Since the return of democracy in 1999, no outgoing governor in Plateau State was able to install his successor.
In a build up to the 2023 general elections, political observers in the state were asking if Governor Simon Lalong could break the successor jinx and install his preferred candidate.
However, a look at Lalong’s predecessors shows that Senator Joshua Dariye, who governed the state from 1999 to 2007, could not hand over to the person of his choice on the platform of the PDP. Various interest groups ganged up to frustrate his plan in this regard.
Similarly, Senator Jonah Jang won the 2007 election. He had a good time in office as the governor of Plateau State with a solid political structure. His achievements while in the office are reverence points to date. But despite this, he failed to plant a successor in 2015.
His choice of the late Senator Gyang Nyam Sho Pwajok as the gubernatorial candidate of the PDP did not go down well with the people of the state and stakeholders who opposed his choice from Plateau North which produced him. Consequently, Jang paid a heavy price for this wrong political calculation.
Besides, Governor Lalong attested to this when he openly declared that the wrong political calculation of Jang gave him victory while receiving his certificate of return in 2015.
In the same vein, in 2023, Nentawe Yilwatda the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was a casualty of Lalong’s poor governance. He may have been a good man, but Lalong became the albatross that made the people sank him and his aspiration when he forced him on the APC, a development that shredded the party into pieces.
But on the contrary, prior the election the chairman of Kanam LGA, Hon Dyabu Garga while speaking with newsmen, dismissed the insinuation that Lalong like Dariye and Jang would not be able to install his successor with a wave of the hand.
According to him, Lalong would break the successor jinx and install his successor contrary to the belief that no incumbent governor has ever done that.
Garga explained that the last administration in the state could not break the jinx because the governor then circumvented the zoning arrangement in place on the Plateau by returning the governorship seat to the Plateau North where he comes from.
He gave the assurance in an interview arguing that, “This time around, Governor Lalong, being a democrat, meticulously supervised the zoning of the governorship to the central zone on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in line with the zoning arrangement. And for this reason, there is no dissenting voice; everybody is happy.
“Apart from this, the incumbent governor has performed creditably well. He has stabilised the state; there is peace in the once troubled parts of the state and, most importantly, he has carried everyone along irrespective of creed, religious or tribal affiliation. I want to tell you that Governor Lalong is a team player.
Above all, keen observers of politics in Plateau State believe that Governor Lalong’s preferred successor Nentawe of the ruling All Progressives Congress lost the March 18 governorship election because the yearnings and aspiration of the people were not met by the APC-led government.
The incumbent governor has failed to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people of the state hence the APC candidate, his preferred successor, Nentawe Yilwatda, was not favoured during the polls.
Furthermore, Lalong’s utterances at any given fora were as if all that mattered to him was Aso Rock and how not to step on President Muhammadu Buhari’s toes, and how to do everything to favour the core North is his albatross.
The governor also missed it when he publicly declared in 2015 when a Muslim group paid him a Sallah homage in his office that he owed them gratitude for his victory at the polls. He had forgotten that what brought him to power was protest votes against former Governor Jonah Jang over his violation of rotational arrangement in the state when he fielded Pwajok, his kinsman from the same Northern senatorial zone to take over from him after completing his eight-year tenure
To some, he is clueless and others regard him as an “accidental governor who had no reward system for party loyalists.” One can almost not point to any meaningful project undertaken by the current administration under his watch.
Even the salaries of workers in government house have remained perpetually unpaid by the administration. Most, if not all the infrastructure in the state were built under the administration of the former Governor, Jang of the PDP.
Again, there were instances when Plateau people were massacred by the so-called unknown gunmen and the response of the state government under the current administration was always that of a passive onlooker. They have experienced almost eight years of pains and hardship with nobody speaking for Plateau people.
The state currently is in a mess of indebtedness. Sadly, nothing justifies the debt. Social and economic development is zero. Security is zero. The current administration has no scorecard in any area of governance.
However, during heat of open grazing legislation debate in the state, Lalong was once quoted to have said that “even the present government house in little Rayfield built by the former Governor Jonah Jang was built on grazing route”. This comment has angered the people of the state and are waiting for an ideal time to take their own pound of flesh off him.
Lalong’s other undoing includes the sacking of the 17 LG chairmen in 2015 when he assumed office. Mutfwang and Piyo, his deputy, were among the casualties. At the time of their removal, they still had two years to go. The people of state also resisted Lalong’s plan to cede Jos Market to be rebuilt by Jaiz Bank that will build and take ownership of the market for 40 years. The people of the state believe that Governor Lalong has mortgaged their future.
This perhaps explains why the governor monumentally failed his senatorial election in his country home Shendam LGA. The people are tired of failed promises and are extremely in abject poverty. They regret ever voting the current administration to power and this revolution is deeply expressed in the just concluded governorship election as they decided to retire the APC from the state because they had witnessed backwardness in the past seven years of their administration.
One would wonder how Governor Simon Lalong would be feeling by now; that after ‘serving’ his people for nearly eight long years, the only reward he got was an embarrassment and humiliation at the polls.
He lost his bid to go to the Senate; he failed to win the presidential election for the APC even though he was appointed the Director General of Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council.
He was finally humiliated at the governorship polls where his candidate, Nentawe was floored by the PDP candidate, Mutfwang
The PDP did not only win the governorship seat but also won more national and state assembly seats in the elections. Out of the 24 members of the house of assembly, PDP won 16 seats. The development goes to explain how disenchanted the electorate now feel about the APC because of its poor performance in the state in nearly eight years.
Mutfwang won in 10 local government areas (LGAs); namely Barkin Ladi, Bassa, Langtang North, Mikang, Langtang South, Riyom, Mangu, Jos South, Bokkos, QuanPan, while Yiltwada won in seven LGAs vis Jos East, Kanke, Pankshin, Shendam, Wase, Kanam, and Jos North.
Similarly, out of three senatorial zones in the state, PDP won 2; that is Plateau North and Plateau South, while INEC is yet to announce the results of Plateau Central zone. The state have 8 federal constituencies; PDP won 5 leaving APC with 3. The member representing Wase and the deputy speaker house of representatives Hon. Idris Maje Wase and his counterpart Rt. Hon. Yusuf Gagdi representing Pankshin Kanke, Kanam federal constituencies escaped narrowly from lossing to PDP.
The duo’s declaration as winners by INEC is been strongly contested in the tribunal by the candidates of the opposition party, the PDP.
Lalong had started nursing his senatorial ambition long time ago when he nominated the late Ambassador Ignatius Longjan to represent Plateau South in the red chamber. Unfortunately, Longjan’s demise created a vacuum and the governor again nominated Prof Nora Dadu’ut with the view to holding forth for him till when he will complete his second tenure in office.
Unfortunately, Lalong was defeated at the senatorial polls by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, AVM Napoleon Bali to put his long time ambition to rest.
The governor had wanted to go to the Senate and follow in the footsteps of his predecessors – Joshua Dariye and Jonah Jang. But this has turned out to be an unmitigated disaster because he has not conducted himself and led the state as a true son of the soil.
Indeed, political analysts in the state further argued that, the appointment of
Governor Simon Lalong as chairman, Northern Governors Forum (NGF) and the Director General of the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential
Campaign Council, was a
major factor that contributed
to the defeat of the APC in Plateau State.
According to them, the moment
Lalong was appointed as
the DG campaign, they knew it
would be difficult for the party
to win the state adding that since his appointment as the DG, he
hardly had time to spend in the
state to coordinate affairs of
the party towards the election.
Our correspondent recalled the history of campaign DG to the 2015 general elections when Rotimi Amaechi, the then governor of Rivers State was the DG of the Buhari campaign, he lost his state to the PDP.
Similarly in 2019, Bukola Saraki,
was the campaign DG of Atiku
presidential team and at the
end he lost his state to the
opposition APC again.
In 2023, both
Plateau and Sokoto state
governors who were the
campaign DG of the PDP and the APC lost their states.
Analysts believe that the position of DG campaign and chairman Northern Governors’ Forum will not give room for the leader to
do the needful as it relates to
the politics of the state which they governed.
Meanwhile, the outgoing Governor Lalong while inaugurating a 13-man transition planning committee, assured of smooth hand over to his successor, Caleb Mutfwang.
While thanking the people of the state for their active participation in the political process and conducting themselves responsibly, the governor said the Central Planning Committee whose membership is drawn from the outgoing administration is expected to be joined by members to be nominated from the incoming government to work out details of programmes for the handing and taking over of the affairs of the state in an orderly, smooth and coordinated manner.
He said, “the committee is expected to work painstakingly, cooperatively and in one accord for the success of the transition programme. As always, the work of the committee should result in the staging of a transition programme that will be one of the best in the country. This will in effect give the incoming government an opportunity to start on the right footing and with fewer challenges.”
The outgoing governor also reminded all civil servants and appointees that they have up till May 29, 2023 to complete their mandate as stipulated by the constitution and as such, he would not tolerate any act of sabotage, disregard to directives and flagrant violation of government guidelines and regulations.
“Anyone found to be involved in such acts will not be spared and should blame himself for whatever consequences that might follow,” he warned civil servants and appointees.
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