Why Plateau re-elected Gov Lalong — Spokesman
Mark Longyen is the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Governor of Plateau State, Barr. Simon Bako Lalong. In this interview, he speaks to on the combination of factors which, he said, endeared Lalong to the people of the state and culminated in his re-election victory.
How do you feel now that your principal has been re-elected for another four years in office? Naturally, I am overwhelmed by the governor’s victory. I do not think that even the governor himself is as happy as I am over his victory. I believe that his re-election is, by and large, a case of prayer answered. Before the election, there was some apprehension but that notwithstanding I believed deep inside me that he would win.
Let me reveal something to you, which I have not shared with anyone yet, except my wife. In January this year, I travelled to Israel. The purpose of my pilgrimage to Israel was, among others, to commit the governor’s re-election bid to God in prayers. I prayed and fasted throughout my sojourn in Israel. I took my prayer points to holy sites and on the last day of the exercise to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and surrendered everything to God in fervent prayers. I came back to the country fulfilled with the strong feeling that God had answered my prayer and that is it!
APC lost the February 23rd presidential election in Plateau State to PDP yet it has won the governorship. What do you think changed the game that paved the way for the party to emerge victorious?
Politics, you know, is local. The voting pattern during the gubernatorial election did not follow the pattern of the presidential election. Among the electorate, for instance, there are die-hard supporters of the governor but due to certain sentiments, they ‘rebelled’ against Buhari and voted for Atiku. During the gubernatorial election, however, there were many people who were stuck with the principle of rotating the state’s governorship position among the three senatorial zones. They ignored political party divides and voted for the governor. To this group of people, any attempt to alter the arrangement is an aberration which should be resisted by every possible means.
If you observe the result of the gubernatorial election carefully, you will notice that the governor cleared the entire Central Senatorial Zone, where the president lost. The people there voted for the governor because it will be their turn to produce the next governor in 2023.
The PDP in Plateau State tried to alter the zoning in 2015 and paid direly for that gamble by losing out to the APC. On realizing their 2015 error, they tried to smuggle their way back to power by zoning their 2019 governorship ticket to the zone of the incumbent governor and promised to serve only one term and then shift power to the Central Senatorial Zone. But everyone knew that it was a mere political subterfuge to hoodwink the people and alter the zoning arrangement.
As things have turned out, the lie could not fly in the face of the people who are ever vigilant and so they stuck with the governor in the election.
Beyond the issue of zoning, what else do you think are the reasons that made the people of the state to re-elect Governor Lalong?
The reasons are not farfetched. For one, the governor has done very well in the last four years, although he inherited a near failed state from his predecessor. Like a doctor, he successfully brought the state out of intensive care and revived it from the state of coma which he inherited and repositioned it for good. Besides, the governor’s unique style of inclusive government by which he carried everyone along across ethnic and religious divides endeared him to the people. Above all, his excellent scorecard, especially under what we call the Lalong Legacy Projects, is legendary.
The governor’s achievements cut across all sectors. These comprise the projects he inherited and completed; the projects he initiated and completed or are ongoing; the massive resuscitation of hitherto moribund state-owned industries; women and youth entrepreneurship and empowerment, among others.
Shortly before the governorship rerun, PDP candidate Jeremiah Useni had alleged that Governor Lalong diverted about N20 billion FG assistance meant for the rehabilitation of IDPs and used it to rig him out….?
(Cuts in). I think that was the most despicable, the most malicious and most nauseating allegation that I have ever heard in my entire 27 years career as a journalist. How on earth would a septuagenarian, a retired general and a supposed elder statesman condescend so low to malign the person of the governor with such barefaced lies all in the name of politics?
As I speak to you, the state has yet to receive a single dime from the Federal Government for the resettlement of IDPs. Ordinarily, Useni ought to be charged to court for this malicious allegation and be compelled to produce evidence to back his claim, failing which he must face the full wrath of the law.