.          Governor Simon Bako Lalong


By Daniel Dauda, Jos



A consultant psychiatrist of the renown University of Jos, Dr. Christopher Piwuna
have expressed dismay over Plateau State Governor, Simon Bako Lalong lack of capacity and incompetence to provide much anticipated dividends of democracy to the state despite campaign promised. 

He opines that "in Plateau State, in view of the unfolding reality, I call on the governor of Plateau, Mr. Simon Bako Lalong to resign his office for his lack of capacity and incompetence in achieving the vision/agenda he set for himself. There is no aspect of either the 5 point agenda or revised 3 point agenda that he has achieved. 

"I call on him as a lawyer to also resign his office as governor because he swore to protect and secure the state, something he has woefully failed to do. He and his government are always behind; paying condolences after violence have been visited on helpless citizens." 

Dr.Piwuna bemoans Lalong's style of leadership in a text released which made available to this medium titled"The Deepening Leadership Crisis in Nigeria: The Case of Plateau State"

According to him,as our Nation is drifting, I will like to focus on Plateau state, hoping that others like me across the nation will follow suite and call out their state governments. In the last 20 years of civilian rule, Plateau State has been the most unfortunate. even with what some see as their limited achievements, the era of Pol. Comm. J.D. Gomwalk and S.D. Lar are considered as “Golden Era, these achievements are over the years, constantly been eroded through bad leadership. 

There was a spark of return to economic growth through agricultural development by the J.D. Jang era, but that too was to be eclipsed by ethnic jingoism which paved the way for the current leadership in the State. Let me state here, that in my own simple efforts along with many others, we contributed and raised funds from our friends and family members to support the election of  Barr. SB Lalong. 

The reasons, which are known to many people in Plateau, I do not need to state here. It was our hope that the current leadership will fully utilize the currency gained in the process that brought him to office. Alas, this government turned out to be like others before him – colossal failure. In all my life living in Jos, the State capital, I had never felt as insecure as I do now in all my years in this state, I have not seen this level of unemployment and the total lack of insight or lack of will to address the challenges the citizens face. The level of socio-economic development has been at a stand-still. Show me one success story in this state in the last 6 years!!!

 When they came to power, they promised us peace, security, good governance, Human capital development and Social welfare, Agriculture and rural development, Entrepreneurship and Industrialization, Physical infrastructure and environmental development and for (4) four years, I am not sure any of these key promises was kept. 

In 2019, the vision was scaled down to (3) three point policy thrust. Peace, Security and good governance was still part of it, along with physical infrastructural development and sustainable economic growth. We are still waiting.  Even though I am focusing on Plateau, this lack lustre leadership can be seen all across our nation. What a pity!!!

Everyone who is on the Plateau know our security challenges are still far from over. People especially children are routinely kidnapped, people still feel insecure in their homes, communities in Mangu, Bokkos, Barkin Ladi and Bassa are regularly assailed by bandits (the ones on the mountains). By the way, we have two groups of bandits in Nigeria, the ones that operate on the highway and bushes and the ones in government houses. When a government fail to protect the life and properties of its citizens, it losses legitimacy to govern. Experts say security is generally wider than personal and private safety. But our leaders have forced us to narrow it down to purely criminal activities. It is no longer about livelihood but life. Jobs, housing, healthcare and clean environment mean nothing to our government. Someone needs to tutor me on what infrastructural development has taken place under this government.

 Township roads still remain in deplorable state, the Abattoir railway crossing, right in the center of Jos will require not just contribution from residents of Jos and all motorist but prayer and fasting to be completed. The government “GREEN HOUSE” guest house along British America is a ghost of itself; it probably will need to fall on the current occupant before the state will realize it. Recently, I heard a prominent lawyer and politician praising the government for its socio-economic development. That is the shame of Plateau, because virtually all the notable indigenes, especially those angling to take over from him cannot see anything wrong in the state and how it is governed. 

Every citizen must be ready to speak out against maladministration and failure to keep promises. For the ruling class, their one and only agenda is to praise the government or criticize for their selfish aim. The truth can no longer be spoken in Plateau, even our Deputy Governor; a Professor of politics is unable to profess anything. He has probably survived this long because he is “deaf”. He never says anything, never see anything and never hear anything. My God!!! 

"Where are men and women of honor, who can tell this government that all of us who rose in one accord to deconstruct ethnicity and ensure Plateau was not made a property of one man or one ethnic group are tired of the Political Chicanery of this government."

 Unemployment in the state is on the rise with no visible effort by government to bring it down. Every home has at-least 3 qualified, unemployed, able bodied children, not to talk of relatives in the village. The economy of the state is not growing and we know that unemployment is a function of the economy, leaving citizens pulverized by poverty. Every structure of government is a ghost of itself, except the government houses. I was in the office of a commissioner at the JD Gomwalk state secretariat recently and old newspapers were used to block crevices in the office. Our stadium with all the possibilities of revenue generation remains uncompleted. 

The main market had to be demolished to enable government mobilize funds for re-election. You ask: How many times are we going to demolish this market? Botmang did it and maybe it will be re-demolished before another election. The ASTC farms started by previous government are going the way of the Panyam Fish farms and other assets of government. Let me acknowledge the efforts of the government to buy back the BARC farms but what are we doing with it now? With the new faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary medicine we can turn the BARC farm to a gold mine with increased revenue for the State and employment for teaming young people. 

But hold on, that is not the agenda of this government as more time, energy and resources are better directed at how senate seats can be won and serving as chairman of Northern governors. Those at the fringes are describing themselves as Dariye boys, Lalong boys or counting on Jonah Jang to return to govern us. 

While previous and present leaders kept telling us that our state is very poor, these individuals remain super-rich with their families. They block every door for the poor and less privileged to contribute or lead, the “bandits” and their cahoots are the “owners” of the land and determine our future in this state and country. This is clearly been replicated across the country. You are either with Tinubu, Atiku, El rufai, Amaechi or another “god father” to be counted.

What about the fight against COVID-19
For the past 8 months, the world has been abuzz with reports of increasing rate of infection and deaths. From an infection rate of 1-2 in a week, Plateau has reported 150 in a day and instead of our leaders to brace up to reality, they shamelessly explain it away, that it is due to backlog of results, as if that makes it better and should not alarm us. 

Beside the structural hindrances created by long years of criminal neglect of the sector, there is also the very weak and uncoordinated, even confused manner in which the fight against the virus is been waged in Plateau. People should not be deceived, the figures they are giving the public cannot be relied upon, it is not reflective of the daily trend of the outbreak, and it could be much higher. 

Unfortunately, the fight is been led by HE, the governor himself. COVID-19 has revealed the long crimes of chronic neglect in the areas of health and education, leading to glaring inequalities in wages, housing and hunger. In societies where lives matter, more efforts are being made to mitigate the effects of this pandemic. We are witnesses to people who wait for days up to a week to receive positive result. 

What happens in between the days of waiting is obvious – spread.  Everyone who lives in this state will agree with me that, the efforts of the state government to contain this virus have declined; it is shambolic and we are all left to our fate. While the public has a role to play and they are not playing it well in order to arrest the spread, government has the ultimate responsibility for our health. 

Individuals cannot control opening and closing of markets, governments do. Individuals cannot ramp up testing and tracing, governments do. Individuals due to poor leadership at all levels of government cannot address the economic hardship occasioned by the pandemic but governments can help. But what we have is the semblance of a government, a façade who often operate as if they are reading from a script with no clarity on what they need to do or total absence of mind to attend to issues affecting everyday Nigerian. 

With the response by our government to this pandemic, we are heading for a black hole. To change course, government must do the following:
Give civil servants tax relief
 Politicians who are saving their “stolen money” for elections should open food banks for the needy. 
  The elderly and the sick that do not have health insurance should be given their medication for free. 

This is the time for members of the legislature who regularly collect constituency allowances to use it pay school fees for their constituents and examination fee for school children.

Government must revisit the opening of markets and public spaces, not with a view to shut them down totally, but ensure measures are in place to control the spread of the virus. Perhaps, why they have not done that already is because they don’t go to terminus market or Farin Gada market or even Kabong markets. They shop in controlled environments. 

The Cycle of Violence
Most of the places all around the world that have peace, probably had war in the past. So, what stops us from having peace in our state and our nation? The reason is simple, that despite the several commissions of inquiry and peace initiatives, the so-called root causes of insecurity still persist because our leaders profit from these conflicts, otherwise, why are they not doing enough to fight poverty, low income earnings and the pervasive state of despair by fellow countrymen? Young people are drawn to violence and crime in an atmosphere of hopeless poverty.

 Life becomes cheap and violence and insurgency becomes the order of the day, with a weak state that primarily depends on quarterly subventions substantially increases the chances of unrest. That is why I find the comments by government officials at the federal level on the recent #Revolution Now baffling to say the least.

 To be clear, I fully support a revolution but I differ with Omoyele Sowore in the means to revolutionize our country. I believe our country is too diverse and polarized- thanks to our leaders, to achieve a revolution as they want it. We have also suffered too much violence and bloodshed in this country, which disproportionately affects ordinary Nigerians, so, we must avoid any move that could lead to violence. We must find a class response of our own to what the ruling class is doing to us. What breeds violence in these protests is that those who are sitting on our resources are using violence against us by sending police with tear gas to arrest us. In the light of the above, I make the following recommendation. 

All those who believe that our country has been ruined by the current rulers and the system should organize themselves, wherever they are, to throw out the “bandits” that occupy the 36 government houses in the country. Going to Abuja and Lagos alone, will not bring about the needed change.  STAY WHERE YOU ARE AND ORGANIZE

"Young people and all Nigerians should be encouraged to participate in democratic processes that will lead to change." Dr.piwuna added.