May 15, (THEWILL) – Crisis looms in Plateau State All Progressives Congress as Governor Simon Lalong’s decision to anoint an in-law as his successor forces 18 other aspirants into a tendentious coalition, UKANDI ODEY writes
History does not repeat itself as it is erroneously claimed widely, but people commit the same errors sometimes repeatedly and cause similar events to occur between ancient and modern history. This is what is playing out in Plateau State as the build-up to the 2023 general acquires ferocity in both momentum and intrigues.
Some excursion into history will capture the last days of former Governor Jonah David Jang, who sought to make history by ditching the rotation or zoning arrangement in the build-up to the 2015 general election. In the circumstances, against all entreaties and wise political counsel, Jang had his way and say, anointed and imposed his tribesman, the late Senator Gyang Nyam Shong Pwajok, popularly referred to by his admirers as GNS, on the Peoples Democratic Party as its governorship candidate. This generated discontent within the party as much as it spread ethnic hatred and bitterness, especially against the Jang’s Berom tribe. The outcome was predicted and it came to pass: many PDP faithful indulged in antiparty bickering and activities; some like the present deputy governor, Soni Gwanle Tyoden, decamped outrightly from the PDP, and became running mate to the APC gubernatorial candidate as that Party’s ranks were gaining and swelling. The baseline of the political miscalculation by Jang was a robust ethnic and political gang-up against the PDP to ensure it was voted out of power in the state in 2015.
A similar scenario is already afoot, except that this time it is not so much about ethnic extremism and selfishness as it is about overwhelming social forces and debt of conscience. Earlier, Governor Simon Lalong claimed that he had not anointed a successor and what was going on was basically name dropping, including some of the aspirants using old pictures with him as evidential validation of their claims. Although the political opposition retorted immediately by telling him that because of depleted public trust and poor performance perception, he lacked the moral right to anoint any candidate to be acceptable to the people of Plateau State. He is now caught in a labyrinth of excruciating emotions, in search of a nexus between ‘anointing’ and ‘imposing’ a candidate on the State APC, and ultimately on the people of Plateau State.
The bubble burst and an uncanny cat came through from the bag of tricks and intrigues, when an amorphous, quick patch assemblage led by an over ambitious politicians, inappropriately branding itself as the Legacy Group, purportedly bought nomination and expression of interest forms and offered same to Lalong to contest Plateau South senatorial seat in 2023. More than the incisiveness and discerning of the onlooker and the bookmakers, it was the superciliousness and ill-tempered loquacity of the spokesman of the group that betrayed Lalong and his anointed candidate, a project that is already in bile and blight, and choking in crossfire of sentiments and sentimentalities at take off.
At a World Press Conference last Monday, it was a consummate outflow of emotions, as venom and vitriolic were in company as if to suggest that war has begun. Convened by 18 APC Governorship Aspirants’ Forum, some of the gubernatorial aspirants used the conference to challenge Governor Lalong, and accuse him of using his position as governor and leader of the APC in the State to cause unfair competition in the governorship race.
Amos Gizo, who spoke on behalf of the aggrieved 18 aspirants, opened and introduced their case and plight solemnly: “it is necessary to address you this morning considering certain developments in our great party, the APC, Plateau State chapter”.
In a further thrust of the matter, Gizo said: “It is no longer news that the issue of the moment is the 2023 general elections…As the processes are going on in the State, the Executive governor of Plateau state, Rt Hon Simon Bako Lalong, and the State Chairman, Hon. Rufus Bature, in an enlarged meeting in Government House on Monday April 18, admonished all aspirants to speak to themselves on possible withdrawals and a possibility of coming up with a consensus candidate”. Explaining that it was in furtherance of the foregoing objective that the chairman validated the legitimacy of the APC Governorship Aspirants’ Forum and appointed Amos Gizo as its Chairman, Gizo expressed shock that “what appeared like a rumour has received evidence in the body language of Governor Lalong, with members of the First Family (wife and brothers), his father in-law, the Accountant general of the State, the deputy National Secretary of the APC, anchored by the member representing Pankshin/Kanke/Kanam in the House of Representatives, Hon. Yusuf Gagdi orchestrating a plan to subjugate the collective will of the members of the APC by imposing a candidate on members of the party in the person of Nentawe Yilwatda Goshen”.
Although the protesting 18 aspirants cited other issues that are wrong in the Party such as the use of former ad hoc delegates as not acceptable to them, there is rancour and growing dissent in the Plateau State APC since the news broke that Governor Lalong has anointed Nentawe to impose on the Party as its governorship candidate for 2023. Having recently resigned as the Resident INEC Commissioner for Benue State, many APC stalwarts in the state refer to Nentawe and his ambition with scorn and disdain, saying he is a meal time interloper, and not a card-carrying member of the APC. Nentawe is also said to be a cousin of Lalong’s wife to whom the Governor is bound by a burden of debt.
In a Press Release last Thursday, the Plateau APC Elders Advisory Council expressed a position to the effect that “our interest is for a fair deal for every aspirant, a peaceful conduct of the elections”, after it admitted in the same statement that “in the past few days, the Media has been awash with reports of purported imposition of candidates on the people which is contrary to the tenets of democracy”.
Observers of affairs in the Plateau State APC said a lot of horse trading took place to force Lalong to cook this poison which lethal efficacy is already heading for the vital organs of the party, seeking its chassis, and radiating some miasma to set both membership and followership scampering. A major bargaining chip here is the Pankshin/Kanke/Kanam federal constituency, the logic being to make an Ngas of Pankshin/Kanke governor, so Kanam minority can get second term in the House to represent PKK. Again, however, Netawe has become a metaphor and the elixir to extirpate a foment of tendencies to worsen the body chemistry of a Party that Lalong’s style of leadership has since put in a state of crisis and set on a trajectory of decomposition.
From the pre-local government election congresses last year, to the election of the State Executives of the Party, to the by-election of last February 26, it has been a succession and harvest of crises. The Party has been losing members in droves to the opposition PDP, a trend that is set to continue in worsened proportion as the Nentawe issue eats inwards and deploys a cog to the party’s electoral wheel.
Like any done deal, Governor Lalong does look ready and determined to reverse himself on Nentawe. Equally true is that other aspirant do not appear ready to stop the fight now or soon.
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