By Francis Atume, Makurdi
A Benue North-East Senatorial contender on the platform of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, ahead of the 2027 general elections, Dr Ngutor Anyam has argued that for the dividends of democracy to be witnessed by the masses, government and those seeking political office must adopt a policy formulation approach to implement programmes, instead of mere campaign promises which in most cases end up as political stories.
Speaking during an interactive session with journalists yesterday in Makurdi, Anyam said such policies should strengthen legislation and government programmes targeting agriculture, education, infrastructure and wealth creation.
He described as laughable a situation where elected office holders return home during election periods distributing motorcycles, grinding machines, sewing machines and sometimes cars to the electorate in the name of empowerment, arguing that giving a tricycle to a graduate only creates more problems for the person.
Anyam said his approach to empowerment would be to advocate for policy documentation on agriculture, insecurity, education and other aspects of governance to strengthen legislation to enable government to formulate programmes that could provide grants to farmers to go into large-scale mechanised agriculture such as ranching, cattle rearing, and rice, yam and beans cultivation for improved living standards.
The Benue North-East SDP senatorial hopeful, who said research has shown that tuber farmers in Northern Nigeria are the poorest among farmers, argued that good government policies should discourage farmers from cultivating crops such as yam and cassava, which take two years before harvest,especially now that land is no longer available.
He assured that if given the mandate to represent the people of Benue North-East in the Senate in 2027, he would use policy formulation through legislation to tackle insecurity by strengthening through policy the Open Grazing Prohibition Law.
He also promised to review the mining policy which, he said currently favours international operators who feel the land must be taken away completely from the owners, as is the case in Kwande where some communities have been sacked from their ancestral homes for more than 15 years before mining activities can take place, describing the situation as completely unacceptable.
Anyam stated that his style of eradicating poverty would be a policy where people of his constituency would be assisted through grants and loans to go into mechanised agriculture, petty trading and other businesses.
He also promised to use legislation to improve infrastructure instead of giving the people motorcycles, grinding and sewing machines as empowerment as is currently done during electioneering periods.
The SDP senatorial hopeful, who said farming or business cannot be profitable without policy strengthening at the level of government through legislation, advocated for a government policy that would discourage Benue farmers from planting crops like yam and cassava, while encouraging them to cultivate crops like rice and watermelon, among others that can produce within 60 days, to improve their living conditions.
“Government should formulate a deliberate policy to regulate that if you farm yam, we will increase your tax, while those farming crops like watermelon, rice and others will be given loans to increase their farms,” he said, promising to use his wealth of experience in the public and private sectors at the Senate to bring about improvement in the living standard of his constituents.
He expressed the belief that if voted into the Senate, he would use his vast knowledge and experience to lobby and change the narrative using policy.
Anyam appealed to Senator Emmanuel Udende to respect the Tiv people’s principle of ‘Ya na angbian’ chop and give to your brother recognised as federal character policy to allow him from Kwande to go for the Senate in 2027.
