By Mani Imman
Former Governor of Plateau State, Senator Simon Bako Lalong, was, in the past, criticized for irresponsible speeches. His legendary gaffes, when he held sway as the Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum, were excused as gimmicks to escape criticisms from his colleagues in the closed group.
Having completed his tenure and moved on to become a minister and now, Senator, it was expected that the former Governor would be circumspect whenever he speaks either in private or in public. However, it seems he is unwilling to part ways with rash speaking as he has not learned much from the mistakes of the past.
On September 1st, during his All Progressives Congress, APC stakeholders’ meeting held at the Party secretariat in Jos, the Governor outdid himself exuding confidence that the APC will partake and win all the seats in the October 9 local government election while at the same time, calling on the State House of Assembly to recall the suspended Chairmen of the 17 local government areas to return to their seats.
He also shot himself on the leg when he declared that the People’s Democratic Party, PDP wanted to emulate the APC by stopping the APC from partaking in the said election, an acceptance that his Party might have been dubious while in power.
He said, “… When we received the notice that they were going to prepare for the local government election, as usual, they wanted to do as we were doing when we were in government. To think that there was no APC on the Plateau but I think they made a mistake.
“Immediately, the Party Chairman called me to ask if we would participate; I said we would participate, so within a short time, we saw our people going back to their Wards. The reports were wonderful…
“What is ahead of us that will keep this Party is the local government election. So, everybody must pray that in all the local government elections we will win, win all our councillorship seats, and win all our local government as chairmen.”
However, many will be quick to fault Lalong’s confidence as misplaced given the fact that he vacated his ministerial position to take up a Senate seat that the Court of Appeal controversially awarded him last year.
It is no secret that he resigned as minister to take up the Senate seat to avoid an election which the APC would have again lost. It is remembered that Lalong as an incumbent governor lost the Plateau South Senate seat by more than 50,000 votes to the PDP’s Senator Napoleon Bali.
With the PDP now in control of the state and with the charming works of Governor Caleb Muftwang it is easy to see why many believe that Lalong is sending his remaining loyalists on wild goose chase in the LG Election.
For the suspended Chairmen, he stated, “It was the House of Assembly that chased them out. The House resolved that local government chairmen should vacate their seats. We went to court but now they say there is nothing like that. We want the House of Assembly to return our chairmen to their seats because there is nothing like Caretakers. It is still the responsibility of the House of Assembly to do that…”
Citizens have, however, faulted the former governor, with some alleging he is calling for anarchy in the House.
Dauda Gideon said, “The former governor is wrong in trying to dabble into the affairs of the House. He should allow the State Assembly to handle their affairs, this type of interference is what is always heating issues in the House and giving the State a bad name.”
Ishaku Gutul added, “The people he asked to be returned to their seats, and the people standing for the coming elections, which seats will they all occupy? This confusion should be avoided. Lalong knows there is no Caretaker but he dissolved the democratically elected Chairmen during his time and even removed his Party man as the Chairman of Qua’an Pan.
“At what point did he know that there is no caretaker in local government governance or it is all about convenience?”
