Lagos — Those who have conquered the world look at it as a global village. They say so because technology has brought every part of the world to every home. The radio, television and newspapers have made the world one village.

That explains why Nigerians can predict the outcome of the November elections in the US. Nobody needs a soothsayer to know that unless another Florida offers itself, the Democrats would certainly stage a return to the White House. Call it the Saddam bug, if you may. The elder Bush tried to chase Saddam Hussein out of Baghdad. He failed. Instead, George W. Bush Senior was chased out of the White House by an enigmatic Bill Clinton. In the recent onslaught against Saddam, the casualties have been many. More than 1000 US troops have been killed. Several troops of the allied forces were also killed. The Spanish voted out their president because of the war. Britain's Tony Blair is on the firing line for deceiving the British public on the allegation that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. The Australians are angry that their leaders dragged them into an unjustifiable war which has now lined them up as likely victims of terrorists' attacks.

The beauty of all this is that the entire world is watching as the events unfold. For reporters in all parts of the world, coverage of events has become easier and more exciting. The Cable Network News, CNN and most television stations now use Videophone to cover happenings in all parts of the world. Instant coverage of events by television stations was a major contributor to the claim that the world has become a global village.

Third World countries are gradually catching up with the developed world. In Nigeria, for instance, information technology is developing at a very fast rate. There is hardly any major town in Nigeria today that you won't find internet services. The problem, however, is that some communities in Nigeria are being denied the opportunity of having access to first class internet services. Benue State is in that category.

Last May, I had gone to Makurdi in search of advertisements from some of the local government councils. Most of them were willing to patronize Daily Champion but complained of inadequate funds. According to one of them, the Ministry for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs makes massive deductions from their monthly allocations from the federation account. The deductions are for endless seminars and workshops, mandatory contributions for the welfare of staff of the ministry, un-budgeted purchases etc. In May 2004, for instance, each council chairman was forced to buy a Peugeot 406 Saloon car for official use. It didn't matter whether they needed it or not. For a chairman like that of Agatu, his priority would have been the construction of the Otukpo-Oweto road which has remained impassable since the rains started. It is gratifying that the federal government has started work on the road. But as of today, Hon. Danjuma Sule, chairman of Agatu local government area parks his official vehicle, that same Peugeot 406 that was imposed on him at Ugbokpo, the headquarters of Apa local government area.

More intriguing was the realization that Makurdi, the Benue State capital is yet to catch up with the rapid growth of information technology in Nigeria. Apart from a few schools offering computer studies, getting a place to type a document is difficult. It is even more difficult to try and check one's E-mail box. In Makurdi, there are only four cyber-cafes that are open for the use of the public. In Otukpo, there is only internet provider. And the cost is prohibitive. In an age when prices of telecommunications facilities are crashing, a few shylocks are bleeding internet users in Benue State with highly prohibitive prices.

In Otukpo, for instance, to open your E-mail box alone costs N30. Sometimes you are charged N20 for each minutes spent on the computer while checking your mails. In one hour, you would have spent N1,200. If you want to send mails, you will have to cough out N150 for each page. The explanation has always been that Otukpo is not Lagos.

That I think is a cheap way of advertising poverty. As Jonah Jang, former Military Governor of Benue State, once told indigenes of the state, it is very expensive to advertise poverty. States of the Middle Belt region must rise up to the challenges of the modern world. It is not enough to shout about freedom from the so-called Hausa/Fulani oligarchy. Indigenes of the Middle Belt States must be given the opportunity to walk tall alongside their contemporaries from other parts of the country.

They need good roads, hospitals, good schools and quality teachers, water and electricity supply. Luckily, the states of the Middle Belt are among the most blessed in Nigeria. In virtually all the states, arable land is available for the cultivation of every crop in the world. Each of the states of Nasarawa, Benue, Kogi, Niger, Plateau and Kwara deserves to be called the food basket of the federation. Any of those states can feed the entire nation. But they need leaders who are ready to invest in agriculture and in the production of agro-allied products. It is a thing of joy that the governors of Kwara and Benue states are developing interests in the agricultural sector.

But the system must be made to work before such interests can become useful. The local councils must be given the teeth with which to bite. When funding was regular, some of the local government councils in some of the Middle Belt states embarked on people oriented programmes including rural electrification, rehabilitation of roads and construction of market stalls. In Benue State for instance, Hon. Ezekiel Adaji was able to electrify three out of the seven rural communities slated for electrification.

That is why Governor George Akume must intervene in the relationship between the councils and the Ministry for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs. Most of the seminars and workshops have no bearing on how local governments are administered. Rather, they constitute a drain on the finances of the local government councils. Since the council chairmen and other principal officers of the local councils are constantly on the road attending workshops, what time would they have to administer their councils within the two years granted them by the Benue State House of Assembly?

Until governments in the Middle Belt states are able to empower people so they can realize their full potentials, poverty shall continue to be their lot. And while they wallow in poverty and self pity, their peers from other parts of country are getting the best of what the modern world offers. They must be made to feel that they are also part of the global village.