Suppose Benue State had only one naira left.

And suppose we handed that one naira to Chief Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, SAN, as Governor.

What should he do with it?

It sounds like a ridiculous question. After all, governments deal in billions and trillions, not one naira.

https://voxnews.com.ng/michael-aondoakaa-2027-benue-governor/

But perhaps reducing public finance to one naira helps us ask the question that really matters:

What should government money actually accomplish?

If that one naira could beautify a roundabout or help a displaced farming community return to production, where should it go?

If it could be used merely to purchase goods produced elsewhere or help a Benue entrepreneur produce those goods here, which choice creates greater value?

If it could go to a company that takes virtually everything outside Benue or to a competent indigenous business that employs Benue people, buys locally and reinvests locally, which should government prefer?

These are not really questions about one naira.

They are questions about the philosophy of government.

THE BENUE NAIRA

For decades, we have measured government performance largely by how much money was spent.

Perhaps we should start asking what the money produced.

A naira that enters Benue should not immediately buy a one-way ticket out of Benue.

Imagine government awards a legitimate contract to a capable indigenous company. The company employs Benue engineers, artisans and labourers. Those workers receive wages and spend some of their earnings in local shops and markets. Traders restock. Farmers sell more produce. Transporters get more business.

That same naira has touched several Benue hands before eventually leaving the local economy.

That is what I call the Benue Naira.

It is not a new currency.

It is a new way of thinking about our money.

MAKE N1 PRODUCE N5 OF VALUE

This should be one of the tests of an Aondoakaa administration.

Not simply:

How much did you spend?

But: What did the spending unlock?

If government spends N1 billion on infrastructure that enables businesses to invest another N5 billion, creates jobs and generates taxes, that money has worked.

If government invests in security and thousands of hectares of abandoned farmland return to cultivation, that money has worked.

If government provides electricity to an industrial cluster and dozens of businesses become productive, that money has worked.

Government money should have a job description too.

AONDOAKAA MUST MAKE THE NAIRA WORK

This is where Aondoakaa’s Benue First philosophy will become more than a campaign slogan.

If elected Governor in 2027, his challenge will not simply be to spend Benue’s money.

Any government can spend money.

His challenge will be to make Benue’s money work for Benue people.

Award contracts transparently, but deliberately build the capacity of indigenous businesses to compete.

Buy locally where quality and capacity exist.

Use public infrastructure to unlock private investment.

Connect agriculture to processing and processing to markets.

Spend on security because every farm reopened is economic activity restored.

Invest in young entrepreneurs because sometimes the best job government can create is the business it enables somebody else to build.

And insist that public expenditure must leave something behind beyond photographs and commissioning ceremonies.

SO, HERE IS THE QUESTION

In 2027, we will hear enormous figures.

Billions for roads.

Billions for agriculture.

Billions for security.

Billions for infrastructure.

Don’t be hypnotized by the zeros.

Reduce everything to one naira.

Then ask:

What did that naira produce?

Whose life did it improve?

How many jobs did it help create?

How much private investment did it attract?

How long did it remain productive within Benue’s economy?

And what value was left behind after it was spent?

Michael Kaase Aondoakaa is asking Benue people to entrust him with the people’s mandate in 2027.

So perhaps one of the most important questions we should put to him is also the simplest:

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Chief, if Benue gives you its naira, how many times can you make it work for Benue?

Because Benue does not merely need more money.

Benue needs money that knows where it is going.

Written by Dr. Terver Akase