Wednesday, Oct 7, 2026
The endorsement of His Excellency, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, by the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Benue State Chapter, for a second term is one of the most politically significant endorsements the Governor has received ahead of 2027.
The Union endorsed the Governor citing his administration’s remarkable transformation of basic education and sustained commitment to the welfare, dignity and professional standing of teachers.
The endorsement was made during the 2026 International Teachers’ Day Celebration held at IBB Square, Makurdi, under the theme, “Standing with Teachers: 60 Years of Protecting the Profession, Advancing its Status and Shaping Our Futures.”
It is significant not because teachers are another voting bloc, but because they are among the people who have experienced government policy most directly. They know what it means to be employed but unpaid. They know what it means to wait for months for a salary. They know what it means to teach without adequate facilities.
Therefore, when the same teachers publicly say that Governor Alia deserves another term, their verdict carries the weight of lived experience.
It should not be forgotten that for years, Benue teachers had a bitter expression for the uncertainty surrounding their salaries, which gave birth to the popular lexicon, “salary herdsmen.”
Benue teachers were frustrated under the past administration, and their legitimate earnings were withheld or delayed, leaving families at the mercy of an unpredictable payroll system.
The Alia administration wasted no time in confronting that culture head-on since coming on board.
Through reforms in payroll administration and the introduction of an automated payroll system, the government has made salary administration more predictable, transparent and accountable. Now, salaries are paid as and when due.
For a worker, a regular salary is dignity. It is the ability to plan, feed a family, pay tuition, meet medical obligations and live without the perpetual anxiety of wondering when the government will remember its obligation.
That transformation is precisely why the NUT endorsement should concern those already positioning themselves for 2027. The teachers are not endorsing an idea; they are endorsing an experience. They have seen more than 9,000 teachers recruited under the Alia administration. They have seen 435 classrooms constructed or renovated, WASH facilities provided, 36 libraries established, 25 school boreholes provided and more than 13,000 pieces of furniture supplied.
More than 8,900 teachers have received professional development. The harmonised retirement age has addressed an important welfare concern, while the 150 million naira monthly School Grant Scheme is providing direct support to schools. Project BRACE-UP is also expanding efforts to bring out-of-school children back into the education system.
The Alia administration has also announced a structured plan to clear the 11-month salary arrears owed to SUBEB teachers by the previous administration, beginning with this month’s (October) payroll, with one month’s arrears to be paid alongside each monthly salary until the backlog is exhausted.
That is the difference between acknowledging a problem and governing through it. The arrears are an inherited burden, but the responsibility for resolving them belongs to the government in office. Governor Alia has chosen to confront that burden rather than use it as an excuse for inaction, like others have done in the past.
The opposition may attack Governor Alia politically, as it is entitled to do in a democracy. But it will have a harder task explaining away the testimony of the very teachers who work inside the education system.
Political criticism can be manufactured in party offices, but professional endorsement is harder to manufacture when it comes from people who live the consequences of policy every working day. The NUT has effectively placed its own credibility behind its assessment of the administration’s education record.
For the Alia administration, therefore, the NUT endorsement is bigger than a campaign advantage. It is a demonstration that continuity has begun to acquire a human face. It is the teacher who can now plan around a more predictable salary system. It is the newly recruited teacher who has found employment. It is the teacher who has received professional training. It is the pupil sitting in a modern classroom. It is the school receiving support through the grant scheme. It is also the child who may return to school through Project BRACE-UP. These are the real building blocks of political legitimacy.
And this is why the “salary herdsmen” era must remain a lesson to every Benue teacher, and we must resist the temptation of going back to that era. Benue workers should never again have to live with the uncertainty of whether their salaries will be released, delayed or withheld. The government must be an institution of obligation, not unpredictability. The Alia administration has permanently institutionalised regular and transparent salary administration. This is one of the government’s most important legacies, which may ultimately be less visible than a road or a building but far more personal: restoring the worker’s confidence that the government will honour its commitment.
The NUT has therefore delivered two messages – one to Governor Alia and another to the people of Benue. To the Governor, it says: “We have seen your interventions and we want continuity.” To the Benue people, it says: “Judge the government by what is happening inside the classrooms and in the lives of those who teach your children.”
The 2027 election will inevitably produce political alignments and competing promises. But beneath all the noise will remain one fundamental question: “Which government has given Benue people sufficient reason to trust it with another four years?” The NUT endorsement suggests that, in the education sector, many teachers have already reached their conclusion.
The Governor has therefore received this endorsement with humility, not triumphalism, and with greater responsibility, not complacency.
For an administration, the greatest political asset is not the number of people it can persuade to praise it, but the number of citizens who can independently point to something the government has done and say, “I have experienced the difference.”
The teachers have now spoken. Their endorsement is a dividend of performance, a warning against returning to the past and a demand that the gains of the present be consolidated.
Sir Tersoo Kula, mnipr
Chief Press Secretary to the Governor.
