An Indigenes' Approach to Change in Benue

By Msonter Anzaa

Photo from pulse.ng

These are very difficult times for our state and our people. The economy has been brought flat on its belly. Life is becoming excruciating. Families are having to do without essential needs. Workers are not being paid their wages promptly. The governments at the federal and state levels are making hard financial choices. They can no longer meet their obligations with ease. There is already an ongoing discourse both online and offline, about what the government ought to do to arrest this demoralizing trend and restore us to our once robust life as a nation. But while that is going on, is there not something that our people can do in their capacity as ordinary citizens – farmers, school teachers, wheelbarrow pushers, market women and school leavers – to rescue our land from this tightening grip of poverty?

There is no use tracing the history of the current economic plague. We were a nation so perpetually hooked to the breast milk of oil money that we did not develop the needed teeth for solid food. At home in Benue, we over-stayed our connection to the central economy via the umbilical cord of the monthly pocket money alias “allocation.” The pitiable picture of state governors going to Abuja to collect monthly sustenance should not have been allowed to be the permanent portrait of our state. We relied on the federal government. We hid our weaknesses in the strength of the central government. And now, that strength is failing us.

Now however, is the time when as we say in Tiv language, “Hanma or nana ma atumba a ngo u nan,” – every person should suck their mother’s breast. Benue must rise to the occasion and do what she needs to do because this state has to survive one way or the other. I am not at this time focusing on the state government even though it must have sufficient vision to coordinate the various citizen-driven initiatives. Every indigene of Benue must take direct responsibility for the economy of the state. The truth is, the economy of the state is a macro unit, comprising our various private economies. If we do not do well individually, a real viable economy cannot happen at the state level. Each of us must take personal responsibility and actively engage in activities that will keep us gainfully employed and provide some form of employment for others.

One way to do this is to wean ourselves off unsustainable lifestyles. The people of Benue must learn to eat what they grow and grow what they eat. We must take responsibility for our upkeep as individuals. How much of what we eat can we produce by ourselves? We must cut down on forms of nutrition that make us vulnerable to the unpredictable international economy. If I grow my yams, rear my goats and grow my vegetables, feeding in my house does not need to depend on the American dollar. What we need to do is to minimize our dependence on the monetary economy. Secondly, we must develop self-sufficiency as a state. No indigene can be self-sufficient, but we can minimize our dependence on external supplies as a state. There is no reason why our supply of palm oil should be from Onitsha for example. Why should a Benue yam farmer have to buy Onitsha palm oil with the cost of transport, storage and middlemen’s profit all added to the price? Why isn’t there a sustainable supply of palm oil from someone’s farm in the state? Apart from growing most of what they eat, every individual must specialize in the production of at least one farm product. Thirdly, we must aim at taking advantage of our local market. Why, for example, should the supply of rice in Benue be from outside the state? What of fruits? Why should a mango trader in Wurukum market tell me that I have to pay a certain price because they had to pay gongoro to bring the mangoes to the state? Fourthly, we must embrace industrialization. Again, I am not talking of the government building factories even though it should. Can we not build factories as individuals or communities? We do not have to start large scale. Why can’t tomato farmers build a small factory, even if it will process only one pick-up van of tomatoes a week; even if the processed tomatoes supply only Gboko market? Isn’t that better than throwing our tomato away to middlemen because the government has not built a factory? Why can’t we form an association like Benue Corpers 2015, which will bring together NYSC members of Benue origin who served that year and who are not yet employed? They can decide to go into pig farming, owning big pig farms in several locations across the state. Since they would be a tangible body that can be recognized, it will be easier to get some financial help from the government or private corporations.

You see, to get out of this current economic distress, we must take one of our eyes off the government. We just have to survive in this state whether the government is able to meet its obligations or not. For too long, we have tied our destiny to the government – itself in turn, tying its destiny to the federal government. We cannot amount to anything economically or politically if every time we engage the government, it is because we want to get help from it. There will not be any real change in Benue if the people think their duty is only to vote into power a new political party. Change may start with a new leadership, but it must eventually get to the people.

Let us brace up to the challenge. Let us embrace a new spirit of stake-holding in Benue. Let us each find an area in which the state can benefit from us. Let men arise in the state who are wealthy enough and willing to lend money to the state government; wealthy farmers who are willing to donate cattle or goats for the feeding of boarding students. Let this economic distress become a stimulus awaking us all to our strategic roles in the development of Benue. When that happens, our children will be privileged to be born into a state whose people looked poverty in the face – and rather than complain like weaklings – got to their feet and in one accord, chased it out of the land of their fathers. That is how we can approach change from our side as indigenes.