The governor of Benue state, Dr. Gabriel Suswam {CON}, said that investment cannot move forward as it should be in Nigeria if there is no adequate power supply that will enable both local and foreign investors do their business in the country.

Speaking with journalists in New York after the 3rd Nigeria Investment Summit on Wednesday night, Dr. Suswam said: "Investors will not move to any country where there is no regular power supply because they need light to do everything they have to do. If we like, let all of us come to New York, sleep on the street of New York in order to ask foreign investors to come and do their businesses in Nigeria, they will not come if power supply is not good"

He added that his government is encouraging serious foreign investors in Benue state and they have been doing a lot of businesses in the state without any problems.

The governor who was on the entourage of President Jonathan to New York where he is presently attending the ongoing 67th Session of the UN general assembly, however recalled that his administration had in the past invited foreign investors to come and invest in Benue state but they refused to come back as planned and promised when they got back to their countries.

Speaking on a statement credited to Senator Joseph Waku, a former Senator from the state that he {Suswam} was using his office as governor to divide the elders in Benue State, Dr. Suswam said that the Senator was not speaking the mind of any elder in the state.

His words: "How could Senator Waku be saying that I divided Benue elders when he is not even from my party. Nobody expects him to say something good about me when he is a member of the opposition party. As far as I am concerned, he is just speaking the mind of the very few minority who call themselves elders in the Action Congress of Nigeria. He is not speaking the mind of the elders of my party or any elder in Benue state because I have not divided them"

On the issue of state police, the governor made it known that his position against the proposal from the begining was borne out of the fact that Nigeria is not ripe enough to have such, stressing that it will create disharmony if allowed.

Dr. Gabriel Suswam who said that he will never support the establishment of state police however noted that it would not be a bad idea the moment Nigeria becomes more matured.

He added that establishment of state police will divide Nigeria because nobody or leader will believe in the rule of law any longer. "They will use the operation of state police to bastardise the society. As a governor, I do not think I will like to have state police" he noted.

Saying that he totally supported President Goodluck Jonathan's position on the issue of state police, Suswam said that politicians will abuse state police if established by always wanting to be in control and then misuse it.

According to him "State police is not good for Nigeria at this time. We still need to undergo some processes to enable us practise this successfully. Let us take for instance, I as a governor, I can decide to use state police to chase my opponents if it is established. With the state police, I can ask the police to arrest or even ensure that whoever I do not like in my state goes to jail. Now you can see that the idea of state police is a very wrong one because Nigeria has not reached that stage"

Speaking on the agitation that the presidency from come from the Northern zone in 2015, the Governor said that he was not against any group, region or party calling making any agitation, but noted that it is very wrong to start talking about 2015 presidential election when it is clear that the present President of the country has just spent a little above one year in office as a democratically elected president.

"Anybody talking about 2015 now is a source of distraction because this will not make such leader concentrate on how to develop his area. I urge all the political office holders to forget about 2015 now and begin to concentrate on how to fulfil all the promises they made to their subjects during their campaigns. How will someone who has just spent a year plus out of a term of four years be talking of his ambition for 2015"

"Any agitation or aspiration regarding 2015 at this time is very senseless because there is no way any political office holder will be able to perform very well if he jettisons his primary duty which is to develop his area and begins to talk about an election that will not take place until the next two and half years or so" he said.

Ask to react on some governors that had banned fulani herdsmen from their states, Governor Suswam stated that such idea was wrong, stressing that the best thing they should have done was engage them so as to make them useful to growth of their states.

"Like me now, i see no reason why I should ban fulani herdsmen from coming into Benue state. Instead of banning them, my government has always engaged them and they are now useful for my state. They are Nigerians and they have the legitimate rights to live in anywhere they choose, so anybody that had banned them had done something significantly wrong"

The governor also said that Benue state is facing a lot of financial challenges, urging that more funds should be made available to the state to enable his administration carry out all the required projects in the state.

Governor Suswam while speaking on the achievements of his government in the last five years, said that his administration has given Benue state a transformation that has caught the attention of all the indigenes of the state both home and abroad, stressing that President Jonathan could not even finish commissioning all the projects that were lining up for him to commission during his two days visit to the state..

His words: "We are now witnessing a new level of development like never before. We have tapped the abundant human and natural resources.There has been notable and significant improvement in the standard of living as well as infrastructural development in the state. I have engaged in massive construction of township roads, drainage, pedestrians walk functioning street lights in Markurdi, the state capital.I want to make it known that every sector of the state economy has witnessed transformation"

"We have constructed, completed and commission three water works in the state. One in Katzina-Ala, one in Otukpo and the major one in Markurdi. There is no state in the country that has been able to commission three giant water projects like this, even the federal government has not been able to achieve that. I was doing these projects simultaneously despite the low income that we receive"

"We also completed and commissioned 500 Units Housing Estate for the Civil Servant in Benue State each of these apartments has 3 bedrooms. We have fully renovated the Government house.We also completed Markurdi International market. In the area of health, we have performed creditably well. We have completed construction of almost eleven hospitals located at Anyiin, Ugba, Lessel, Buruku, naka, North Bank (Markurdi), Agatu, Idekpa, Alaglanu, Otukpa and Owukpa"

"All equipped and commissioned. In the area of agriculture, we know that Benue State is the food basket of the nation and we also know that agriculture represents a major priority areas of the present administration. We have supplied fertilizers to farmers at subsidized rates. We released funds for restocking of livestock breeding and investigation of Raav"

Speaking further on agriculture, he said that the state has partnered with a team of agriculturalists from Iowa State University in the United States to assist the state in the establishment of demonstration farms in four locations in the state.

He also made it known that his government has commenced the move to enhance agricultural production which he claimed will further encourage farmers in the state to go into commercial agriculture.

His words: "I am working on a way to enhance agricultural production and we already have the visibility studies on the table.We are trying to encourage farmers to go into commercial agriculture so that we will be able to live up to the name, the food basket of the nation"

He also made it known that the agricultural sector in Benue State has recorded tremendous transformation, stressing that the programmes and projects executed to attain the epoch-making achievements by the state ministry of agriculture are results that his government is giving agriculture a special attention.

To further assist farmers in the state, the governor made it known that his administration has formed the Expanded Fertilizer Sales and Distribution Committees both at the State and Local Government Area, stressing that this idea was to accommodate all interest groups and to ensure that all the segments of the State are carried along in the sales and distribution of the commodity.

"We have given almost 1 Billion naira to farmers to help them do their job and we have just signed another 1 Billion naira loan with the Central bank to assist these people" he noted.