THE JUST concluded “accountability tour” in Benue State, led by Timbuktoo Media Services (TMS), a firm with former Information Minister Labaran Maku and ex-NOA Director-General Mike Omeri as faculties, raises more questions than it answers.
While the 4-day tour, which kicked off on Saturday, May 24, 2025 and ended on Tuesday, May 27, 2025, claims to spotlight “quiet but meaningful” development under Governor Hyacinth Alia, its execution however betrays a troubling lack of credibility, independence, and genuine public engagement.
The very premise of an accountability tour should be rooted in impartial scrutiny. Yet, the exclusion of local journalists, NUJ members and a broad spectrum of civil society from the delegation undermines this principle. Instead, the tour is dominated by personnel of the consultancy firm, TMS, a handful of handpicked correspondents, and government appointees – a setup that reeks of stage-managed optics.
If the goal were truly to assess governance objectively, why shut out the journalists who know Benue’s terrain best?
Governments often commission self-serving media projects to control narratives, but dressing this tour in the garb of “development journalism”, as amplified during a media briefing held at Government House Makurdi on Thursday, May 22, 2025, is clearly disingenuous.
Accountability cannot be outsourced to a handpicked team that relies on guided inspections and official briefings. Without unfiltered access and critical voices, this tour risks becoming a tax-funded publicity campaign rather than a genuine audit of governance.
We expect the media managers of Governor Alia, and indeed Timbuktoo Media Services as an ad-hoc media consultant, to have foresighted that the fundamental problem with government-consultant-led verification is the inherent credibly deficit in serving as both auditor and advocate. In other words, when a consultancy profits from government patronage, how impartial can its assessments be?
No doubt, development journalism is vital, but it must be more than cheerleading for those in power. If the media becomes an extension of government PR, it betrays its watchdog role. True accountability requires uncomfortable questions, not curated photo ops.
Perhaps the tour may have been orchestrated by persistent rumours of too few projects vis-à-vis the revenue inflow or alleged inflated contracts and subpar project execution in Benue. It is National Record‘s fervent view that these rumours demand rigorous, independent verification – not a rubber-stamp delegation of consultants cum political appointees.
A truly accountable process would involve civil society groups, opposition voices, and investigative journalists capable of cross-checking claims. Instead, this tour appears consciously designed to sidestep tough questions, presenting a sanitized version of governance while genuine concerns go unaddressed.
The most glaring flaw in this exercise is its failure to engage the very people it claims to serve. Where are the town hall meetings with unfiltered citizen feedback? Where is the inclusion of local reporters who have tracked Benue’s development (or lack thereof) for years?
An additional flaw is the pace or speed at which the tour was conducted. How could a diligent assessment tour of the “quiet but meaningful” development projects in the three senatorial districts and twenty-three local government areas be achieved in less than a week?
Without these elements, the tour is little more than a performative roadshow – one that prioritises government messaging and massaging of its ego over the grim grassroots realities.
No doubt, development journalism is vital, but it must be more than cheerleading for those in power. If the media becomes an extension of government PR, it betrays its watchdog role. True accountability requires uncomfortable questions, not curated photo ops.
In the runup to Governor Alia’s second anniversary, Benue citizens deserve more than a media tour framed to burnish his image. They deserve transparent governance, independent scrutiny, and unfiltered reporting.
If Timbuktoo Media Services’ initiative, even as a media consultant to the Benue State Government, truly wanted to foster accountability or transparency, it ought to have included critical stakeholders, not just government-friendly voices.
The test of this tour’s success is not in the headlines it would generate, but in whether it reflects the lived experiences of ordinary Benue residents.
As it is, the indicators are more about political optics than democratic accountability – a missed opportunity that only deepens public distrust.
The National Record stands for journalism that holds power to account, not journalism that holds power’s microphone. Our beleaguered Benue – and indeed Nigeria – deserve better.
