Eleven Constituencies, One Verdict: Governor Alia’s Statewide Town Hall Tour 

Eleven Constituencies, One Verdict: Governor Alia’s Statewide Town Hall Tour

By Chief Solomon Iorpev

In the space of a single week, the government of Rev. Fr. Dr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia did something few Benue administrations have attempted with such scale and openness: it took itself, project list in hand, to the people. Across all four senatorial districts and all eleven federal constituencies of the state, a coordinated town hall tour set out to test the administration’s record against the judgement of the very communities it claims to have served. The verdict, delivered independently by traditional rulers, clergy, elders, women’s groups, youth leaders and party stalwarts in every zone, was strikingly consistent and strikingly favourable.

Between the last week of August 2026, the Benue State Government’s federal constituency engagement series moved methodically through the state: Zone A’s Sankera, Kwande and Jechira axis on Tuesday, 25th August; Zone B’s Buruku and Gboko/Tarka constituencies on Wednesday, 26th August, followed by Gwer/Gwer West and Makurdi/Guma on Thursday, 27th August; and Zone C’s Oju/Obi and Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo constituencies on Friday, 28th August, followed by Apa/Agatu and Otukpo/Ohimini on Saturday, 29th August. In each location, the format was the same and deliberately unscripted: canopies, open microphones, and a cross-section of society, royal fathers in full regalia, priests and pastors, women’s associations, youth clusters, and political leaders, invited to speak candidly on the administration’s performance while pointing out areas of their needs.

The exercise mattered because it arrived in the middle of a live political argument. For months, opposition voices had pressed a narrative of neglect, particularly in Benue South, insisting the Alia administration had turned its back on entire zones of the state. The town halls put that claim to a direct test in front of the people best placed to answer it. Zone by zone, the answer that came back was commendation rather than complaint.

The tour’s opening leg, on 25th August, set the tone for the week. Traditional rulers spoke of roads that had been impassable for a generation finally taking shape; clergymen commended renewed attention to education and health; and elders who had watched successive administrations come and go said this one was different in its consistency of delivery.

The Key projects and gains cited in this axis include:

• Over 176 kilometres of road construction ongoing across the zone, described by residents as the largest scale of road investment in living memory.

• Construction of high-rise, storey-building classrooms for government-owned primary schools, replacing dilapidated, overcrowded structures.

• Recruitment of teachers drawn from the zone’s own communities into the primary education system, ensuring new classrooms are staffed.

• Visible improvement in primary healthcare facilities across the zone.

• Progress on the long-anticipated Katsina Ala Water Works, a project communities had waited years to see move.

• Continued federal-state security collaboration to confront insecurity in parts of the region.

The recurring appeal from Zone A was not for a change of course but for its continuation, a request, residents said, that the Governor sustain momentum until the state is decisively led out of underdevelopment.

From palaces to pews, and from youth clusters to women’s associations, the second leg of the tour which was in Zone B, produced what observers described as less a meeting than a declaration of support.

• The Gboko underpass, cited by royal fathers as a project that had eluded the zone for years and now stands delivered.

• Storey-building classrooms rising across government-owned primary schools in both constituencies.

• Consistent payment of salaries and pensions, credited by traditional rulers and women’s associations alike with restoring household stability.

• Recruitment of over 9,700 teachers into the primary school system, repeatedly cited by church leaders as a turning point for education.

• Collaborative state-federal security architecture, and the Anyam Nyor grassroots security initiative, welcomed especially by youth leaders.

• ICT training programmes for young people, framed as a direct response to youth unemployment.

• More than 198 kilometres of ongoing and completed road networks opening up the zone’s hinterland to commerce and mobility.

Political leaders at both town halls tied these gains together as a single, coherent development agenda rather than a scattering of disconnected projects, a point residents echoed in describing the administration as, in their words, the best performing in Nigeria.

The tour’s third leg drew an unusually spirited reception, anchored by one recurring sentiment from elders, party leaders, royal fathers and clergy: one good term deserves another.

• Gradual return of Internally Displaced Persons to their ancestral homes, cited as proof of restored protection and stability.

• Uninterrupted payment of salaries and pensions, described by residents as an exception in the years before this administration.

• Transformation of Makurdi’s capital-city infrastructure, including the Makurdi underpass, dualisation of city-centre roads, and solar-powered streetlighting.

• Storey-building school construction and reactivation of primary healthcare systems across both constituencies.

• An industrial cluster sited within the zone: the food basket brewery, fruit juice and fruit-concentrate factories, the revival of Taraku Mills after previous administrations had reportedly sunk large sums without result, and the BIPC bread, water, nails and leather factories.

• The Wurukum overhead bridge, added to the Makurdi–Ninth Mile federal road project after the Governor personally secured its inclusion despite it falling outside the original design.

• Compensation paid to landowners affected by the federal road project, clearing a long-standing bottleneck to construction.

No zone carried more political weight on this tour than Benue South, the district opposition figures had singled out as “neglected.” Two consecutive legs, on 28th and 29th August, set out to answer that claim project by project. Some of these projects include:

• Oju–Awajir Road (Oju–Konshisha–Gwer East): 52 kilometres, valued at ₦25.59 billion, with 19km already asphalted and earthworks underway on roughly 30km.

• Igumale–Agila Road (Ado LGA): 31.36 kilometres, valued at ₦19.37 billion, under active reconstruction.

• Oju–Obi–Otukpo Road: early-stage, being handled by China Harbour Engineering Company.

• A network of rural and community roads across Okpokwu, Obi and Ogbadibo, part of more than 185 documented projects zone-wide, plus a 5-kilometre road awarded in each of the zone’s nine local government areas.

• ACReSAL water projects unlocked after the administration paid ₦1 billion in counterpart funding that previous governments had declined to pay.

• RAAMP rural roads, including a 26-kilometre spot-improvement road in Oju connecting farm produce to wider markets.

• 25 primary healthcare centres constructed or renovated across Ohimini, Otukpo, Okpokwu, Obi and Oju, plus a separate upgrade of 19 Public Health Centres.

• 29 schools benefiting from SUBEB infrastructural intervention, 5 more selected under the 2025 Matching Grant Programme, and Government College Utonkon converted into a Government Technical College.

• “Operation Light Up Ado,” extending street lighting into Ado LGA under the wider Operation Light Up Benue programme.

“When the people closest to the ground stand up, unprompted, to commend a government that critics insist has abandoned them, the burden shifts to those critics.” The people spoke of:

• The Okokolo–Obagaji–Agagbe Road in Agatu, a 43.5-kilometre stretch connecting Agatu and Gwer West, moved from a long-unfulfilled campaign promise to an active contract.

• the rehabilitation of the Otukpo/Otobi Water Works, restoring supply after years of disrepair.

• the roughly ₦100 billion in projects executed across Benue South over three years, including three major roads worth about ₦74.86 billion combined.

• the renewed exploration of Apa’s long-dormant oil wells, alongside revival plans for the Igumale Cement Factory and the Otukpo burnt bricks project.

• the 33 primary healthcare centres rehabilitated in Benue South alone, and 29 primary schools reconstructed or rehabilitated across the zone.

• The multi-billion-naira National Food City Project in Otukpo, positioned as a flagship agribusiness anchor.

• Over 45 motorcycles supplied to strengthen conventional and community security response in Agatu, alongside continued monthly IDP food assistance and Agatu’s inclusion in the World Bank-supported SOLID project, expected to bring in excess of $5 million to displaced and conflict-affected communities.

In summary, the five town hall reports describe an administration whose case does not rest on any single flagship project but on a consistent pattern repeated across the state: roads once promised and abandoned now under active construction; schools rebuilt as storey buildings with teachers recruited from within their own communities; primary healthcare centres rehabilitated by the dozen; salaries and pensions paid without interruption; industrial assets revived rather than merely announced; and counterpart-funding obligations honoured to unlock federally and internationally backed projects that previous administrations had left on the shelf.

Security featured throughout as the connective thread beneath every other gain, from the Anyam Nyor initiative in Zone B to motorcycle patrols in Agatu and the collaborative state-federal architecture cited in Zone A, framed repeatedly as the foundation on which roads, schools and salaries ultimately depend.

What distinguishes this tour from a routine publicity exercise is who did the talking. In each of the eleven constituencies, it was not a government spokesperson but royal fathers, clergy, women’s leaders, youth representatives and party stalwarts, speaking in their own words, who made the case for the administration’s record. That the same conclusion emerged independently in Sankera and in Agatu, in Gboko and in Otukpo, is itself part of the story.

By the close of the fifth and final leg in Otukpo on 29th August, the Alia administration had done something its critics had not: it opened its full record to eleven separate audiences across the length and breadth of Benue State and let them render their own verdict, in public, without a script. The answer, zone after zone, was gratitude rather than grievance, and a request not for a change of direction but for its continuation.

For an administration that entered its town hall week facing a pointed “neglect” narrative aimed squarely at Benue South, the tour closed with that narrative struggling to survive contact with the facts on the ground. From Sankera to Otukpo, from Gboko to Agatu, the tour leaves behind a simple, statewide message: one good term, definitely deserves another, and this they are willing to see to fruition.

Chief Solomon Iorpev is the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Benue State