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PLATEAU STATE: EVEN THIS DARKNESS SHALL PASS AWAY
PLATEAU STATE: EVEN THIS DARKNESS SHALL PASS AWAY
BY CHRIS GYANG
Nothing poignantly symbolizes the decrepit and gloomy face of governance in Plateau State such as the thick darkness that envelopes the Plateau State Government House at Little Rayfield every night.
Driving past that seat of government from the well-lit, ritzy and upscale Rayfield at sunset, you will never imagine that just a few metres to your left is the fence of what used to be one of the most magnificent government houses in the entire country. Close associates say that Governor Lalong harbours a deep aversion for the government house, built by his predecessor, because its sheer magnificence is a constant, niggling, reminder of his own disastrous outing as governor.
At daytime, the atmosphere of despondency is thicker, more palpable. The dilapidation and unkemptness that afflict both the fence and huge buildings within tell an even worse story; the sad tale of a governor who long ago let go of governance for fanciful frivolities that inflate his parched ego. Citizens here fittingly refer to him as ‘The Absentee Governor’.
The very structures within this expansive estate that were once the pride of Plateau people now desperately beg for a fresh coat of paint; yearn for their once lush lawns to be trimmed and watered; and pray for the overgrown grass and assorted weeds to be mown, perhaps for the first time in only God knows how many years.
Sadly, it is this sense of listlessness and abandonment that pervade both the people and atmosphere of Plateau State under His Excellency, Governor Simon Bako Lalong. And, yes, never fail to add to his string of aliases the fact that he also occupies the exalted position of the Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum and is likewise the Director-General of the All Progressives Party’s Presidential Campaign Council – which tickles him exceedingly, more than anything else these days.
It is this latest assignment, which he misconstrues as a reward for his exceptional leadership qualities, that he uses as yet another alibi to escape responsibility from the serious work of governance. His exaggerated sense of personal worth is now at its peak. But in his excitement, he failed to ask himself why the man who made him Director-General of his campaign team never thought him fit and worthy to be his running-mate, which, it must be admitted, Mr. Lalong straineously hankered after.
For a man who can settle for any position as far it gives him a semblance of public visibility, anything goes, warts and all. And knowing that his strength does not lie in taking and resolutely maintaining principled stands on fundamental issues, Tinubu and his kitchen cabinet fully understood that, at the least prompting, Governor Lalong would easily abandon his original quest and succumb to taking up the lesser, more temporary, position of Campaign DG.
At least, in his own reckoning, that would allow him share in the limelight that would shine on the APC’s high and mighty, as long as the campaigns last.
Other serious governors are making last minute efforts to consolidate on their achievements by commissioning projects and tidying up policies and programmes to strengthen and make them solid, robust and enduring. But Governor Lalong is squandering sleepless nights and precious resources hopping around the country on an exercise that is as self-serving as it is futile.
His efforts are akin to the gimmicks of a failed salesman struggling to market an essentially flawed product. Unfortunately, the best he can get for Tinubu in Plateau State cannot be more than what he was able to eke out for Buhari in the 2019 presidential ballot – a spectacularly humiliating result.
Moreover, the albatross of the Muslim-Muslim ticket that malignantly hangs on Mr. Lalong’s neck will be very difficult to cast off. This will, among other heavy moral baggage, make his job of selling the Tinubu/Shettima ticket very awkward to his immediate Christian constituency, both in Plateau State and elsewhere in the country. His task is further compounded by the fact that he is a Knight of the Catholic Faith.
What little time Mr. Lalong scrapes out to run the affairs of the state is devoted to empty state ceremonies still aimed at boosting his ego and picking up the pieces of the APC in the state which he single-handedly destroyed by turning it into a personal estate for his own pleasure. Today, many men and women who stood behind him in most of his inglorious seven years in office have been forced to either abandon him or join other political parties.
Even members in Jos North, who formed the fulcrum of the strength of the APC in the state, have rebelled against Mr. Lalong. His high-handedness and nepotism in handling both party and state affairs have been their chief motivations. Political analysts say that, as things stand, there is no way the APC can make any meaningful impact in the 2023 general elections.
Also, pundits further suggest that it is perhaps the highly fractious governorship primaries of the APC that finally nailed the coffin of the APC in Plateau State. The governor was seen to have deliberately skewed the process to favour his preferred aspirant which did not go down well with a majority of the contestants who took the matter to court.
Unfortunately, the outcome did not favour the aggrieved aspirants. But they have vowed to pursue the case up to the Supreme Court. However, many see this as a strategy to distract the APC from concentrating on the electioneering campaigns as more than 95 per cent of them are set to pitch their tents with the political party that has shown the greatest potential of defeating the APC in the forthcoming polls.
In the midst of all these, the people of Plateau State continue to suffer. As we write, civil servants are set to commence a five-day Sit-At-Home warning strike from midnight of Sunday, December 11, to Friday, December 16, 2022. They want to push home their demands for the payment of their five months’ salaries.
In fact, they had planned to start this industrial action before the flag-off of the APC presidential campaign in Jos on November 15. But, in order to stave off the embarrassment that would have caused Governor Lalong, being the arrowhead of the Tinubu campaign organisation, the workers were hoodwinked into calling it off when some workers started receiving salary alerts. But that was discontinued immediately after that political fiesta.
It later emerged that only a handful of workers had actually been paid a month or two’s outstanding salaries. Barely one month after, the workers have not heard any more from the state government regarding that matter.
With the governor perpetually absent and the levers of governance abandoned, it is only natural to expect these kinds of upheavals in the system arising from citizens’ frustrations with their wretched conditions. Abject conditions underscored by poverty for which Plateau State is now officially recognised as occupying the fifth position in the entire country.
Statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in November, revealed that 133 million Nigerians (63 per cent of the population) are multi-dimensionally poor due to lack of access to health care, education, proper living standards, employment and security.
PUNCH newspaper (November 18, 2022) reported: “The NBS further showed [that] Sokoto, Bayelsa, Gombe, Jigawa and Plateau are the top poorest states in 2022.
“Sokoto leads the poorest with 90.5 per cent of the people in the state poor. It is followed by Bayelsa with 88.5 per cent people, Gombe with 86.2 per cent, Jigawa with 84.3 per cent and Plateau with 84 per cent.”
Certainly, the Lalong administration should not be surprised at this bleak chunk of reality. To expect anything to the contrary would be to engage in the highest form of self-delusion. This is only the natural outcome of the government’s total lack of any concrete and practical economic blueprint aimed at harnessing and channelling the huge natural and human potentials of the state.
Like all else about the Lalong administration, its economic policies have been largely driven by a haphazard, trial-by-error, approach which is at best pedestrian and completely reliant on the old way receiving monthly handouts from the Federation Account. Most of which is deployed towards oiling huge and extensive political wheels and buying personal favours and loyalties of cheap political strumpets.
This is but a slice of the tragedy in which Plateau State is currently wallowing, emblematic of the darkness hanging over the Little Rayfield Government House. But come May, 29, 2023, its flamboyance, verve and splendour shall be restored, along with the natural vibrancy and pride of citizens. Citizens who are confident that, through their concerted and selfless efforts, they shall restore honour to their despoiled destiny so that even this darkness shall pass away.
(GYANG is the Chairman of the N.G.O, Journalists Coalition for Citizens’ Rights Initiative – JCCRI. Emails: info@jccri-online.org; chrisgyang01@gmail.com)
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Calls on Nigeria to Support Referendum in Western Sahara
By: Michael Mike
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic has approached Nigeria to join other friendly nations across the world to pressurize Morocco into agreeing to convocation of referendum to determine the political status of Western Sahara
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Mohamed Yeslem Beissat, who was in Nigeria to state the position of his country on the Western Sahara issue and plead for support on resolution of the crisis, paid a visit to the National Assembly and had discussion with his Nigerian counterpart, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja after the meetings, Beissat said for the peace of the Maghreb, Morocco must be compelled to respect the political wish of the people of Western Sudan which can only through a referendum.
He said: “Morocco’s colonial adventure is very costly. America, with all its might and its richness, couldn’t continue its colonial adventure in Iraq or in Iran or in Afghanistan or in Somalia. It’s very costly to oppress people.
“You think it will end this year, but it will never end. So it costs Morocco from 3.5% to 4% of its GDP. Annually, it’s costing this military exercise.
“Morocco has the longest berm in the world. It’s longer than the berm between the US and Mexico. It’s longer than the two berms France built in the Algerian War, Charles and Maginot.
“It’s longer than the Berlin Wall. The wall that Israel built to protect Sinai. It’s the longest wall in the world, 2,700 kilometres, running from South Morocco to North Mauritania. In this wall, stationed there are more than 120,000 soldiers to occupy this land.
“It is going to double the salary of the soldiers, buy very sophisticated drones and satellites, all to continue its illegal occupation of Western Sahara, which cannot be continued. So the economic and finance and political costs in the terms and image of Morocco and its relations with its neighbours. It’s very, very costly.
“Now, the whole of the region of the Maghreb is blocked. There is no regional cooperation or regional integration because of the position of our three neighbours. Two of them recognise us, which is Algeria and Mauritania.
“And Morocco is the only one who doesn’t recognise us from our neighbours. And this really causes Morocco a big problem. Their relation with Europe is frozen because of the European court ruling on Western Sahara.
“It cannot continue a relation ignoring this, and he cannot stop a relation because Europe is so important for them. Their relation with the United Nations, their relation with the world, Morocco is the biggest prison of its colonial adventure, its failure of its colonial adventure. Now they are making a lot of noise about autonomy, but it’s a cul-de-sac.”
“It’s a closed road, anyone cannot accept one single, one-sided position to be imposed on a people. No one can support that.
“Every man or woman in their right mind, cannot say we have to oblige the Sahrawis and handcuff them and deliver them because the king said autonomy. This is nonsense. This is another world.
“Not the king can rule people. It’s a time of democracy, time of legality. People have to have choices, people have to choose freely what they think is right for them.”
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Calls on Nigeria to Support Referendum in Western Sahara
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2027 APC Gombe fracas: Borno LG Chair, Malgwi bags Zulum, others for endorsing Tinubu/Shettima ticket
2027 APC Gombe fracas: Borno LG Chair, Malgwi bags Zulum, others for endorsing Tinubu/Shettima ticket
By Ndahi Marama
The Executive Chairman of Hawul local government area of Borno state, Hon. Hussaini Malgwi has threw his weight behind Governor Babagana Umara Zulum, his counterpart from Yobe state, Hon. Mai Mala Buni, the Deputy National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress, APC (North), Hon. Ali Bukar Dalori, National Working Committee, NWC North East and all other stakeholders who unanimously endorsed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his Vice, Senator Kashim Shettima to run on the same ticket come 2027 general elections.
The endorsement which were made amidst fracas when the National Vice Chairman of the ruling party (North East), Comrade Mustapha Salihu decided to only endorse Tinubu in his speech, without mentioning the name of Kashim Shettima, a situation which compelled some aggrieved members and loyalists to Shettima who started hurling chairs and objects targeting Salihu that hitherto disrupted the meeting to end abruptly.
Addressing Journalists in Maiduguri on Monday over the incident, the Hawul Council Chairman lamented that the growing speculations regarding plans to replace His Excellency, Hon. Kashim Shettima GCON, as the Vice President and running mate to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the forthcoming 2027 elections for a second term is uncalled for, as such a move will be vehemently resisted.
He however cautioned the people of the North East, especially APC teaming supporters not to engage into anti- party activities that would spell doom for the unity and development of the APC and the region as a whole.
Malgwi who strongly aligned with the position of Governor Zulum of Borno state, stressed the need to collectively work together as one family to ensure President Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima fly same ticket to continue their second term come 2027.
He explained that the North East region have suffered much devastation from atrocities by Boko Haram for over decade, noting that, the healing time is now under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, with support from his Deputy, Kashim Shettima, Governor Zulum and other governors of the states of Yobe, Adamawa, Gombe, Taraba and Bauchi irrespective of political affiliations.
His words: ” It is a great pleasure as I address you gentlemen of the press today, Monday 16th June, 2025.
“We are all aware of what happened during our APC North East Consultative Meeting in Gombe state last Sunday, which ended up in chaos.
“As Chairman and a loyalist to the Vice President Kashim Shettima and Governor Babagana Zulum, on behalf of APC members in Hawul LGA, let me throw my sincere weight behind Governor Babagana Umara Zulum, his counterpart from Yobe state, Hon. Mai Mala Buni, the Deputy National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress, APC (North), Hon. Ali Bukar Dalori, National Working Committee, NWC North East and all other stakeholders who unanimously endorsed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his Vice, Senator Kashim Shettima to run on the same ticket come 2027 general elections.
” I would also express my displeasure over the fracas that erupted when the National Vice Chairman of the ruling party (North East), Comrade Mustapha Salihu decided to only endorse Tinubu in his speech, without mentioning the name of Kashim Shettima. This singular act by Salihu compelled some aggrieved members and loyalists to Shettima to hurled chairs and objects targeting Salihu which hitherto disrupted the meeting to end abruptly.
” Therefore, let me caution our people in the North East, especially APC teaming supporters not to engage into any anti- party activities that would spell doom for the unity and development of the APC and the region as a whole.
” At this crucial time, what is need from all and sundry is to collectively work together as one family to ensure President Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima fly same ticket to continue their second term come 2027.
” We from the North East ave suffered much devastation from atrocities by Boko Haram for over decade, the healing time is now under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, with support from his Deputy, Kashim Shettima, Governor Zulum and other governors of the states of Yobe, Adamawa, Gombe, Taraba and Bauchi irrespective of political affiliations”. Malgwi stated.
He therefore expressed gratitude to all APC supporters and delegate from Hawul who massively come out enmasse to attend the Gombe meeting where they all display humility, calm and orderliness before, during and after the fracas.
2027 APC Gombe fracas: Borno LG Chair, Malgwi bags Zulum, others for endorsing Tinubu/Shettima ticket
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Tuggar: Departure of Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali from ECOWAS Has Not Affected Trade, Bilateral Relations Among West African Countries
Tuggar: Departure of Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali from ECOWAS Has Not Affected Trade, Bilateral Relations Among West African Countries
By: Michael Mike
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar has said the exit of Burkina-Faso, Mali and Niger, the three Alliance of Sahel States from the West African regional bloc, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has not affected trade and bilateral relations among countries in the area.
Addressing a press conference on the forthcoming West African Economic Forum to be hosted by Nigeria, Tuggar said there has not been any notable distortion in trade and relations between the rest of the countries still in ECOWAS and the departing AES countries.
He said for instance Nigeria still has running the Nigeria-Niger Joint Commission and trade is as healthy as it used to be before the neighbouring country left ECOWAS.
Tuggar, who also added that there has not be any fission in relationship between the two countries, said the same thing can be said of other countries in the region with AES countries.
On the summit scheduled for 20th and 21st June 2025 at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre, Abuja, the Minister expressed Nigeria’s readiness to host the inaugural event aimed at showcasing West Africa to the rest of the world.
Tuggar while noting that the forum, is an initiative of President Bola Tinubu and aimed at strengthening economic ties, unlocking investment opportunities, and promoting sustainable development across West Africa, added that the summit is designed to foster regional integration and economic cooperation among member states.
He said: “We’re not just talking about ECOWAS and ECOWAS states, but indeed to all states, businesses, private sector, development finance institutions that pertain to the West African region.
“What we’re talking about is regional integration. What we’re doing with each other. How do we strengthen that so that we’re trading more.
“The event aims to unlock investment opportunities by identifying and supporting investment-ready projects. Furthermore, the summit seeks to foster sustainable development by encouraging inclusive economic growth and development.
“The event will feature a range of activities, including a deal room, business conferences, and cultural events showcasing the region’s rich heritage.
“Overall, the West Africa Economic Summit promises to be a landmark event, driving regional integration, promoting economic cooperation, and fostering sustainable development in West Africa.
“With its unique approach and focus on private sector participation, the summit has the potential to unlock new opportunities for growth and development in the region.
“The summit will provide a platform for governments and the private sector to engage and address concerns related to security and other issues affecting business in the region.”
He also added that “The summit’s objectives align with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) ambitions, focusing on promoting intra-African trade by strengthening regional trade and investment.”
Tuggar also pointed out that the initiative will be driven by the private sector.
He noted that it is the private sector that will drive the initiative while the governments provide all the necessary support for them to excel.
The minister also highlighted the importance of peace and security in the region saying, “For business to take place, to thrive, the environment must be secure, emphasising the importance of collective efforts to address security challenges.”
He explained that: “The summit is not modelled after the World Economic Forum in Davos, but rather a novel, homegrown African original idea.
“We’re focusing this administration on preferring homegrown solutions to our problem, instead of copying and pasting what exists in other regions.
Tuggar revealed that the Alliance of Sahel States, AES, are invited for the summit.
Tuggar: Departure of Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali from ECOWAS Has Not Affected Trade, Bilateral Relations Among West African Countries
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Calls on Nigeria to Support Referendum in Western Sahara
At 4th ASIF Meeting, President Tinubu Demands Collective Action To Develop Africa
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