Benue 2023: Adejoh – The Deputy Titus Uba needs

By James Tardoo

As the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Benue State intensifies the search for a governorship running mate to Rt Hon Titus Uba, the candidate of the party, some names have been thrown up. But there is one name which stands tall and has the capacity to boost the chances of PDP recording a landslide victory at the 2023 polls. The name is Peter Adejoh.

He is young, intelligent, versatile, well traveled and highly experienced, yet unassuming. He is an entrepreneur, banker and investor par excellence. Over the last 14 years, he has invested across many sectors of the Nigerian economy with some of the businesses among the fastest-growing enterprises in the nation. Adejoh is a Benue son from the Zone C axis of the state who sees himself not only as an Idoma young man but as a true Benue son.

Peter Adejoh is massively loved by Benue youths across the three senatorial districts of Zone A, B and C. This is owing to the numerous people-oriented investments he has carried out which have given jobs and other empowerment opportunities to the youths irrespective of ethnicity, religion and political affiliation. Peter is loved by Tiv, Idoma, Igede and other tribes in Benue because he does not discriminate on the basis of where someone comes from. He treats people equally as one created by God.

Adejoh is the type of Deputy Governor Benue needs in 2023. In the last two weeks, youth groups from Zone C and other parts of Benue State have been calling on the PDP to pick Adejoh as Uba’s running mate. The youths know that Peter is the man who has what it takes to provide quality service to the people by supporting the Governor to succeed. He is not overly ambitious like others. He carries no airs of a man who has achieved a lot within just 41 years.

Peter Adejoh also has enormous respect for party elders. He is not the type who would force his personal decisions on the party and insist that only what he likes is done. He has demonstrated that humility time and again. No leader of PDP has faulted Adejoh or questioned his ways since he started relating with the political class in his home state Benue.

Adejoh’s journey in entrepreneurship and investing has spanned over 30 years, even though he is only 41 years old. This young multi-talented Benue son will be an asset to the Uba administration as Deputy, stemming from his background as an entrepreneur. Adejoh founded his first company when he enrolled in the university in 2000 at the age of 20. The business focused on the supply of computer hardware and software as well as publishing. His development sector experience came from his engagement as a consultant for a community-based project in Benue State by the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) in 2002. The profound benefit he got from the project marked his exposure to greater structured processes and systems.

Upon the completion of his NYSC programme in 2005, Adejoh had an 18 months’ stint at another leading IT firm as a Project Manager. He and his colleagues worked on a very large public project of digitalizing federal higher institutions across the country. The size of the project no doubt made an impression on him.

Peter further gained experience working in First City Monument Bank Plc (FCMB) as a Relationship Manager in its Public Sector Group. The culture of excellence and prudence in his various companies today derived from his experience at FCMB. It was from the bank that he finally made his exit from paid employment to start running his private businesses in 2009.

Peter started Camey & Rock Platform Group with a seed capital of a little over N10 million in 2009. “The Platform,” as the company is popularly called, has experienced tremendous growth in banking, non-bank financial services, real estate, hospitality and investment management. He sees all his subsidiary companies as growth platforms for investors and other stakeholders.

Camey & Rock acquired a majority stake in Resort Savings & Loans Plc in 2019. The publicly quoted company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NGX), is one of the largest mortgage banks in Nigeria in terms of customer base, shareholders’ fund and market value. (The bank is currently valued at over N10 billion.)

Adejoh established Prime Luxury, a high-end real estate development company, in 2014. The company has project footprints in Abuja and Lagos, with its current portfolio of assets valued in excess of $200 million. Capitis Financial Services group is another company in the Group, established in June 2019, and arguably the fastest growing diversified micro-credit union and microfinance institution in Nigeria with current balance sheet size of over N1 billion.

Last year, Adejoh founded Plush Hotels, a luxury boutique hospitality brand which is a flagship hotel in Wuse, FCT, Abuja which opened for business early this year. He also recently acquired a controlling stake in a microfinance bank and is set to unveil the bank later in the year.

The above listed investments have provided hundreds of jobs for Nigerian youths many of whom are from Benue State. With such an admirable background in investment and job creation in particular, youths of the state will eagerly jump onto the Uba/Adejoh governorship train and mobilize massively for the people to vote for the duo as Governor and Deputy come 2023.

In Adejoh, the youths see a bright ray of hope. They see one of their own. They see someone with the capacity to carry them along. They see a man who is a silent achiever; a man who will form a solid tag team with Titus Uba and take Benue to the next phase of economic and human capital development.

PDP will be making the best decision by picking Peter Adejoh as running mate to Uba. It will be a decision that will re-echo and reverberate among the young and the old. It is a choice that even market women, okada riders, motorists and artisans will rejoice about.

* James Tardoo, a public affairs analyst, writes from Makurdi.