I Performed Better In Office Than Lalong, Says Jang

Former Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang has said he stands out in a class of his own when his tenure is compared with the out-going administration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) under Governor Simon Lalong in eight years. Jang said he left the landscape of Plateau dotted with legacy projects.

In a statement issued in Jos by his media consultant Clinton Garuba , the former governor said he remained vocal in defence of his people throughout his tenure despite what he called campaigns of calumny against his person and government.

He made the remarks in reaction to Lalong’s recent comments against his performance in governor.

Governor Lalong was quoted to have said in an interview that, there was no road inside Plateau State when he took over office in 2015. “The whole line from secretariat junction to Mararaban Jama’re, that is the major entry point to the state capital, there was no single road,” he reportedly said.

Garuba said Plateau people will agree that, no matter what the shortcomings of the Jang administration were, it is by far a better deal to the State than the last 8 years which have not only derailed the development of the state but thrived on blaming the previous administration while doing nothing to match up to what it had done.

“In any case, the 2023 general elections were a referendum on the Lalong administration and by extension on the APC in Plateau State which did nothing other than dismantle structures put in place for a prosperous Plateau.”

He pointed out that at a time when sections of the state have come under attacks from people hell-bent on waging genocide on the people, the APC government is rather hurriedly commissioning projects, some of which it even inherited as ongoing projects of the Jang administration to cover for 8 years of nothingness.

Jang media consultant added that the out-going government realised too late in the day that it had pursued personal political gains to the detriment of the general well-being of the State and is in a hurry to claim that it at least did something when in fact did almost nothing.

“Every Plateau citizen knows that since the return of democracy in 1999, no government has paid attention to roads and infrastructure like the Jang administration. The outcome of the elections is a testimony to their performance in the last 8 years. Had they done better, Plateau people would have said so through the ballot box,” Garuba said