Dr. Samuel Ioraer Ortom, born on 23rd of April 1961 in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State, is the current Governor of Benue State of Nigeria. He was enrolled into the St. John’s Primary School, Gboko, in 1970 but moved to St. Catherine’s Primary School, Makurdi, in 1974, where he completed his primary education in 1976. Mr. Ortom was admitted into Idah Secondary Commercial College, Idah, in Kogi State in 1976. He spent two years in the school before quitting in 1979 due to the inability to pay his school fees.
However, Mr. Ortom later managed to obtain the General Certificate of Education as well as a Diploma in salesmanship from the National School of Salesmanship, Manchester. He enrolled at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and acquired both the Interim Joint Matriculation Board Certificate in 1995 and the Diploma in Journalism in 1998. He also attended the Benue State University, where he bagged the Advanced Diploma in Personnel Management in 2001 as well as a Master of Public Administration in 2004.
He joined politics in 2008 and was serving as the National Auditor of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, when he was appointed as a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in July 2011. In April 2015, he contested for the position of Governor of Benue State under the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and won.
As a first term Governor, who has served for about two and half years in office, Dr. Ortom says his first achievement was in the area of curbing the high level of insecurity in Benue state.
He explained that in the economic sector, his administration established a giant plastic industry and cassava processing plants, while giving a foreign firm the concession for Oturkpo burnt bricks. He assured that arrangements were also underway to revamp the Igumale Cement Company.
On the implementation of the Anti-grazing and Anti-cultism law recently passed by the State Assembly, Governor Ortom said the machinery was already in place to ensure that herdsmen and others concerned abide by the law, vowing that all defaulters would be properly sanctioned.
The Ortom administration recently began to export yams, one of the notable agricultural products of the people to Europe. The Governor said the initiative would provide job opportunities to teeming graduates in Benue, in areas of production, packaging and marketing.
He allayed fears that there would be shortage of food if the exportation continues, pointing out that the state currently contributes about 46% of total yam production in Nigeria. Governor Ortom boasted that with the recent development, yam production in Benue state would increase to over 60%.
While some political opponents deride Governor Ortom for doing so little, others credit his administration for the on-going rehabilitation of the School of Nursing and Midwifery for re-accreditation; the reopening of the Benue State University bugged down with strikes as well as the restoration of water supply in Oturkpo and Katsina-Ala towns.
