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It’s not every day that Professor Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate and perennial conscience of the nation, hands out public praise like confetti, but that’s exactly what happened in Makurdi on Friday. After touring key industrial sites with Governor Hyacinth Alia, the 91-year-old literary titan declared himself genuinely impressed with the pace of agro-industrial development in Benue State.
Soyinka’s delegation went straight to the heart of the action: the newly revived Food Basket Brewery and the Benval Fruit Factory in the Makurdi Industrial Layout, plus the flagship Benfruits Factory. At Benval, engineers confirmed that test runs are complete and full-scale orange concentrate production is ready to roll. At Benfruits, Soyinka saw the machines already humming, poised to turn Benue’s famous oranges into juice, concentrate, and peel oil instead of watching them rot on trailers heading out of state.
Governor Alia used the moment to double down on his December deadline: from next month, every single orange harvested in Benue must be processed inside Benue. No more exporting raw fruit while the state stays poor. The BIPC Group Managing Director, Dr. Raymond Asemakaha, revealed that over 5,600 orchard farmers have already been geo-fenced and registered to guarantee steady raw material supply.
Soyinka didn’t just nod politely. He praised the road networks and underpasses springing up to support the industrial push, saying Benue is “on the path to optimal growth and development.” He also made a stop at an IDP camp on Gbajimba Road, reminding displaced families that “all hope is not lost” and quietly checking on the impact of books he had earlier donated.
For a governor who has faced his share of memes and side-eye (remember yesterday’s viral photo?), having Kongi leave the state with glowing words instead of his usual sharp critique is the kind of endorsement that carries weight far beyond Benue.
The factories are ready. The oranges are coming. And now even Wole Soyinka is smiling. Benue’s agro-hub dream just moved from slogan to serious business.
