The Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia on Wednesday met with Vice President Kashim Shettima at the Presidential Villa, Abuja where he made further requests of support for the state’s agriculture and security sectors.
Speaking to State House Correspondents after the closed-door meeting, Governor Alia said Benue has no reason to complain about food insecurity but should rather be supporting the government at the center in making food available to Nigerians.
“Benue doesn’t have any need to talk about these food insecurities at all. Rather, we should be supporting the President to ensure that all the states that seem to be fighting food insecurities are strongly supported by Benue.,” Governor Alia said.
The Governor declared that for the 2025 farming season, Benue State plans to go back 100 percent into the farms to ensure increased yields.
“I know that we’re going back to the farm in the state 100 percent this season.
“As an agrarian state, Benue has mounted even more pressure on our folks, on our people, to get back on the farm. So, during the campaigns, the vice president as a candidate, promised he was going to support us with tractors and with some farm inputs and he’s been doing that.
“Just like the President, who wants the state to live up to what we are, the food basket of the nation. So, the President has been supporting us very hugely, and then the vice president as well,” Alia added.
He said due to improved security, many farmers were able to work on their farms in 2024, leading to a bumper harvest.
“So that is where we are in the security and relative peace is coming back to Benue, and we are quite happy about this. The level of farming has also increased since last year. So many people went back to their farms. And we have a lot of harvests. We want to call it bumper harvest because, for many years, we never experienced that in the state. Some people are still harvesting, and it’s been all smiles.
“So we plan to do even higher this season. Even on the levels of insecurities, it’s gradually dying out.
“It’s said that insecurities never go away 100%. So, there might be one or two skirmishes. You hardly hear of anything, drones and tons of deaths and all that and disturbances. So I think that’s where we are. So we truly thank the President for his continued support for the state to stabilize even on the issue of insecurity.
“We thank him for challenging us to live up to the name of the food basket. So, we are back there, and I’m happy we had a very bumper harvest this season,” the Governor noted.
Speaking on security, Governor Alia said, “Just a few weeks ago, three and a half weeks ago, we launched our support for all our security apparatus. So, we gave a number of trucks to the security groupings, got them Toyota trucks in the numbers of 100, and then we also launched some support for mainstream security. Our folks back home, who should be on alert and who should be supporting our primary security people,” he stated.
