Exclusive Interview: BENUE STATE REHABILITATION BOARD :21 YEARS OF DRIVING INCLUSIVITY AND EMPOWERING PWD –

Mr. Alexander Mbakindev had the privilege of working with the Benue State Rehabilitation Board for 20 years, begining from his days as a junior officer and moving through the ranks to become the Executive Secretary of the Board. He spoke with The Transmitter on the services offered by the board, including how the Rehabilitation centre has got a face-lift from the benevolence of Gov. Hyacinth Alia.

Let’s hear from the horse’s mouth. I am sure our readers would like to know a bit about you?

Thank you. Good morning the delegation of The Transmitter media, you are most welcome to Benue State Rehabilitation Board. My name is Alexander Mbakindev. I am the current Executive Secretary, Benue State Rehabilitation Board. I have worked in this place for 20 years now. I started here as a very junior officer, and moved through the ranks to the position of the Head of Administration before the coming on board of the current administration of Governor Alia when I was asked to take over as the acting Executive Secretary of the Benue State Rehabilitation Board on the 2nd of June 2023. Having acted in that position for a period of one year, on July 17, 2024, the governor confirmed my appointment and today, I’m here as the Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Benue State Rehabilitation Board.

Putting in 20 years here is not a small task, I mean you should have vast experience about this place. So, can you tell us briefly about the history and development of the Benue State Rehabilitation Board?

Okay, thank you so much. The Benue State Rehabilitation Board was established on the 18th of June 2001. The establishment was done by the Benue State House of Assembly based on the United Nations General Convention Declaration of 1992. That was when the UN declared that all member states, all countries across the globe should establish rehabilitation centers for training and empowerment of individuals with disabilities. It was based on that, that Nigeria, being a member state domesticated that, and when we came back here, the Benue State House of Assembly established the edict that brought into existence the establishment of the board. Since then, we have been working here, and I think we are approximately 21 years today.

So, from what we can understand, you started working here right from day one.

Not exactly, I think the Board was established two or three years before I came.

Okay, what were the initial challenges the Board faced in the early years of its existence?

I can remember that when the first Executive Secretary of the board, Mrs. Nancy Biam, was appointed by the then governor as the ES to this place, the entire environment was bushy. The structures were here but the entire place was overgrown with grasses. We started with quite a humble beginning and we have grown from that to where we are today.

Can you throw more light on what your activities and programs are?

Yes, you see the Benue State Rehabilitation Board is an agency that is established strictly to provide for the care, training and empowerment of people who have physical and psychosocial disabilities, ranging from those that are blind, those that are deaf, the crippled, those that are suffering from drug addictions, those that are suffering from psychosis, mild psychosis, those that are suffering from others, illicit limitations like stroke, depression, trauma and the rest of others.
So, we are covering the entire 23 local government areas of the state. It’s not just here, here is the headquarters of the rehabilitation center and we are doing this rehabilitation for this group of people through some of our programs on education. We provide education to them at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. We also provide skill acquisition training, that is another of our programs, ranging from beads making, carpentry, shoe making, bakery coloring, ICT.
And we also provide rehabilitation services, through direct livelihood empowerment for this group of persons. We move into rural areas to provide these services for them. We find out what they want the government to do for them in their individual capacities. We understand clearly that most of them can’t go to school, but even if you can’t go into any business, the government still wants you to be empowered. So, what do we do for you? They tell us, and we come back, solicit for partnership with donor agencies alongside with the resources the government has, and then we provide for their well-being.
We are also providing health care services here to this group of persons. We are doing that and through the clinic we have, we move into the rural areas to provide health care services, specifically for this group of persons. We are also providing social services for them, like mental health and psychosocial support services. From the experience of working with them, this group of people are so depressed. So, they need serious mental health support and we are providing it for them. It’s not only here. We provide to all the 23 local government areas of the state. Basically, those are the programs that we are running here for this group of people.

Talking about your activities in the 23 local government areas of the state, we would like to know, how do you identify these people in the rural areas? Do you have a process of searching them out and identifying them or they just come here by themselves?

You see, by the establishment of the board, we have the mandate to work in all the 23 local government areas of the state. And we are doing that in partnership with local government councils. We are also doing it in partnership with the Joint National Association of People with Disabilities (JONAPWD), we are all partners in this course. So, anytime we need to go to any local government and provide these services for this group of people, it is very easy, you can write to the Chairman of the local government asking him to liaise with the general people at the local government level and also with the JONAPWD who have their chapters in all the various Council Wards in each local government area So, we have all their contacts here, if I want to go to maybe Gboko Local Government Area, to a particular council ward, I will just go here and call the Chairman of JONAPWD in that council ward.

Are there Ministries that support the work you do here?

Of course, as I said earlier, we provide educational support services, healthcare services, rehabilitation services etc. So, we have line ministries that we work with including the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Women Affairs, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Ministry of Justice.

Are there collaborations with development partners, NGOs, national and international, as well as public spirited individuals? How effective are these collaborations?

When I came on bard as the E.S. some of these partnerships were not forthcoming, but we are lucky to have a government that is willing to provide change, a Governor. who is willing to bring about things that Benue had never experienced before. He established the Benue State Bureau for Cooperative and International Development, which is in charge of bringing all the development partners from across the world to the state, and what we do is to cooperate with them to know which partners are coming to the state and what benefit we can get from such partners. We itemize the services we provide for them to see. Our collaboration with the Benue state Bureau for Cooperative and International Development is paying off. Right now, we have the Red Cross Society working with us, United Nations High Commission for Refugees are also working with us, World Health Organization is also working with us. There is a lot for partners to do here. The advantage other agencies like SEMA have is that their partnerships have been in progress over the years, our own is just starting, we are just one year old in working with development partners because this place was not operating optimally prior to the coming of Governor Alia. When the Governor visited and was shown around, he made a statement that he wanted this place to function effectively.

Recently, there have been cases of mentally deranged women giving birth under unhygienic conditions within Makurdi metropolis. What is the Board doing to support such women and even men on the street?

The mentally deranged women giving birth under unhygienic conditions are already being taken care of by the Benue State University Teaching Hospital under Dr. Stephen Hwande. Remember, we are also partnering with the BSUTH in the area of healthcare provision. It is by the time such women are medically taken care of and they needed to be reintegrated into the society that they are brought here to us so that we begin to implement proper rehabilitation on them. For the mentally deranged roaming the street, they truly fall into our mandate. We have been taking care of them in the past. By the coming of this administration, we have reopened partnership with the Edawu Centre for Mental Health in Oju Local Government. This is because we don’t have the facilities that they have to keep this category of people. I wrote to them concerning partnership in the evacuation and repatriation of these people on the street. They have responded by sending a memo which I am still studying. Eventually we can harmonize our thoughts and write to the government and to development partners for support towards proper evacuation and repatriation of such people.

What are you doing to sensitize the communities about stigmatization and how to manage the people living with disabilities in their homes?

We have gone past the level of awareness creation. We did that in our 10, 15 years or thereabouts. What we are doing now is the practical aspects of enabling them have something to do, to be useful to themselves and to the society, once this is done, the question of stigmatization will disappear. During our visit to the rural areas many of these people have presented their business proposals, some demanded for wedding-gowns or suites to be renting out for a fee during weddings, others wanted water trucks that they can give out on hire to able-bodied youths who are in the water-selling business, some needed battery charging apparatuses to charge people’s phones in the rural areas for a fee. We oblige them according to their needs. We are also having some of these people that we are training up to the university levels in Benue State University and Unijos. Once we empower them, stigmatization will vanish. We also run an inclusive system of education here whereby both those with disabilities and those without are learning together. The able students now understand the challenges of the disable ones. This will smoothen inclusivity in the society in the near future.

What is the staff strength of the Benue State Rehabilitation Board?

When I came on board, we had 19 staff and 12 casual staff. But seeing that this is a very big establishment now, we now have 54 casual staff and 36 permanent staff. The reason for the employment is that before Governor Alia came on board, we had only the school here, but today, we have the skills acquisition Centre, comprising an ICT unit, the tailoring unit, the shoe making unit, the bead work unit and the rehabilitation clinic. Now, we have 396 trainees comprising students, trainees and clients and 94 staff. Still this place is grossly understaffed hence some of the departments are not fully operational. We need up to 500 staff by the time the place is to operate optimally. We employ both the disabled and the able people. In professional areas, we have many of the disabled.

What are the achievements of the Board under your captainship?

All the achievements we have recorded are tied to the efforts of the Executive Governor of Benue state His Excellency, Hyacinth Alia, He gave us funding to establish a clinic here, although the main building is not on ground yet, we have renovated an already existing building and it is well equipped. He has also supported us to start a skill acquisition Centre. We graduated 68 students here through his support. He gave us funds to construct a proper kitchen here. 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 for us here. The governor has also enlisted all the 396 children with disabilities here under the National Health Insurance Scheme, therefore, we are getting our drugs medications and medical consumables from the National Insurance Scheme, we are not buying any medications here again like before. This is one of things he has done that has really brought about relief in that aspect.

What is your parting word?

My closing word is that the work here is huge, my appeal has always been to development partners, NGOs, national and international, as well as public spirited individuals to come to the aid of the Benue State Rehabilitation Board.