Man Crush Monday

The first time you hear Dr Raymond Asemakaha laugh, it’s loud, unapologetic, and it fills the entire boardroom of the Benue Investment and Property Company like someone just opened a window and let the sun rush in. That laugh is the sound of a man who refuses to let anyone, not even the weight of past failures, tell Benue what it cannot become. In less than two years as Managing Director of BIPC, he has turned a once-sleepy government agency into the loudest cheerleader the state has ever had, and the sharpest mirror its young people have ever looked into.

Walk into any of the numerous BIPC premises in Gboko or Makurdi these days and you will meet twenty-somethings in sneakers and Ankara shirts arguing about profit margins instead of begging for handouts. They are not waiting for Abuja to remember them; they are busy proving that Benue can feed, dress, and employ itself. Raymond calls them “my children,” even the ones older than his youngest brother, because he has made it his personal mission to parent an entire generation into believing their hands can build what their eyes have only dreamt of.

He started with something simple: he opened the doors. Literally. The BIPC incubation hub now runs free workshops. A boy from Otukpo who used to hawk oranges now designs logos for companies in Lagos. A girl from Adikpo who dropped out of school because of school fees now runs a small soap-making factory that supplies hotels in Makurdi. Raymond does not just give them fish; he sits them down, shows them the river, and teaches them how to own the river.

Then he took the show on the road. Made In Benue exhibitions in Abuja, Lagos, even Accra. Benue rice that used to hide in the corner of village markets now sits confidently on shelves beside foreign brands. Orange juice pressed at Industrial Layout in Makurdi is poured at weddings in Port Harcourt. BIP water is seen gracing the occasions of High profile Nigerians and quenching the thirst of all across lengths and breadths of the North-Central and beyond. BICP bread is more celebrated than the unleavened bread which the Biblical men so cherished. This conveys one singular message, the BIPC products are sure meeting the needs of people and the standards are high too.

Dr. Raymond has breathed life into growth focused initiatives that are steadily charting a path for a prosperous Benue. But maybe the sweetest thing he does happens quietly. Every month, he picks one young Benue person doing something excellent, no matter how small, and celebrates them like they just won a Grammy. Many creatives, if not all, who have met him, can testify that they had their dreams repositioned and given a platform to thrive.

This is not a man doing government work; this is a man doing family work. He talks about Benue the way an older brother talks about a younger sibling everyone else has written off. He is stubborn with hope. When people say the state has no light, he points to the solar-powered Benue taxi. When they say the roads are bad, he shows delivery vans finding a way because the profit is worth the potholes. When they say the youths are lazy, he invites them to come and watch a twenty-three-year-old girl teach fifty women how to turn soy beans into milk and money before 10 a.m.

We celebrate you today sir, most especially the dreams you have for our dear state. We are Made In Benue and we’re truly proud of the steps you’re taking. And with you, doing what you are doing, we can rightly say Benue is on track. 

Dr Raymond Asemakaha wakes up every day and chooses to embarrass pessimism. He has taken an office that used to be synonymous with brown envelopes and dusty files and turned it into a loud testimony that Benue still works when Benue people decide to work. And the beautiful part? He is not shouting from a billboard or begging for applause. He is simply doing the work, posting the results, and daring every young person in the state to look in the mirror and say, “If them fit do am, wetin dey stop me?”

This Monday, we are not just crushing on a fine man in well-tailored suits (even though, let’s be honest, the suits are part of the package). We are crushing on a man who has refused to let Benue remain a footnote in somebody else’s story. He has handed the pen to its young people and said, “Write your own headline.”

And trust me, they are writing. Beautifully. Boldly. In capital letters only Benue can read: WE ARE HERE. WE ARE ENOUGH. WATCH US GROW.