Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia has mounted a robust defence of local government autonomy in his state, insisting the third tier of government is working exactly as intended and dismissing suggestions that local government or judicial independence has been undermined.
Briefing reporters at the State House in Abuja, Alia declared that Benue’s local government autonomy is sacrosanct and that the judiciary enjoys full independence too, calling both verifiable facts consistent with the 1999 constitution as amended. He said local government councils now execute their own development projects independently while the state government focuses on supervision and accountability, a shift he said has significantly reduced his own burden, since once councils receive their allocations, they set their own priorities and account for how the resources are spent.
Alia credited President Tinubu’s economic reforms with strengthening Benue’s finances, improving security, reviving infrastructure and agriculture and turning the state into an emerging medical tourism hub, saying the added fiscal space created by federal reforms has let his government invest heavily in roads, healthcare, education, agriculture and security while still meeting inherited financial obligations, all of which he pledged to continue managing prudently and transparently. He attributed much of Benue’s security improvement to a deliberate build out of the state’s own security architecture, including the Benue Civil Protection Guards, a joint task force called Anyam Nyor, community vigilantes and technology driven intelligence gathering, saying he can monitor frontline areas of the state directly from where he sits, though he declined to detail every mechanism since they remain part of the state’s active security strategy. He said the improved security picture has already allowed thousands of internally displaced persons to gradually return to their communities and resume farming, and reiterated his support for establishing state police, arguing that community based policing would improve intelligence gathering since officers recruited locally understand the terrain and can identify criminal elements more effectively than outsiders can.
