NDC's 2027 Benue governorship candidate Prof. Terhemba Shija argues the state is too blessed to be poor, citing untapped farmland and outlining an agriculture-driven development plan to feed all of Nigeria.
Makurdi, Benue State — September 3, 2026
The 2027 governorship candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Benue State, Prof. Terhemba Shija, has declared that the state is too blessed to be poor, arguing that agriculture must form the foundation of any serious plan for its economic development.
In a statement issued by his media aide, Sam Adzegeh, Shija noted that Benue farmers currently utilise only about 36 percent of the vast arable land available to them, and since they rarely engage in dry-season irrigation, they harvest just once a year. Despite these constraints, he said Benue remains the nation's leading producer of cassava, yams, soya beans, and citrus, and is also a major grower of beniseed, rice, groundnuts, and melon.
Shija highlighted that Benue farmers cultivate more than 20 different crops, including potatoes, ginger, cocoyam, pepper, millet, sorghum, tomatoes, groundnuts, and maize, as well as tree crops such as oil palm, cashew, and mangoes. He expressed concern, however, that most of this cultivation still relies on peasant farmers using hoe-and-cutlass technology with low capitalisation, resulting in poor yields per hectare and limited livestock production.
The NDC candidate argued that with Nigeria's population now exceeding 200 million people, the country urgently needs massive food production to secure its food supply. He said agriculture's contribution to economic growth extends beyond food provision to include increasing foreign earnings through manufactured agricultural exports, raising social income, generating productive employment, and improving general welfare.
Shija maintained that Benue's farmers possess the capacity to feed the entire Nigerian population, but are held back by a lack of infrastructure, financing, training, technology, and supportive legal structures. He argued that providing these missing inputs, modern farming technology, adequate funding, training, and a stronger legal framework, would allow Benue farmers to dramatically increase production and play a far larger role in Nigeria's food supply chain.
Shija's remarks add an agricultural development dimension to Benue's crowded 2027 political conversation, which has so far been dominated by security concerns and the state's contentious rejection of the Federal Government's ranching pilot programme.
His framing that Benue's underused farmland, not a lack of natural blessing, is the state's real constraint, positions agricultural modernization as a distinct campaign pillar ahead of the next election cycle.
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