MBAKINDEV EXTOLS GOV. ALIA’S PLAN TO FIX BENUE STATE REHABILITATION BOARD
On that friendly road running from Yaikyo through Tse Poor to Apir town, an utterly neat miracle is gradually unfolding. The Benue State Rehabilitation Board squats beside the road. The place has for many years remained in a shocking state of disrepair.
A victim of several rain falls and their tropical anger, a prey of several storms and their fury, some of the buildings, already marked for demolition, have lost their roofs. These were built as far back as 1982 during the administration of Mr. Apollos Aper Aku of blessed memory. The walls of some buildings are broken, their floors clattered. For several years, authorities of the Board complained, but their petitions gathered dust in the unresponsive cabinets of successive past administrations. Above all, the Board was highly undersold by those who should tag a better price of value to it.
But as fate will have it, Governor Hyacinth Alia has come on board and has demonstrated much interest in this humble place, and coupled with the dogged effort of the current Executive Secretary of the Board, Mr. Alexander Mbakindev, the environment which was a run-down muddle, is now wearing a much more decent look. Yet the huge infrastructural deficiency cannot be paddled away overnight.
Mr. Mbakindev, Executive Secretary of the Benue State Rehabilitation Board, informed a team from the Transmitter Media during a courtesy visit that the Benue State Rehabilitation Board was established with a mission “to train and empower towards transforming lives through compassionate care to overcome physical, emotional and psychosocial challenges… The Board has already been rebuilding lives and reviving hopes by affording the people an inclusive community where everyone irrespective of religion, tribe and tongue has access to equal opportunities.”
Mr. Mbakindev noted that “His Excellency Revd Fr Dr. Hyacinth Alia is the kind of leader anyone in my position would like to have. He does not only give a listening ear the plight of the Benue State Rehabilitation Board, but he also acts swiftly to solve some of the basic challenges we have.”
He further revealed. “When we cried out to him about the lack of portable water and electricity in this place, he promptly responded by supplying us with fifty solar panels and drilling two motorized bole holes which you can see over there. By divine coincidence you have also come here today to meet the SEMA and BIPC people. As you can see, they are here to supply us with food stuff. I just made a call to the Governor this morning concerning our depleting food supply, and promptly, he directed SEMA and BIPC to come to our aid.”
The Benue State Rehabilitation Board under Mr. Mbakindev now has a staff strength of 100, while the State Rehabilitation School has 396 special needs population comprising students, trainees and clients. The Transmitter Media team was taken round the school facility to inspect the classrooms, the skills acquisition centre, comprising the small ICT unit, the tailoring unit, the shoe making unit, the bead work unit and the miniature rehabilitation clinic.
The huge infrastructural deficit at Benue State Rehabilitation Board has long been recognized as one of the Board’s gravest problems. Steps are being taken by Gov. Alia to stanch it. Not too long ago, the Executive Governor of Benue State, Revd. Fr. Dr. Hyacinth Alia announced government plans to construct new hostels blocks, a dining hall and, a classroom block at the Benue State Rehabilitation School housed within the Board’s premises in Apir Makurdi Local Government Area.
Mr. Mbakindev, using the platform of the Transmitter Media, has appealed to development partners, NGOs, national and international, as well as public spirited individuals to come to the aid of the Board which is already considering taking their services closer home to the 23 Local Government Areas of Benue State in the days ahead.
