pay, the issue is whether it will be sustainable. If you say that you can pay this month and could not pay in the next two or three months, then certainly you are playing politics with people. I am not somebody that can play politics with the welfare of people. Let us accept that we are going to pay N 18,000 but the negotiation with NLC has nothing to do with that threshold. It is that we look at the reality and accept that we must audit staff.
For instance, there are civil servants that started work in the time of Benue Plateau. From that time to now is about 37 years. Such people should be out but they are still in the service, swearing affidavit and changing ages. But the civil servants have interpreted minimum wage as salary increase and I want them to understand that those are the areas we need to touch. We are not going to reduce what the federal government has signed into law, no.
What are your plans towards reducing unemployment?
We are making desperate efforts towards that even the interview that recently held at the BSU teaching hospital, we are making efforts to complete the Benue University Teaching Hospital. The work is nearly completed. And we are also going to push out old workers in the civil service so that younger ones would be employed.
Pensioners are crying out that they have no hope in Benue today and the future cannot be ascertained. What can you do?
Of course, I inherited an accumulated pension payment of close to N3 billion from Akume’s administration. But since I became governor, we have been paying pensioners, every month we allocate N 3 million to pay pensioners. We are trying to find out whether we can have some financial institutions to buy our debts so that we can pay the back law and once it is paid, we will be up to date. The backlog is what I inherited and this is actually part of the problem. Presently, we are negotiating with some banks to buy the debts; it means that there must be some discount.
You have just created the state ministry of tourism, why?
The essence of why we created the ministry of tourism and culture is for us to have the ministry to properly focus on areas of recreation, for instance city parks and gardens. I have given one of the points of reference to the commissioner in that ministry to make sure Township Parks and Gardens are developed and also in putting lot of materials together. As it stands now, people have submitted a lot of proposals to how we can turn the city parks in to good recreational centre’s for our children and for adults. I feel bad that most of the parks around the state capital have almost turned into gossip centres where the opposition sit, drink and discuss non-developmental issues. But I feel that we must give them a face lift that will in turn make Benue a tourist attraction. Therefore this ministry of tourism is empowered to ensure the development of recreational centres in the state.
Recently, Benue Links Transport Company purchased some buses through loan from a bank, and the allegation is that the buses were not supplied appropriately. How true is this?
The Benue Links Company is a big problem. I inherited Benue Links from the Akume administration and since then, it has not contributed a dime to the revenue of the state. Not a single dime. And what I met was unfortunate but we are trying to see how it can be refocused and that is why we allowed it to go into that transaction. That transaction ran into trouble waters and that is where we are. In fact the newly appointed Managing Director of Benue Links had already met with the Commissioner for Ministry of Transport because we need to get our buses safe. But most of the buses you see in that company are owned by private individuals and that is what we met. Now, we want the company to reverse back to its status, and to regain its lost glory, so we are working round the clock to reorganize the transport sector to sort out all those compounding problems.
On the Zaki-biam military invasion compensation, reports are that you have been paid N 8b from the federal government and nobody is saying anything. Have the Benue state government received such amount and how does it intend to apply it.
When N8 billion of public money is paid to a government that would be news. If the federal government is paying N 8b to the state on compensation, you know that it would be ceremony, this is just arrant nonsense. In the first place, the person that took the federal government to court was an individual and if that money is paid, I believe it will be paid to him first and foremost. No money has been paid. I have met with President Jonathan on the matter for several times, the issue is still under negotiation. We have insisted that the case should not end in court because the federal government wanted to go on Appeal. And that is where we are. And for anybody to suggest that compensation has been paid is very unfortunate.
I think it is the antics of opposition, otherwise, the federal government cannot quietly pay money for compensation. It would want people to know that it is sensitive to the sensibilities of the people. And for anybody to suggest in any way that such an amount was paid into the coffers of the Benue State Government, it is a figment of his or her own imagination and I insist that this is one of the rumours been spread by opposition. They don’t have anything to say, all they do is to fabricate lies upon lies.
What is your take on the president Jonathan six year single term proposal?
Personally, I will support six year single term for governors and president. For a very long time, people have agitated that they have been marginalized. How do we solve this given the fact that Nigerians are very impatient? I think the president has this at the back of his mind. The single term reduces a lot of things. First, the issue of people feeling that certain group is monopolizing the position of presidency or governorship. And if you have a six year single term in the constitution, the issue of zoning must also be added so that it can rotate across the six geopolitical zones in the country. There is another proviso providing that those who occupy positions and one exiting, should not come back to contest for another term, but that is if it is constitutional. This should be made clear to Nigerians. The issue of single term also reduces the acrimonies that go with second term elections. I know what I pass through during my second tenure elections. So, I think that this proposal will address a lot of issues in this country. But unfortunately people are trying to play politics with it. Though the President has not presented that proposal but if that is done, I will solemnly support it but will not be a beneficiary of the single tenure in office. I don’t think there is anything wrong with the proposal; we should all support it to address the issues of acrimony and marginalization.
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