Lalong’s Mission to Rescue Plateau
Given the challenges before him, Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State has begun to take some steps towards “rescuing” the state, writes Seriki Adinoyi
Governor Simon Lalong’s victory in the 2015 general election canbe said to have been practically handed over to him by the electorate in the state. The people had determined that power must shift to the Southern zone of Plateau State and that they did and watched over until the victory was declared.
The governor, a candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), defeated the late Senator Gyang Pwajok of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with about 20,000 votes in his very first outing for the position. His victory was later affirmed by the Election Petition Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, respectively.
It was a logical defeat of an incumbent, who gave a wholesale support to the PDP candidate. The people jubilated that they had their way when the result was declared. But that was only the beginning for Lalong, who had an enormous governance challenge to address, especially insecurity.
Thus, while the people were still basking in the euphoria of his victory, Lalong knew he had settled down to map out strategies that would take the state out the woods. During the campaigns, Lalong promised to tackle insecurity to a standstill, address youth employment, and overhaul the fast deteriorating education sector in the state. The Plateau people also expected him to fix the dilapidated infrastructure and the health services. He was also trusted to reconcile the warring factions and build the broken bridge of peace among the various groups in the state. And to his credit, the general feeling in the state is that his nine months old administration has lived above board in some of these regards.
First, he started by rolling out a five-point policy thrust to guide him in tackling the many challenges he inherited, namely: Peace, Security and Good Governance; Human Capital Development and Social welfare; Agriculture and Rural Development; Entrepreneurship and Industrialization; and Physical Infrastructure and Environmental development.
Of a truth, in the past decade, the various ethnic groups had been pitted against each other, both political and religious. The slighted provocation often degenerated into serious mayhem and escalated with the speed of light often resulting in the loss of lives and properties.
Successive government had tried to resolve the multi-dimensional crises with very little success. But Lalong, in a development that appeared rather magical, has begun to restore peace to the state.
At a recent dinner with the press in September 2015, he said he was optimistic that peace must be restored to the restive parts of the state, particularly Barkin Ladi and Riyom local government areas that had turned to war zones for Fulani and Berom. “On many occasions, we have had to sit with both the Fulani and the Berom, and suggestions were made, and now we are finding solutions to the crises. In the last two weeks, the committee I set up on the peace process has resumed sitting after an initial interruption. They are now doing very well.
“I have had to go to the president up to five times over the security situation in Plateau. If the situation does not improve, we would plead with him to treat us like the North-east. But I am optimistic that with the effort we are putting in place, the situation will improve very soon.”
The governor’s critics had on many occasions honestly admitted that Lalong had been delivering on his promise in this regard, as the state can now boast of relative peace, and is gradually regaining its pride as the Home of Peace and Tourism. Immediately after Lalong was announced winner of the election by INEC, civil servants in the state heaved a sigh of relief. They had been on strike following about seven months salaries owed them by the previous administration. They were however hopeful that Lalong would fulfill his campaign promise of clearing the outstanding salaries, which had brought untold hardship on the people.
With his administration in place, things began to come back to normal. Lalong had sought for an intervention fund to pay part of the salaries owed the workers due to the fall in revenue shared among states. The governor’s intervention was principally to alleviate the suffering of many workers and reduce the level of poverty in the state. This, he has competently done, with only about two months outstanding salaries, which a government official assured the people would be cleared soon.
To enable them key into his vision and policy trust for the state, the governor recently took out time to hold a retreat with his newly appointed commissioners and other cabinet members at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru.
The retreat, with the theme ‘Delivering Effective Service in an Era of Dwindling Resources’ had resourceful speakers from political, religious, and legal worlds bringing their wealth of experiences to bare.
The likes of the former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, Reverend Father Hassan Matthew Kukah, Bishop Benjamin Kwashi, Professor Dakas C Dakas, among others took their time to lecture the participants on the habit of prudent management of state’s limited resources to achieve the desired goal of delivering good governance.
The choice of NIPSS was equally hailed by Lalong’s supporters, who reiterated that it was clear evidence that the governor was actually ready to cut cost, when he didn’t have to take the retreat to a faraway venue from home. Lalong also charged his cabinet against corrupt practices and wasteful spending.
He warned that failure was not part of the agenda of his administration, noting that “Our economic challenges have compelled us to think ahead, look ahead, prepare ahead and stay ahead, if ever we sincerely desire to make the kind of positive impact we seek to make on our sincere bid to make lighter the burden of existence for all our citizens.”
The retreat, facilitated by the Jos Business School (JBS), saw Lalong affirm his government’s commitment to creating enabling environment that would grow the economy of the state through Public and Private sector Participation (PPP), and warned participants that there would be no room for failure.
He said the reforms and structural adjustments at the federal and state levels, aimed at cutting the cost of governance and exploring alternative sources of funding are the change ideology which upholds in Plateau.
“The tangible and progressive development we seek demands continuous knowledge-driven action which saves cost and maximises opportunities. For this policy thrust to be realisable, I must emphasise that team spirit, financial prudence, discipline, dedication to duty, leadership drive and strategic implementation of policies, programmes and actions are necessary ingredients for success.
“I therefore urge you all to begin a process of critical thinking on the quick fixes that would make you hit the ground running in your various ministries and agencies. We have already set in place strategic initiatives and programmes with timelines over short, medium and long terms for the actualisation of our policy thrust, which will be unveiled at this Retreat.”
Also speaking, the country Director of GIZ, Inna Homas, a partner in the retreat, noted that promoting energy efficiency, rural electrification and sustainable economic development, as well as small and medium scale enterprises have the capacity to spur economic growth, income generation and employment creation.
“This is vital to the achievement of the national development targets, particularly in the non-oil sectors and also for growth in the internally generated revenue of the state.”
Participants were however believed to have left the retreat with strong resolution to look inward to expand the sources and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state in the face of dwindling resources and the federation account.
Some of them vowed to harness key areas of comparative advantage, namely the Agriculture, Tourism and Mining, and intensify investments to create employment and boost revenue base for sustainable development.
In line with Amaechi’s charge, the retreat resolved to work towards a robust and harmonious relationship between the Executive and Legislative arms of government to succeed in the implementation of the government’s Five-Point Policy Thrust.
While resolving to continue to work and improve its collaboration with development partners and multi-lateral agencies for the common good of the state, he also expressed determination to overhaul and arrest the continued decay in the education, agriculture, and health sectors, which are key elements to development of the state and welfare of the people.
Noting that the role of the civil service in the delivery of the 5-Point Policy Thrust is critical, Lalong’s emphasised the imperatives of the reform processes and procedures. And in line with this, he added that all MDAs should leverage on the use of ICT in order to improve the productivity of its workforce and build a knowledge-based economy. The team also resolved that government would continue to work in partnership with, and support all relevant security agencies, NGOs and communities in consolidating the peace already achieved in the state, seeing that peace and security are essential recipes for meaningful development.
Lalong has since been receiving kudos for what is termed modest achievements so far in this less than one year in office, especially the courage with which he has confronted and tackled insecurity in the state. His strides in this regard are being considered a template for other states with security challenges.
Immediately after Lalong was announced winner of the election by INEC, civil servants in the state heaved a sigh of relief. They had been on strike following about seven months salaries owed them by the previous administration. They were however hopeful that Lalong would fulfill his campaign promise of clearing the outstanding salaries