Plateau 2023: Tyoden on Lalong's Scaffold

There is excitement in the political camp of the Plateau State Deputy Governor, Prof Soni Tyoden, as realism, not reality, stalks and stokes his governorship ambition, UKANDI ODEY writes

On the occasion of his 70th birthday in 2020, an event which was used to launch two of his recent text books, it was obvious that the seething objective and foundation of the lavish show was to scale and test run Prof Soni Tyoden's governorship ambition, ahead of the critical hours.

From the organisation of the event to the personalities that graced the occasion to the array of sourvenirs that were distributed, it was certainly more than 70 hearty cheers to the celebrant. As remarkable as the colourful event was, the tactical and strategic absence of Governor Simon Lalong, the celebrant's principal, from the event which was held at the Victoria Gowon Memorial Hall, Government House, Jos, was remarkable.

Governor Lalong, who has been attending social events, such as the graduation ceremony of children of his chief of staff or send forth ceremonies and the wedding of their daughters, had to travel out of the state on the excuse that he had 'superior and urgent state matters' in order to avoid the event and not to allow the political undertones of the event to rob off on his own calculations towards 2023.

With the bold and obvious trappings of the birthday bash as an ambitious political outing, not only Prof Tyoden's marketers would have crafted huge political capital of Lalong's presence at the occasion as his endorsement of his deputy to succeed him in 2023.

Lalong and Tyoden's political companionship is a product of a groping desperate poor opportunist wanting to consolidate his luck and an angry, protesting professor in search of political ventilation and vengeance. Having emerged as the flagbearer of the then emergent opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, against all odds and popular disbelief, Lalong needed an effective game plan if he would really contend the intimidating and ferocious counterforce of the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its vibrant and charming governorship candidate for the 2015 elections.

Tyoden had been defeated by his former student, the late Senator GNS Pwajok in the PDP governorship primary election of December 2014 and was literally floating, fuming, and ruing. Without formally resigning from the PDP or registering with the fledgling APC in his ward as member of the party, Lalong's strategists approached an angry Tyoden and offered him the deputy governorship ticket of the APC to run for the 2015 election with Lalong. The logic of the APC strategists was to win the bloc vote of the Mwaghavul, Tyoden's ethnic nation, which has the second decisive vote after the Berom of Plateau North in the State governorship election.

In a fit of anger and apparently to terminate political frustration, Tyoden embraced the opportunity with more equanimity than the pride and deference of a professor. Beside, there was a state-wide syndrome and conspiracy to do in the then Governor, Senator Jonah Jang, and despatch his political agenda to a dark abyss.

As Lalong's deputy since 2015, Tyoden's travelogue is miserable: a trudging trajectory and bare tapestry. Although his salesmen want the public to appreciate his humility and loyalty to his boss, the story is also told of how one of the surviving APC elders in the State stopped him from resigning as deputy governor before the 2019 general elections because of frustrations and indifference of the Lalong political machine towards his office. He represents Lalong often in local state functions; but approvals and releases to his office flow without ease and sometimes get stagnated in the system to the effect that office administration is often held down by lack of stationeries. Where Lalong himself does not pretend at him or look the other way, his foot soldiers will be brutal and vicious towards the Deputy.

The latest recruitment exercise in the state was the composition of the Tyoden Campaign Organisation (TCO). Checks at press time indicated that the team is in high spirit and high life too is being expected. Impeccable sources say it became expedient to set up and start work at the TCO because "Lalong has given him the go ahead after long discussion between the two of them."

Ambition and lack of political punctiliousness will not allow the group to make a critical distinction between "go ahead" and "endorsement", hence the excitement and enthusiasm among the TCO foundation job men that " it is the place to be for now". With billboards already erected in different locations indicating the gubernatorial outing of their principal, the TCO appears not ready to leave anything to chance.

Lalong's politics could be both vicious and lethal as is evident mostly in some of his actions in his second tenure. Many say he may have passively said okay to his deputy to end his pester on the matter. Other pundits also contend that he may have said okay to him as a cajole to forestall his return to the PDP, using the origin of their companionship as template and hindsight. In this regard, Tyoden is viewed by Lalong and his kitchen cabinet as an outsider who was merely invited by the APC for free dinner. To this extent, the cabal does not lose sleep if Tyoden plunges into oblivion, asphyxiate, and expires thereafter.

Some of Tyoden's men say their principal is not oblivious of possible booby traps ranged against him by Lalong. They are upbeat claiming that their candidate, that is Tyoden, is the most qualified of all contenders to the seat in Government House. They also speculate that most of the appointees of Lalong in the present government are sympathetic to the deputy governor, and would ensure his victory in the party's primary election. Although he would be almost 73 by 2023, Tyoden's enforcers say his ability and mental agility are still appropriate for the job, and that he will retrieve and reclaim Plateau State from the mess in which Lalong has enmeshed it - like Jang after Dariye.

All the same, Lalong's cards are still very close to his chest and too close to call. There is an army of governorship aspirants, all from Plateau Central zone - surging on the platform of the state APC even as the party is sinking as a result of internal bleeding and systemic heat. There are also a lot of claims that are flying around with Lalong as both the divider and divisor simultaneously. There is also the predatory Joshua Dariye group, of which Lalong is actually a prefect and illustrious member, working very hard to enthrone their own if they should not become dinosaurs and possibly go extinct in the unfolding dispensation. This Group too does not know Tyoden, and has no sympathy for his ambition.

“Lalong and Tyoden's political companionship is a product of a groping desperate poor opportunist wanting to consolidate his luck and an angry, protesting professor in search of political ventilation and vengeance

As days succeed hours and the countdown thickens, something will indeed give way. One is that Lalong is going. If the Tyoden gubernatorial project fails at the end, it is because, like the medicine man who died for failing to take his own medicine, the Political Science professor failed to profess appropriately in his own case. If he succeeds, it is not because Lalong gave him the "go ahead", but because the English man defines "luck" as "preparedness meeting with chance".