Nigerian Concord Newspaper
At the commissioning of the BIPC Bread and Water Factories in May 2024, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO) of the Benue Investment and Property Company (BIPC), Dr. Raymond Asemakaha, said that BIPC needed liquidity of not less than ₦7 billion to stabilise and drive the industrial revolution it was working on. He said the plan was to revamp and build a minimum of 30 industries within the first four years of the administration, with the creation of over one million jobs. This statement was made in the presence of Honourable Hyacinth Iormem Alia and was reported by The Sun Newspaper on 28 May 2024 under the striking headline: “Alia Commissions BIPC Bread, Water Factories, To Revamp Moribund Industries, Create 1 Million Jobs.”
It is imperative to note that the hypnotised “masses” did not doubt the promise of one million jobs when, in practical terms, such a target appeared doubtful from the outset. Yet, as the Alia administration approaches the conclusion of its tenure, that promise remains largely unfulfilled. It is therefore surprising to hear expressions of doubt when Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa SAN sets his own target at 100,000 jobs for Benue youths.
The concept of job creation has also been grossly misunderstood because livelihood under this administration has increasingly been reduced to civil service employment. Farming, which used to be the mainstay of Benue’s economy and the principal occupation of many of its people, has been severely affected by insecurity, displacing more than a million farmers from their ancestral communities.
Before the escalation of insecurity, the Zaki Biam Yam Market was reportedly capable of loading about 250 trucks of yam daily. That is no longer the reality today. Therefore, when some people interpret Aondoakaa’s blueprint for 100,000 jobs to mean 100,000 civil service positions, it only demonstrates how much Benue has involuntarily shifted away from farming and other productive economic activities.
If Aondoakaa’s administration succeeds in ensuring that internally displaced persons return safely to their ancestral homes and resume farming and other economic activities, effectively, more than 100,000 livelihoods could be restored among the farming communities currently living in IDP camps. Job creation should not be understood only in terms of government employment. It also includes creating the conditions under which people can return to productive economic activity, establish businesses, farm, trade and earn sustainable livelihoods.
Some allies of Alia have also questioned the operations of MIVA Rice, owned by Chief Aondoakaa. One thing, however, is clear about MIVA Rice: the company has not been accused of owing its suppliers. By contrast, Alia’s administration has faced repeated complaints over unpaid obligations to contractors. Recently, Gerawa Global Engineering Limited complained that the Benue State Government owed the company more than ₦1.5 billion.
From claims of miracles that have been disputed to promises of job creation that are yet to be realised, critics may argue that Alia’s transition from the Church to politics has not changed the character of his promises. But Aondoakaa’s approach is different. When he says he will create 100,000 jobs, the issue should be examined on the basis of the mechanisms through which those jobs will be created.
A target of 100,000 jobs, backed by a credible plan for agriculture, industry, private investment, enterprise development and the restoration of displaced communities, can be assessed against measurable economic realities. That makes it important to distinguish between a numerical promise and a workable economic programme. In that context, Aondoakaa’s 100,000-job target presents a substantially different proposition from the one-million-job projection associated with the Alia administration’s BIPC industrialisation programme.