There is a growing need for Benue people to look beyond the surface and ask serious questions about what is being presented to them as investment and industrial development. The Benue State Investment and Property Company (BIPC) may have created the appearance of industrial activity, but appearance is not the same as industrialisation. A signboard, a renovated building, a small production room or a ceremonial commissioning cannot, by themselves, constitute monumental economic development. BIPC, window dressing of investment: Issues being presented in some quarters as investment through BIPC increasingly look like the surface of development without the depth that genuine industrialisation requires. Take, for instance, the much-publicised 'ZEVA DRINK & BREWERY' initiative. Beyond the publicity and the appearance of activity, what is its real industrial scale, productive capacity, employment impact, value-chain integration and contribution to the state's internally generated revenue? These are the questions that should matter. The same concern applies to the KUSA (NAILS) factory reportedly operating from a mushroom, one-room location somewhere in the GRA area. Is this the scale of industrial investment that Benue, with its enormous agricultural resources and population, should celebrate as a major industrial breakthrough? Then there is the bread and water factory, which are in themselves understood as a private-sector initiative. Benue people are not hungry to the extent of replicating Jesus' miracle of feeding 5000 people with bread, fish and water. If government merely provides visibility or takes credit for a private enterprise, that should not be confused with government-led industrial transformation. This is where the distinction between window dressing and monumental development becomes important. Late Aper Aku understood the difference: The generation of leaders associated with the industrial vision of the late Governor Aper Aku understood that development required institutions, infrastructure and industries built to last. The Benue Brewery, popularly associated with 'More Lager Beer' was not conceived as a small showcase project. It was a formidable industrial establishment with substantial infrastructure, productive capacity, employment opportunities and a broad economic ecosystem around it. The same philosophy informed the establishment of other industries and enterprises under the old Benue development model. They were conceived as assets that could transform the economic structure of the state, not merely as projects to be displayed during commissioning ceremonies; this is the difference between building an industry and creating the appearance of an industry. Our people perish for want of knowledge: The greatest tragedy may not even be the inadequacy of some projects. It is the inability of the public to distinguish between a monumental development project and a cosmetic intervention. As the scripture says, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.” In the context of Benue's development, a little knowledge about what constitutes genuine industrialisation would illuminate this debate. A factory should be judged by its scale, investment value, production capacity, employment generation, technology, supply chains, sustainability and multiplier effect on the local economy. Anything less should be described honestly for what it is. Otherwise, poverty of the mind becomes a disease in which people are taught to celebrate crumbs as though they were feasts and small initiatives as though they were industrial revolutions. Fr. Moses Adasu showed what what developmental seriousness looks like: The administration of Fr. Moses Adasu is instructive. A government genuinely committed to development does not begin by searching for publicity. It begins by creating the foundations upon which development can stand. Fr. Adasu understood that Benue needed knowledge, human capital and industrial infrastructure. His administration therefore pursued the establishment of Benue State University, creating a major institution for developing the human resources required for the state's future. He also aggressively pursued the development of the INDUSTRIAL AREA along Naka Road, creating an environment where industries could locate, operate and expand. That is strategic thinking. Government does not necessarily have to own every factory. Government must create the conditions in which factories can thrive: land, roads, electricity, water, security, education, skills, access to finance, policy stability and an environment attractive to private investors. Development requires technocrats not propaganda: This is why the quality of people surrounding a government matters. A government genuinely poised to develop Benue must be surrounded by technocrats, economists, engineers, planners, industrialists, agricultural experts, financiers and competent administrators who understand how economies are built. Industrialisation cannot be achieved through political 'HAYCHABEE, HAY!!' and political abracacadabra, photographs of commissioning ceremonies or the renaming of small enterprises as monumental investments. Benue is an agricultural powerhouse. The sensible development strategy should therefore be to build an industrial ecosystem around what Benue already possesses. We should be talking about large-scale agro-processing plants, modern farm estates, storage facilities, commodity markets, food-processing industries, fertiliser and agricultural input production, livestock value chains, textile and cotton processing (as per Tiv textiles in Kwande), cassava and yam processing, fruit and juice industries, rice mills and other industries capable of absorbing thousands of young people. Benue needs industrialization, not industrial theatre: The people of Benue deserve better than industrial theatre. They deserve industries that employ their children, purchase their farmers' produce, generate wealth, develop communities and contribute substantially to the state's economy. The question should therefore no longer be: “How many projects have been commissioned?” The real question should be: "What productive economic capacity has been created for Benue?” That is the standard by which BIPC, every government investment and every claim of industrial development should be measured. Benue does not need window dressing. It needs an industrial revolution rooted in its agricultural strength, driven by competent technocrats and supported by serious government policy. We must stop celebrating the appearance of development and begin demanding development that can be measured, felt and inherited by generations yet unborn. - Abuul, a public affairs commentator, contributed this piece from Abuja

Posted: 3weeks ago

Author: Editor in Chief

Current date: 18 October 2026