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From Ben Ukeji, Abuja
Hon. Terseer Ugbor is a member of the House of Representatives, representing Kwande/Ushongo Federal Constituency in the Green Chamber. He is the chairman of the House Ad Hoc Committee on Student Loan Fund. He is also the deputy chairman of the Committee on Environment In this interview, he spoke on his efforts at tackling the scourge of Buruli ulcer (called Ambi) in Benue State, the controversy over NEMA relief materials, the rising number of IDPs, environmental protection, as well as the 2027 elections, among others.
Excerpts:
You entered partisan politics from the private sector as a consultant on the environment. Being in the House of Representatives, what has your experience been like?
You are right. I was a consultant on the environment. I have been engaged in the business of waste management, sustainability, sustainable development, waste-to-energy recycling, conservation and environmental protection over the past 17 to 20 years since graduation. I have a passion for environmental issues, the protection of the climate, and issues related to public health.
I always want to make an impact in whatever I do. It is this mentality of impact that I have brought into my public life as a member of the House of Representatives.
In the development sector where I operate, we operate based on the greatest good for the greatest number of people. That is what drives our agenda. So, having that kind of mindset, I have been able to apply this wisdom and knowledge to my activities and how I design my programmes, how I come out with my initiatives, how I make decisions, ensuring that the greatest number of people in my constituency are impacted by my policies and my projects.
So far, we have received a very positive response. The transition has been quite seamless for me. I have been able to bring a lot of my skills and talents to bear on my job in the National Assembly. My constituents are proud of the work we have done so far.
What has been your most challenging moment in politics?
Well, the different levels, I would say, pre- and post-election periods all have different challenges. Soliciting votes is quite challenging. You have to be someone who is very much willing to engage, to travel, to often speak to people answer questions, clarify your agenda, clarify the manifesto which I designed in collaboration with my team and, of course, the party manifesto. It is a very challenging time. You have to do the fundraising and strategise to achieve success. But once you have achieved success in the elections, the real work actually begins. The real work now requires the ability to lobby as a member of parliament, to chair committees, and to ensure that you are in a position to take the dividends of democracy back to the constituency.
The dividends of democracy include projects for the constituency, including infrastructure projects. For example, we have had to build several classroom blocks for schools so that our children can have a decent place to learn. We are currently building one of the biggest school projects in the constituency, which also includes the Teachers’ Quarters and Corps Lodge. Because we want more youth corps members to be posted to our constituency to support the educational sector, we are building a corps members’ lodge.
We are also currently looking at the health sector. We are building a comprehensive healthcare centre, which will include a delivery ward, pharmacy, male ward, female ward, and even a children’s ward. Of course, we are also building a Doctors’ Quarters and a Corps Members Lodge for corps members at the hospital. So, it is a whole support system for the community. We are hoping that this project will be completed in the next few months for commissioning.
Outside of all these, we have also embarked on a lot of other projects. We are currently building a Technology Incubation Centre in Adikpo, Benue State in collaboration with the National Board for Technology Incubation.
We want to train our people on how to process their food into semi-finished, semi-processed materials, or even fully finished, processed, and packaged materials. By this, our people can add value to our agricultural produce. We also want to use the Technology Incubation Centre to train our youths on the fabrication of agricultural implements to add value to the agricultural value chain in our constituency.
The centre will serve as a hub for training our young people on digital technology, AI, software development, and other forms of technology adaptation that can be applied to our local communities to add value to the lives of people. In addition to this, you know about the Federal Polytechnic Adikpo; it was supposed to be set up many years ago. Unfortunately, that project didn’t see the light of day. When I got to the House of Representatives, I sponsored the bill to establish the Federal Polytechnic Adikpo.
Unfortunately, the federal government had approved a Federal Polytechnic in Benue a few years earlier, and the Federal Polytechnics Act restricts only one polytechnic per state, so the one in Adikpo, could not be approved.
But the National Open University has approved the establishment of a Study Centre in Adagi, Adikpo, Kwande Local Government. So, we have done the designs for the structures. We have acquired the land and have been engaging with TETFUND on this. We are working with other stakeholders as well. Next year, through the 2026 budget, we will be able to commence the construction of that study centre, which will award degrees up to PhD level in several courses of study.
In the area of security, we have also done so much in that regard. You are aware of the insecurity in our constituency which we have been facing for about 10 to 13 years now. We have had to really engage closely with the security agencies in the country and support them. We have commissioned a border patrol station, which I donated to the Nigerian Police and other security services. We support the security organisations with boots and other gadgets for the volunteers and the vigilance youth in our constituency. This has enabled them to push back a lot on the banditry going on in our constituency, and we are happy to say that we have seen a significant improvement in the reduction of banditry attacks and the killing of our people in recent times.
Our people have suffered so much in the last seven to eight months. So, we are happy about the improved security. But of course, one death is too many, so we are hoping that over the next few months, we will completely eradicate banditry in our communities.
We are hoping that the state government will also support us maximally, using the powers of the Office of the Governor and as the Chief Security Officer of the state.
Of course, there is a huge amount of money as a security vote that comes to the state every month. We hope that some of these funds can be applied rightfully to support the efforts that we are making to improve security in our constituency.
There are a lot of IDPs in your constituency. At a particular point, there was a story that you diverted items meant to support IDPs from the National Emergency Management Agency. What really happened?
Oh, yes. When we got into office, I saw that one of the major challenges we faced in our community was the displacement of people. Our people are being chased away from their ancestral lands, and most of them have rushed into communities where they now live in IDP centres, in churches and sometimes on the streets.
We wrote to NEMA to support us with relief materials to alleviate the suffering of the people who have been displaced. But, unfortunately, sometimes this is the burden of leadership, where politics gets in the way of rationality. In this case, we have a case of political interference in the work that I was trying to achieve. The Benue State government decided to hijack the palliatives that were donated to me by NEMA to deliver to the IDPs and held these palliatives down for over a week while the people for whom these palliatives were meant were hungry and suffering.
The palliatives meant for them were hijacked and packed in Government House, Markudi, unjustly and unnecessarily by the Benue State government because of political reasons.
But, eventually, the palliatives were released. But they were not released and distributed the way we had hoped for the communities that were most affected by the attacks at the time. It was an unfortunate incident.
We hope it never repeats itself again. In fact, we had to take steps to get justice on that issue, and it resulted in a court case of defamation. I challenged the government of Benue State to prove the allegation that I was planning, or I was diverting or going to divert materials, which I had brought in all the way from Jos to Benue.
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The government has avoided coming to court, avoiding proving its case in court, and has decided to adopt delay tactics, instead of coming to defend the allegation that they made against me, by trying to tarnish the reputation that I have built over the years. So, we are still on it. Eventually, we may decide to withdraw the case now that it is clear that the government is unable to prove its case in court and has adopted delay and evasive stance towards the matter.
I have been advised to withdraw the case and let posterity be the judge on the matter. It ìs evidently clear that I have been vindicated. I have proved myself, I have made my case, and the Benue State government has failed to come and defend and prove their own case in court. But I have gotten many more palliatives since then, which I have delivered to my people, to the communities, and we have put that incident behind us.
Talking about IDPs, Benue State is among the states with the highest number of IDPs in Nigeria, which is a very unfortunate situation. When the governor of Benue State was campaigning, he promised to return IDPs to their homes in 100 days. I personally felt it was an unrealistic target. I think he was desperate to be governor and made promises he knew he could not keep.
As leaders, we must be sincere with the people. We must tell them the truth as it is. He hasn’t been able to keep that promise, and we still face these challenges today. But I took up the mantle to call attention to this issue of IDPs, to push the state government and the federal government to do more to resettle the IDPs either back to their ancestral lands or resettle them to farming communities where they can become useful, provide skills for them so they can begin to work and provide for themselves, instead of remaining in IDP camps and depending on handouts from the public for survival.
So, as a legislator, I have done everything within my legislative powers to call attention to the issue of IDPs, provided support to them, and provided fertilisers so that they can go back to farming. I have provided food relief materials in thousands of tons to the IDPs. I also produced an international documentary on the plight of IDPs in Benue, trying to call attention to these issues and also to raise funding to build resettlement homes for the IDPs.
I am hoping that, through the effort of my team, who worked on the documentary, we will be able to attract some funding to begin to support the IDPs by building green smart homes in rural communities. These homes will also include schools and hospitals where the children who were born and are growing up in IDP camps can get an education and grow up to live more productive lives for themselves.
This is one of the issues that concerns me so much, and I am hoping that God will give me the strength and even more authority, so that I will be able to really put so much effort into the issues of IDPs and the resettlement of my people who are living in camps. Tiv People are not supposed to be in IDP camps; we shouldn’t be in IDP camps. We need to clean up that issue.
You recently moved a motion on the floor of the House concerning a strange illness in Benue, known locally as ‘Ambi.’ What exactly do you seek to achieve with that motion?
Yes, I recently sponsored a motion on the need to curtail the spread of Buruli ulcer, popularly called Ambi, in the Tiv-speaking areas of Benue. Buruli ulcer doesn’t affect only the Tiv people. It affects the Idoma people so much. It affects the entire state. It affects even outside Benue; it affects Nasarawa, it affects Cross River. In the South-East, they have cases of Buruli ulcer. This is an issue that greatly affects our people. It is a very dangerous and wicked disease that spreads very fast and leads to amputations, death, stigma and even leads to breakdown of family ties because of the wrong notion that this disease is spiritually oriented and it is gotten from witchcraft. So, people believe that fellow family members or friends are the ones who spread these diseases. They claim that the disease is caused by witchcraft, which we have investigated and found not to be true. This is an infectious disease which originated in Cameroon, and it has spread to Nigeria.
So, I have called attention to this issue on the floor of the House. I have met with experts and scientists who are working on this subject matter, and I have also committed to procure test kits and treatment materials, including antibiotics, to support the scientists and the doctors who are fighting the spread of Buruli ulcer. I am also hoping to meet with several other local and international Non-Governmental Organisations, and philanthropists who can support the work that I am doing for Buruli ulcer in Benue State.
So, this is a major public health concern for our people. It affects mostly the poor people, and not just the poor, even the middle class. It affects everybody now. So, we want to see that this does not become an epidemic. I will do everything to reduce the spread of Buruli ulcer in Benue State.
The 2027 general elections are knocking on the door of politicians across the country. Are you going to seek a re-election to represent the Kwande/Ushongo Federal Constituency in the Green Chamber, or are you aspiring for another office?
I believe that when you perform well as an elected leader, the people have a right to vote you again, to continue in the job that you are doing, or to serve in a different position.
I believe I have tried my best and have done well, given the circumstances as a first-time member. I am the first member from Kwande/Ushongo to chair a committee of the House of Representatives. I am the first member to be deputy chairman of a committee in the House. I am also the first member to establish a functional constituency office in the constituency where I engage closely with the people. I have executed projects across almost all the council wards, except for a few, which we have planned and have budgeted. This will be the first time that a member of parliament from Kwande/Ushongo will execute projects in every single council ward in the community.
We currently have 18 motorised boreholes, which is the highest of any member of parliament from Benue State. I have completed a traditional council hall in Ushongo Local Government Area, which is also the first of its kind in the state.
I have distributed fertiliser, herbicides, and pesticides to every community in our constituency first of its type in terms of the volumes. I have donated motorcycles. I have made efforts to get employment opportunities for young people in my constituency. I have gotten the highest number of police recruits in our constituency over the last 20 years. This has never been achieved before by any representatives from the constituency.
Through our efforts, we have also got many young people enrolled in the military and paramilitary organisations through lobbying and the efforts that we have made. But we are trying to do more, because we don’t want all our young people to just be in the security services. We are trying to get them jobs in the Federal Civil Service, in private companies, in the development agencies so that they can build strong careers for their future, and they can also be pensionable after retirement.
This has been one of the most challenging aspects of my job. Finding employment opportunities because of the highly competitive nature of these things. As a first-time member, I am still learning the ropes in some areas to make sure that I block the loopholes where I feel I have not done as much as I wished.
But overall, we have spoken for the people. We have always been a voice for the people of Kwande/Ushongo and Benue in general.
I have not hesitated to speak up on the floor of the House, which is what I was elected to do. To bring to the fore the issues that concern the people I represent and make Kwande/Ushongo the highlight of everything that I do. That is why most of the bills and motions I have sponsored have been people-oriented and people-centric. Finally, I will conclude by mentioning a few of the bills that I have sponsored in the House. I have sponsored the bill on Endangered Species Conservation and Protection, which has passed third reading in the House and the senate. This is an environmental bill that seeks to protect our environment, protect our forest, our wildlife, and curtail the consumption of animals that we are very fond of.
Anyway, as you know, we are currently losing our wildlife. Benue people are importing bushmeat from other states. So, we are trying to bring back our wildlife, bring back our animals, bring back the forest; if not, in a few years we will have nothing to hold on to in our environment anymore.
I have also sponsored the bill on Amendments to the Legal Aid Act, which seeks to include environmental justice as a service so that communities that are affected by pollution, affected by oil spills, communities affected by mining, pollution from mining activities, can receive legal support to get their claims.
Pollution has affected the well-being and the livelihood of the people and even the health of people in these communities. That bill is also in the works. I also sponsored Amendments to the Environmental Impact Assessment Act, trying to improve the social and health aspects of environmental impact so that every project that is to be executed, the impact of this project on the health and the social well-being of the community is taken into consideration before the project is executed, especially if it is a massive infrastructural project. Yes, I am also sponsoring the bill on Transition and Handover of Government, to provide a seamless transition from one government to the other.
This is very important for democracy. For legislating properly and creating a proper protocol on how power is transmitted from one government to another. This will help in continuity in government. It will help incoming governments to start the administration on a strong footing and ensure that outgoing governors do not abscond from the responsibility of a proper handover to an incoming government. I think we have done quite a bit. I cannot even mention a lot of what we have done just in one interview today. But I think that so far, we have done well.
So, are you going to seek re-election to the House of Representatives?
I am happy with my current office. I believe that I still have a lot to achieve as a member of the House of Representatives. But I also believe that if given the position of governor of Benue State, I will excel very well in that position, because I have more powers, more resources, and more ability to achieve a lot of the dreams I have for our dear state of Benue.
I look forward to a robust engagement in the next few months with stakeholders and with other members of our party. If the party feels like I am in a good position to lead the party in the next general elections and to lead the state as the governor going forward, then I will be happy and ready to perform in that role as governor of Benue State.
