‘I’ll Run A Transparent Govt’

Benue State governor-elect, Chief Samuel Ortom, in his first interview with MSUGH ITYOKURA in Makurdi, promised to promote excellence against mediocrity and also bared his mind on circumstances that led to his victory and how he intends to govern the state.

The elections have been won and lost, what message do you have for the people, especially those who were/are on the other side?
Let me first and foremost appreciate God for hearing our prayers and disgracing the pessimists, who had predicted that the elections were going to be marred by violence and were not going to be free and fair.

But at the same, I do appreciate their fear, which was created by desperate politicians out to win by all cost.

People had sent signals that they were going to eliminate anyone that stood on their way, but this never came to pass.

Prior to the elections, there were sporadic gunshots in Makurdi, Vandeikya, Logo, Katsina-Ala, Kwande, Konshisha and others, sending signals that people should be careful.

All these were strategies to put fear in the people and those who tried to resist them were shot at or killed. Some who sustained injuries are in the hospitals as I am talking to you now, but we thank God for His intervention at the end of the day, as the elections were peaceful, free and fair.

I have always told people that for us who are Christians, a man receives nothing except it is given to him by God and so power belongs to God and He giveth it to whoever He wills.

Ecclesiastes 9:11 says the battle is not for the swift nor for the strongest, nor the race for the fastest runner, nor success for men of wisdom or understanding, but everything comes by time and chance as the Lord willeth. So, it is what God decides that matters.

I stand here as an example. Nobody believed I was going to a candidate of APC in December and no one also believed I was going to win this election. But God had designed that it should be me.

I remember that throughout the electioneering campaign, I told the people I was going to rule with the fear of God, and this translate to truthfulness, equity, fairness, justice, transparency, accountability, selflessness integrity, integration reconciliation, forgiveness and peace.

So, when we are united, as a people, then we can have development.

How do you intend to carry on with your administration?
For me, as governor of the people, as soon as I am sworn in, the first thing I would do is to reconcile the people, because they are heavily divided along sectional lines and this is not helping the state. We can do better.

I am also very conversant with the challenges in the state today, having been a grassroots man, having passed through the local government to the state and then the federal levels and having a background of a grassroots politician and particularly as someone with the private sector background.

I think God has adequately prepared me for the task ahead of us in the state. I have told people and they have accepted that for me to be governor of the state, I will promote excellence above mediocrity and sycophancy, so that we can excel.

We will seek to promote talents to compliment what the state is doing.

We will seek to professionalise and ensure that those who excel are given attention.

We will create the enabling environment and tap various talents we have in the state in various sectors.

I know that government does not have the capacity to employ the number of graduates on the streets today. We are going to look outside the box to see how we can partner with the organised private sector to industrialise the state, so that our primary products can be processed to add value to them and then sold for the average farmer to have something to take home at the end of the day.

We shall massively encourage micro, small and medium-scale enterprises, so that the two can give our people the opportunity of providing jobs for themselves and also creating wealth.

We shall also encourage investment activities into our state.

All government can do is provide the enabling environment for the private sector to come in and then with industries coming up, government can generate revenue internally to cater for basic amenities.

One of the things I have always said is that when you rule with the fear of God, corruption will be eliminated to its barest minimum.

I believe that if we eliminate corruption, we should have enough resources to take care of teachers and workers salaries and pensioners, because if you talk of government not being able to pay and see what government operatives are doing, in terms of personal things, it sends a wrong signal all together that something is wrong. If you can’t pay