25/03/2026
RETHINKING EMPOWERMENT IN BENUE STATE: Distribution-Based to Development-Driven Empowerment.
Fellow citizens,
As a build up to 2027 general elections intensifies, this is the time to confront the hard truth: many of the so-called “empowerment programs” we celebrate today are not solving poverty, they are rather recycling it.
For years, political empowerment has followed a predictable pattern: distribution of grinding machines, sewing machines, motorcycles, cars, and deep freezers. While these gestures may appear helpful on the surface, the deeper reality is troubling.
We deserve better!!!!
Most beneficiaries are not trained. They lack:
1. Basic technical skills
2. Financial literacy
3. Business management knowledge
4. Market access and support systems
What happens next is predictable:
The assets are underutilized, mismanaged, sold off, or abandoned. Within months, beneficiaries are back where they started and sometimes worse off. This is not empowerment. It is a cycle of dependency and wasted public resources.
The core issue here is that, empowerment without capacity building is ineffective; likewise, empowerment without infrastructure is unsustainable.
In many rural communities across Benue State the story is the same:
° Roads are poor or nonexistent
° Electricity is unreliable or absent
° Clean water is non-existing
° Market access is weak
No business, no matter how small can thrive in such an environment.
Without these foundations, empowerment programs will never scale, and they will never contribute meaningfully to GDP growth or poverty reduction.
A CALL FOR A NEW MODEL: SUSTAINABLE EMPOWERMENT
We must demand a shift from distribution-based empowerment to development-driven empowerment.
1. Skill-First Empowerment: Before any tools or equipment are given:
• Provide structured vocational training (3–6 months minimum)
° Certify competence
° Include apprenticeship or mentorship
2. Financial & Business Literacy: Every beneficiary must understand:
° How to manage money
° How to price products/services
° How to track profit and loss
° How to reinvest and grow
Without this, every empowerment effort will fail silently.
3. Cluster-Based Empowerment (Not Individual Handouts)
Instead of empowering individuals in isolation - create cooperatives or clusters, provide shared infrastructure (workspaces, storage, power), and encourage collaboration and scale
For example create a community agro-processing hub instead of 50 scattered grinding machines.
4. Access to Markets (Critical) - Production without market access is useless. Government and stakeholders should:
° Link beneficiaries to buyers
° Support distribution channels
° Encourage digital platforms and aggregation systems
5. Infrastructure-Led Empowerment
No empowerment program should exist without:
° Good rural roads
° Reliable electricity
° Access to water
These are not luxuries, they are the backbone of economic activity.
6. Access to Micro-Credit (Not Free Handouts)
Shift from “free items” to:
° Low-interest, structured loans
° Performance-based financing
° Accountability systems
People value what they build and invest in, not what is handed out without structure.
7. Monitoring, Mentorship & Continuity - Empowerment should not end at distribution, ensure you institute a system that track progress for 6–12 months, provide mentorship,and measure outcomes (income growth, job creation, sustainability)
THE ROLE OF THE ELECTORATE
As citizens, we must stop applauding short-term optics and start demanding long-term impact.
Ask questions:
1. How many beneficiaries are still in business after 1 year?
2. What training preceded the empowerment?
3. What infrastructure supports these initiatives?
4. What measurable economic value has been created?
True empowerment is not about giving tools—it is about building people.
Until we prioritize:
1. Skills
2. Systems
3. Infrastructure
4. Sustainability
We will continue to see poverty repackaged as progress. From 1999 to date, do the math of the billions of Naira expended as empowerment and measure it viz-a-viz the impact.
Benue State—and Nigeria at large deserves better.
The future belongs to a system that empowers minds before machines.
In 2027, let's vote for competence, not handouts.
Jacob D Dzurgba
Business Consultant
