Hon Timothy Golu, a former federal and state lawmaker, was recently appointed as the special adviser on Strategic Communications to Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang. In this interview with Orjime Moses, he speaks on the peace efforts by the governor in the state and the stalemate in the swearing in of 16 state lawmakers in the state.
Having served as a lawmaker, at state and federal levels, why did you decide to accept the recent appointment as special adviser to the governor and what’s the essence of your office?
Some people feel if you have been in the National Assembly why would you come back to the state and be an adviser to the governor? An adviser is not a commissioner. An adviser is somebody who has something special to offer. You cannot advise when you do not have a certain depth of experience. So, I felt this is my state, there is no responsibility that I cannot handle to help the state progress. Also my party, PDP, is ruling the state. We cannot win an election and not be around to make substantial contributions to make the state progress. The governor felt a strategic need to fill a gap in terms of media engagement in the state. He has appointed me to fill in that gap and I know that I can only succeed with your (media) support. I’m happy serving under the government not just because it is a PDP government but because I know the governor is ready to bring change to the state.
I contested the governorship election with him and at a point I had to step down. He eventually emerged the winner and he is one of the few that I respect so much. So when he called me to serve, I felt it was a responsibility not an appointment. He appointed me to be his strategic communications adviser. He coined it like that, not me. He said he does not want the traditional or conventional media person. He wants to do things differently, think out of the box. What should we do to make sure communication permeates the nooks and crannies of the state like never before? We are taught that communication is only complete when two sides understand each other and they know they understand each other.
There’s a significant gap to address in the media landscape of our state. It has been misrepresented, both positively and negatively, for a long time. Much of what’s been said about Plateau isn’t accurate, and it’s essential to overcome the propaganda of past administrations.
We aim to bridge this gap with transparent communication, avoiding the need for propaganda since we’re already the ruling party. We want to utilise the media positively, combating speculation and unfounded stories. People’s perception of Plateau State will change when they see progress firsthand. We’ve already made significant strides in less than a year. I’m speaking from firsthand experience. We’ve addressed insecurity through effective measures, resulting in peace in the past few months.
Our goal is genuine peace, not just political peace to maintain power. People are beginning to interact freely in Jos which reflects the positive changes. We’re also addressing agricultural challenges caused by insecurity by providing security for farmers across four local government areas, totaling 900 hundred hectares. We must think creatively to encourage farming despite insecurity.
You have talked about the governor’s quest for genuine peace and not political peace in the state. What are the structural peace-building measures being implemented by the governor to foster cohabitation within the state?
We want to depart automatically from the past, we want to create a new hope because a lot of things happened in the past and we want everybody to feel a sense of belonging. A lot of things have been put in place for the peace building. We do not want political peace where we just do it and dump it at the end of the day.
The last administration built some peace agencies but they were not effective and so have been dormant. But the Governor Muftwang has injected freshness into the peace building structures. We have what we call the Inter-religious council in the state, we adopted it from the federal government’s Nigeria Inter-religious Council (NIREC).
It was set up by the last administration and the former governor was commended for setting up such a very good agency where Christians, Muslims as well as people of other faiths come together to sit down and discuss. But the council was not ineffective because instead of having leaders of all the religious faiths to be members of the council, it was dominated by politicians.
At the national level NIREC has 25 members from both Christians and Muslims making it 50 members from the beginning then it was later increased to 30-30 including women and youths to form the youth wing of NIREC. So at the national level we have 60 people as members but at the state level, Plateau State, one of the 36 states including FCT, has over 100 members of NIREC, dominated by politicians.
What will politicians do in NIREC? So it became ineffective. So the governor has resolved to revitalise, resuscitate and reconstitute the council. Politicians have to be removed from there.
Credible clergymen, co-chair by Christian and Islamic leaders, two of whom will work together. So these are some of the structures that have to facilitate a peaceful resolution of issues, based on discussions, engagements, periodic communication and interactions among them.
The impasse over the swearing in of 16 House of Assembly members in Plateau State has lingered, creating a distraction, of sorts, for robust governance in the state. When is the governor going to swear in the lawmakers?
Many people fail to grasp the developments in the Plateau State House of Assembly.
A recent ruling by the Court of Appeal favored the APC’s 16 lawmakers, leading to the removal of 16 legitimately elected lawmakers from our party, the PDP, due to alleged technicalities. We, in the PDP, do not deem this as a substantial ruling; instead, we view it as a technicality-based decision. While we respect the law, we consider it technical because the petitions leading to this ruling were not based on electoral issues but on technicalities, which the Supreme Court eventually dismissed. However, we are not focusing on that aspect.
The House of Assembly received that judgment, and as a law-abiding government, we are prepared to swear in whoever, especially the 16 members. A few weeks ago, the governor designated the 16 PDP lawmakers as liaison officers. However, it was not compensation because they are valuable individuals elected by the people for a reason—to serve their constituents. If they are technically removed, there are responsibilities that must be assigned to them to fulfill. Therefore, we need them to contribute to this government and add value. The governor decided that they should serve as liaison officers, indicating that we are not disobeying laws. We do not have any plans to reinstate individuals to the House of Assembly.
The speaker was scheduled to swear in these individuals on January 23, 2024, upon the resumption of the House, but another injunction, unknown to many, restrained the speaker. This injunction was obtained by 13 Labour Party aspirants from the same election. In fact, they had obtained a judgment even before the election because their logo was omitted by INEC. They went to court, and the court ruled in their favor, ordering INEC to include them before the election, but INEC did not comply, causing them to be affected. When these litigations were ongoing, the national attention was focused on the tribunal matter, while these individuals pursued their case.
They have equal entitlement as far as this country is concerned. After going through all the processes, campaigning, and obtaining a form, and then their logo was omitted without reason, they went to court and the court ordered INEC to include them, but INEC did not comply. So they returned to court and obtained an injunction after the Appeal Court judgment. The court then restrained the speaker from swearing them in until the determination of the case. That is what is currently holding it up. There were actually two injunctions from the Court of Appeal. The other one came from civil society organisations, but I am focusing more on this one because it involves the same parties and highlights the complexity of the situation.
The 13 state constituencies represented by the 13 aspirants of the Labour Party are not all automatically among the 16. Some of them are part of the eight currently serving in the House. Each individual has his or her own case. There were constituencies that the Labour Party did not petition, like the constituency of the speaker himself, where the Labour Party candidate withdrew his case, citing family relations. However, what about the other cases that were filed? Therefore, the speaker cannot proceed to swear in these individuals while there is a pending matter prohibiting their swearing-in.
All individuals are equal and must be respected. If you wish to honor a judgment from the Court of Appeal, then another judgment from the same Court of Appeal, which states that these people should refrain from doing this, should also be respected. We are awaiting the resolution of this matter, or whatever the outcome from the court may be. The current situation has put everyone on hold. The essence of democracy is the rule of law through due process. You cannot bypass democracy, no matter the circumstances; it must be allowed to run its full course. The members of the APC are very impatient. They are trying to sneak themselves in and be sworn in.
Interestingly, the APC is not the main challenge to the PDP in the state; it is the Labour Party, whose 13 candidates are in court, that pose the greatest threat to the PDP. If they were in power, they would be the ones challenging us. Consider this: we have gone from having nine members in the House of Assembly to 16, from three House of Representatives members to five, from one senator to two, and we even won the governorship election. None of them contested the election results; instead, they admitted defeat. However, they have the option and an open door to raise internal party matters as issues of technicality. I am grateful that the Supreme Court ruled that they cannot interfere in our affairs. They were taking the case too far.
They attempted to present themselves at the House to be sworn in, but the House had already resolved that the premises is undergoing renovation. So, regardless of their actions, they will not be sworn in without the speaker’s consent. The speaker must make the announcement, but they are trying to use security to bypass this. Their desperation is evident. We appeal to the public for patience.
We would have sworn them in even at the government house; we will swear them in if they have the judgment, but they should go and vacate that judgment. They cherish the technical judgment from the Court of Appeal, but they do not want to respect the judgment that did not favor them, and it will go to the Supreme Court again. So we appeal to the public to be patient. The House is sitting; not that the eight are not sitting, but we have a 24 member House of Assembly. Definitely, everybody will be happy that we have a full House. But the eight are already constitutionally part of the 24 now. And the governor has no hand in it and if he had, he would have stopped it at the Court of Appeal but he did not.
There seems to be a deliberate use of green coloured headwear by loyalists and government officials in Plateau State, what is that about?
The green cap is the symbol of the new movement on the Plateau. It was designed by the support group. I was the director of the support group in the state. So they sat down and chose a colour for themselves and presented it before the campaign council. This signifies freshness.