This Monday, anxiety and expectations will come to a head in Plateau State as power changes hands from outgoing Governor Simon Lalong of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to Governor-elect Caleb Mutfwang of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in what many have described as a historic handshake of “their excellencies.”
The Simon Bako Lalong Administration has been in charge for an eight-year-long season of anxious moments for Plateau citizens and their cherished values. The assessment of Lalong by the average Plateau resident as he fades out of power is that he spent his tenure playing to the tendentious and predatory gallery of the northern establishment and did very little to protect and secure the Plateau heritage, thereby leaving the state vulnerable, while its traditional aggressor from the North loomed large in a determined effort to destabilise the state and displace its people.
Although Lalong’s supporters claim that his tenure restored peace in Plateau, the greater truth is that he created the Peace Building Agency and left it manacled and disabled through lack of funding.
Another truth is that Lalong’s era was characterised by sporadic attacks on the natives, especially in local government areas like Bassa, Riyom, Jos South, Jos North, Barkin Ladi, Bokkos, Kanam, Wase and most recently, Mangu that is still traumatised by a recent genocide.
Under Lalong, there were recurrent cases of land grabbing and displacement of people from their ancestral homes; there was food insecurity because farmers could no longer attend to their livelihood as herdsmen attackers were lurking around and seemingly on the prowl; there was a flounder in tourism inflow because of growing insecurity and urban crimes and terrorism on the one hand, and the lack of concentration on urban governance resulting in decaying and dilapidated social infrastructures, with Jos, the State capital degenerating into the abysmal and unenviable status of one of the dirtiest destinations in the country based on contemporary assessment, on the other hand.
May 29 comes with great expectations. There is understandable euphoria and feeling of elation among people in Plateau that tomorrow’s receipt of power by Barrister Caleb Mutfwang is a whole package of positives and desirables. it is a renaissance; the coming of a brilliant light after a great darkness; a kind of liberation and return of the natives; a restoration day coming with a restoration regime; and, ultimately, a day that bears the date of a people with their destiny!
The Transition Implementation Committee has announced a detailed programme for the handover ceremony; major highlights indicate a cream of visitors and cultural distances and displays. A member of the Committee has actually noted that the mood of people in the state and their expectations will make the celebration resonate and reverberate beyond the shores of the state – far more than the spontaneous celebrations that swept through the State following the outcome and announcement of the gubernatorial election result on March 20, 2023!
But, herein, too, lies the burden of power for His Excellency, Barrister Caleb Mutfwang. These great expectations, of course, translate as matters of urgent public interest, and constitute what the new administration should prioritise if it must stay in synch with popular yearnings and aspirations.
Last weeks’ nocturnal invasion and attack on 26 villages in Mangu Local Government Area, in which more than 100 people were killed in cold blood, has again underscored the urgency of strengthening security arrangements and network in the State.
The Mutfwang administration must move beyond the lame efforts of his predecessor to secure the state, the land and the farms by putting measures in place to protect and reassure farmers of safety while in their farms, and end the so-called farmers-herders clash.
Another popular expectation as the government unfolds is the imperative of resettling and restoring displaced natives to their ancestral homes. This inevitably translates as recovering land and territories from aggressors and grabbers, implementing the anti-land grabbing law, and strengthening security presence especially in the rural areas to deal with cases of migrant usurpers infiltrating rural settings in the state with terrorist intent. There is, thus, the urgent need to revive and reinvigorate the Operation Rainbow as an intervening local security outfit.
The Lalong administration, for curious politics and political reasons, stalemated the growth and operations of the outfit, and used lack of funding to ensure that it remained moribund and desolate throughout its tenure.
Jos, the state capital, is in the worst of forms – arguably, in its history. From worsening environmental sanitation situation, to public infrastructure in a state of disrepair, to crime and insecurity, the capital needs a quick and special intervention to revamp its status as a state capital and tourism destination. The face of Jos city is a slur, no thanks to street trading and street traders who have ensured that the city centre is without plan, always rowdy, a traffic impasse in the day, a criminal’s den in the night, and a vulnerable area in terms of security control and enforcement. For security and standards of civilization, there is need to restore orderliness in the city by ensuring that those who function within its space conform to the necessary laws relating to parking of vehicle, hawking, street trading, and illegal motor parks.
In the past five months, residents of Jos, the state capital, have been grappling with acute water scarcity. Tardiness in the state Ministry of Water Resources, allegedly, has put innocent residents in the hellish situation of sourcing water from unhygienic sources. It will bring much relief to homes if water supply is restored within the first two weeks as the Caleb Mutfwang administration takes off.
Sequel to the foregoing is the need for deliberate effort to be made immediately to return civil servants in the state to work. The workers have been on strike to press for their emoluments in the past two weeks. The incoming administration needs the civil service to be in place for the smooth take off of its programmes and implementation of its policies. Governor Mutfwang is expected to personally meet with the leadership of the organised labour to strike a deal that will end the industrial action with the assurance that their grievances will be addressed immediately.
There are some critical roads and streets within Jos that need to be completed and opened to public use, or refurbished as the rains intensify. These streets that need upgrading abound in the Jos metropolis, especially around the business nerve-centre.
Many consider it a fair way to the start if the new administration gives consideration to this area which the Lalong administration ignored after repeated annual budget capturing.
It is in the same manner that internal revenue options are expected to be duly and maximally explored to enable the administration harness the bountiful endowments of the Plateau space, including solid minerals mining and processing of agricultural products.
From celebration of great expectations to the receipt and burden of power, Plateau welcomes His Excellency, Barrister Caleb Mutfwang!
