2019: Politicians to watch Can Jeremiah Useni win race for Plateau government house?
Useni’s vigour to try his luck in 2019 is said to emanate from a tribal sentiment among his people who believe that unless they take a chance in 2019, the governorship seat may elude them until 2039
From Lami Sadiq, Jos
Less than two years to the 2019 general elections, anxious politicians in Plateau State are already showing subtle interests to occupy the new government house at Rayfield.
The present occupant of Plateau’s seat of power has a strong political grip on the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Therefore, it is unlikely that anyone from the party will attempt to challenge Governor Simon Bako Lalong.
The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is a different matter with many notable personalities eyeing the number one seat in the state. For 16 years, the party has controlled power in Plateau State. It just lost to the APC in 2015 in a defeat, some say, the PDP is yet to recover from.
Among the big names gearing up to tackle Lalong in 2019 is the Senator representing Plateau south senatorial district, General Jeremiah Timbut Useni (rtd). The name Jeremiah Useni has transcended both military and political clime across the country. The former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), under the late Gen. Sani Abacha, was a chieftain of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), a party he later dumped in 2006 to serve as the chairman of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP). In 2014, Useni defected to the PDP where he is currently the senator representing Plateau south.
But the seat he now occupies did not come to him on a platter of gold. The general turned politician has played opposition politics for years. This has affected his chances at securing a lucrative position within the PDP controlled state and federal government.
However, as the then DPP’s national leader, Useni’s popularity soared when his party won councillorship seats in his home town of Langtang north and the court even upturned the election of the PDP candidate for Langtang north, declaring the candidate of the DPP as the winner of the chairmanship election.
Prior to that, Useni had contested for the Plateau south senatorial seat in 2011 on the platform of the DPP but lost to the PDP candidate at the time, Senator Victor Lar. In January 2014, he made news headlines when he denounced the DPP’s only member of the House of Representatives for Jos North/Bassa, Suleiman Kwande, for decamping to the APC, saying he had directed the member to decamp to the PDP instead. With such utterance, it was no surprise when a few months later Useni himself moved to the PDP. While many have attributed that to a sort of blackmail from a PDP federal government, it somewhat played a major role in persuading Useni to jump the ship. Others say his ambition to become more politically relevant swayed him to the then ruling party. But with Governor Jonah Jang controlling political activities at the state level, Useni and former Governor Joshua Dariye had relied on higher connections at the federal level to manoeuvre their way into the PDP shortly before the primaries.
Pundits say at the time of his return to the PDP, Useni was believing that an unscripted zoning principle will force Jang to pick a successor from the southern zone where he hails from.
Useni, alongside Jang’s then Deputy Governor, Ignatious Lonjang and former Governor Fidelis Tapgun among others from the zone had been angling to succeed Jang. Senator Victor Lar even gave up his position as the senator for the southern district to vie for the governorship seat. But Jang had other plans that did not involve appealing to a zoning sentiment. He defied all odds to anoint the late Sen. Gyang Pwajok from the northern zone as his successor.
Sensing Jang’s body language early enough, Useni had retreated quietly and instead grappled to fight for Victor Lar’s vacated senatorial seat which he eventually won.
A Tarok political activist told Daily Trust on Sunday that, “Useni is a military man. He knows when to fight and when to retreat in a battle. So, with Jang, he knew he couldn’t win at that time. Instead, he settled for becoming the party’s senatorial candidate.”
But whether the retired general will be able to bring such military acumen into his 2019 governorship ambition is left to the seen. Already, fillers have it that Useni who will be 75 in February is racing against time with a suspected failing health issue. “Even now as a senator, he has not really provided what you will call excellent representation to the people of the southern zone. He is obviously ill and most of the time missing at the senate” a politician from Useni’s Tarok said.
With age and health challenges dominating electorates discussions on Useni’s ambition, his media aide, Abubakar Ateeku Yusuf, told Daily Trust that the Senator was hale and hearty. He said that the senator still possesses the mien to represent the people of Plateau State when called upon to do so.
Yusuf said although the Senator was still consulting, there have been pressures on him to take up the challenge. He said that discussions on the Senator’s health was only a campaign of calumny propagated by his enemies who were equally eyeing the governor’s seat.
He said, “Gen. Useni is a member of seven powerful senate committees, including the vice chairman of senate committee on defence. He visits his constituents on weekly basis from Abuja to Jos and from Jos to Langtang. An ailing person cannot do that. Therefore, he is hale and hearty. He is ready to serve in any capacity. His goodwill also cuts across not only Plateau State but the nation at large.”
But before Useni begins to capitalise on his presumed popularity across the state, he must weigh that popularity alongside Lalong’s in the six local government areas (LGAs) of the southern zone where they both come from. This is complicated by the fact that the two dominant tribes in the southern zone are Useni’s Tarok and Lalong’s Goemai. For 2019, the General is hoping that his popularity among his Tarok tribe in Langtang north and south and their little population in Wase and part of Mikang will give him an edge over his likely major rival, whose Goemai tribe is predominant in Shendam and Quan Pa’an LGAs.
But with the larger Fulani and Hausa tribes of Wase more loyal to Lalong and Mikang being carved out of Shendam, those areas cannot be horridly aligned with Useni.
Useni’s vigour to try his luck in 2019 is said to emanate from a tribal sentiment among his people who believe that unless they take a chance in 2019, the governorship seat may elude them until 2039. The need to have Useni replaced Lalong is very real, especially on the account that many say since the late Solomon Lar, no Tarok man has held the reign of power in the state, while the Goemai have had the likes of Ambassador Fidelis Tapgun and now Lalong.
The narration in the hinterland is that should the Tarok miss out on the 2019 opportunity, the principle of zoning will shift the position of governorship to the central zone. Then, the northern zone will, therefore, wait for another 16 years before power shifts back to the southern zone.
Sen. Useni’s popularitylies in his generosity among his people. This has earned him the nickname ‘Baba mai tuwo’ (one who gives food). He is hoping to use this generosity as ‘mai tuwo’ to help him clinch the party ticket. But within the PDP, many say the supposed past tension that characterised Useni and Jang’s relationship has not simmered as both are working assiduously to take control of the state party structure. Even with Jang already gaining more grounds, there are those who say Useni remains not just a leader of the PDP, but a father to all. So, he has been silently sponsoring the party.
But with the likes of a former Speaker, George Daika, and a former chairman of Shendam, Kemi Nshe, also jostling for the party ticket, taking Lalong for granted will be a costly mistake. Lalong is best described as simple and unassuming. Many politicians do not see him as coming back. So, they cast him aside as harmless.
But as Jang will probably attest to, Lalong’s simplicity is perhaps his greatest strength and it is that quality that has endeared him to the people of the state.
But before Useni begins to capitalise on his presumed popularity across the state, he must weigh that popularity alongside Lalong’s in the six local government areas (LGAs) of the southern zone where they both come from