ALIA IS INCOMPETENT & UNFIT TO BE BENUE GOVERNOR
…Worst governor in Nigeria presently
We saw a governance performance review which ranked Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia as one of the worst-performing governors in Nigeria between 2023 and 2025. The review was carried out by the Good Governance Rating Index (GGRI), a UK-based organization that tracks and evaluates leadership quality, service delivery and accountability in developing democracies.
The GGRI report said Governor Alia “has shown little willingness to confront insecurity, leaving thousands of internally displaced persons without hope of resettlement. Poverty levels are climbing, economic activities are stagnant, and corruption among state officials is rife. The surroundings in both rural and urban centres are dirty and neglected, with no major infrastructure projects to inspire confidence. What exists is the entrenchment of despair and a government adrift without a clear development agenda.”
As a pro-democracy group which is on ground in Benue State, we wholesomely agree with GGRI’s assessment and rating of Governor Alia. If there were a word below ‘worst’, we would have suggested that the Good Governance Index should replace the word ‘worst’ with such a word.
Benue is currently in the throes of maladministration, executive recklessness, crass disregard for due process and mindless embezzlement of public funds by a man who was ordained as a priest and is expected to uphold the highest leadership standards of piety, transparency and accountability.
Governor Alia is a direct opposite of what is good and just. The man is not only stinkingly corrupt, he exemplifies everything negative in leadership and carries on with the air of impunity and contempt.
Alia has made falsehood a part of his life and character. No wonder the catholic church suspended Alia twice – in Makurdi Diocese and Gboko Diocese as a result of his bad behaviour.
He rode to power as a governor pretending to be a good person. He deceived unsuspecting Benue using the priestly cassock of the church. Today, he is rightly rated by domestic and foreign organizations as the most corrupt and worst performing governor in Nigeria!
Alia is on record to have embezzled N345 billion from Benue coffers in the name of contract awards. He has been awarding the contracts to some powerful Fulani elites who sponsored his campaign with N7 billion in 2023 after he took an oath to protect Fulani interests in the state.
Authentic information from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) indicates that following the removal of fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu, between May 2023 and August 2025, Benue State received about N700 billion in allocations. This figure does not include other sources of funds that have accrued to the state within the same period, such as N85 billion donations from international organizations to help the state tackle the problem of internally displaced people (IDPs), as well as N2 billion in monthly internally generated revenue (IGR).
Governor Alia has deliberately refused to clear the arrears of salaries of workers and pensions which all other state governors have since paid.
Since 30 May 2023, Governor Alia has sealed all Benue State government accounts and he is the only one who operates the accounts and spends from them as it pleases him. Alia has turned state resources into his private wealth and no one dares raise a finger to question his excesses.
Despite being in his third year in office, Governor Alia is yet to commission a single project, while his counterparts in other states are actively developing their states with signature projects.
None of the 23 local governments in Benue State has constructed even a single toilet. The governor recently removed the Special Adviser on Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Denen Aondoakaa to personally assume the role and have full control of FAAC allocations to the local governments which have now quadrupled.
In the month of August this year alone, the 23 local governments of Benue State received a total of ₦32,265,107,195,33 (₦32.2 billion) from FAAC. The funds disappeared under the purview of Governor Alia and there has been no record of accountability
Since assuming office, Alia has fought nearly every prominent Benue son and is set to fight more.
It is now clear to everyone that Governor Alia has failed irredeemably. He has failed in all facets of governance – security, economy, transparency, accountability, education, agriculture, just to name a few. Governor Alia is in his 3rd year as governor, but he has nothing to show as his achievement, despite receiving unprecedented federal allocations following the removal of fuel subsidies on May 29, 2023.
Alia promised to end insecurity within the first 100 days of his administration and to return all internally displaced persons to their ancestral homes. He failed to keep this promise! People are being killed, and their means of livelihood destroyed by Fulani herders, yet Alia prefers to defend the Fulani and accuse his own people of rustling cows to justify reprisal attacks.
Alia promised to clear the arrears of salaries and pensions, which all other state governors have since paid, but he has deliberately refused to fulfill this promise. He also promised to build infrastructure, but in two years, he has not commissioned a single toilet or culvert.
No wonder, when President Bola Tinubu visited Benue State, he openly lambasted Governor Alia for poor performance and advised him to consult his counterparts in other states to learn what they are doing to excel.
Benue people are now grossly disappointed in Governor Alia, so much so that even his staunch supporters can no longer defend his abysmal performance.
Signed:
Vincent Tyona, PhD
President,
Forum for Good Governance (FGG).
