Whatever was the quantum of distrust and controversy that greeted the declaration of Ahmed Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), as the winner of the February 25, 2023 presidential election, the reality is already unmistakable that he will receive the reins of presidential power, come May 29.
For Tinubu, the challenge now is not so much his health, as the opposition and his traducers will prefer and wish it, as it is how to put together a team that will be resourceful and forthcoming in delivering a New Nigeria.
From different parts of the country, hustlers and opportunists have been jostling, just as the APC faithful and close associates of the President-elect have been falling over themselves in a lobbying frenzy, which is first about making the cabinet list, getting choice or ‘juicy’ posting, or simply making the first line list which, at worst, will earn the headship of a viable parastatal, agency or board.
In Plateau State, it is a real rats’ race, especially now that political power in the state has been lost to the opposition PDP who won the governorship poll convincingly, including the National Assembly Election in Plateau South Senatorial District where the outright defeat of Simon Lalong has been equated with a damning rejection of the outgoing governor for poor performance and squalid leadership.
However, with the emergence of Governor Lalong as the director-general of the now disbanded APC Presidential Campaign Council, he receives early mention when political analysts get under way with permutations about those from Plateau State that are likely to make Tinubu’s Cabinet.
Observers however, believe Lalong has a lot of minuses and deficits grating against him, ranging from his pre-primaries posture against Tinubu, to his rating as the director general of the APC presidential campaign council.
His high profile and colourful opponents, including the Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, Chief Amos Gizo, former secretary to the state government, Chief Sylvanus Lot, and the State APC defeated governorship candidate, Nentawe Yiltwada Goshwe, exploring his robust connection with Hon. Yusuf Gagdi, and the other sixteen gubernatorial aspirants arm twisted out of the race by Lalong, will use this pre-primary anti Tinubu posture of Lalong to secure advantage.
It is arguable whether the gamble for geopolitical and religious balancing and equity, which enabled Lalong to clinch the position of director-general in the APC presidential campaign organisation has neutralised his political offences of ignoring and avoiding Tinubu in the build-up to the party’s primaries.
It would be recalled that during Tinubu’s visit to see Plateau delegates in Jos, Lalong, who preferred and preserved the delegates for Rotimi Amaechi, sneaked out of town to avoid meeting with Tinubu.
Again, during the presidential convention in Abuja, Lalong ensured that the Plateau delegates were held and hidden from Tinubu in an obscure location, until the trio or triumvirate of Amos Gizo, Pauline Tallen, and Hon. Komsol staged a ‘coup’ and broke into the delegates abode and ‘stole’ a chunk into the pro-Tinubu camp to swell his votes on his way to eventual victory and emergence as the APC candidate.
Apart from politics without principle, another factor working against Lalong is that he is from Shendam Local Government Area as the present Minister for Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen. Adherents of rotational politics in Plateau are livid that the same local government area that produced both governor and minister in the last eight years should not take the turn of another local government area in this dispensation. As a matter of fact, the Plateau Central zone is strong in its belief that the ministerial slot to Plateau this time has to be allotted to the zone, since Plateau North kept the position from 2007 to 2015 when Jonah Jang was governor, and Plateau South did same under Lalong as governor from 2015 to 2023.
Yet, Simon Lalong’s albatross stretches tentacles beyond the political sphere of Plateau. As chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, he mobilized his colleagues strongly to remove Adams Oshiomole as National Chairman of the APC. He did in his calculation, to make the way for his friend, Rotimi Amaechi, to win the APC presidential primary election. Oshiomole is waiting, and is in a strategic position to take his pound of flesh on Lalong.
The immediate past Governor of Nasarawa State, Tanko Al Makura has not forgiven Lalomg either, having frustrated his chances of emerging as the APC National Chairman, and he is playing a critical role in helping Tinubu to identify quality personnel in Plateau and Nasarawa States to recruit into the anticipated cabinet. Because politics is not really a game driven by morality, revenge could be sweeter than Sweet!
Yet, Pauline Tallen is not so much a cog in the wheel for Lalong as Chief Amos Gizo is the real obstacle and stumbling block. Lalong got obsessed with his position as Governor, and later DG, campaign, to despise, denigrate, and cast aspersions on Gizo in the build up to the APC presidential primaries. But Gizo was luckier as the tick of time soon came with vicissitudes for Lalong whose preferred Rotimi Amaechi did not only lose the presidential primary, as he himself would later fail in his senatorial ambition, and failed even more precipitately in getting the APC gubernatorial candidate to succeed him.
Gizo’s luck continues and includes the fact that he is the closest and most trusted and dependable political ally of Tinubu in Plateau State. Against all odds, he believes in Tinubu and political possibilities around and about him. While Lalong was making mounds for Rotimi Amaechi, Gizo was busy fetching from the valley to grow Tinubu’s political mountain – he worked and mobilized for Tinubu to win, from primaries up to the election proper when, against all odds, he emerged as the candidate. He ensured that he delivered his home local government area, Kanam, to Tinubu and the APC in the February 25 presidential election. Putting the contributions of Lalong side by side with that of Gizo’s, Tinubu is likely to find the latter more trustworthy, dependable, deserving, and more predictable given his pedigree of loyalty and faith in the Tinubu politics.
For Honourable Komsol, many do not consider him a strong contender for first line appointment by the president-elect when the new administration takes off.
Considered a recent and emergent phenomenon because of Lalong’s inability to effectively coordinate and harness the Plateau front for the APC, Hon. Komsol made paltry efforts when it was clear that the Lalong-led campaign council was not on ground to harness the grassroots votes during the presidential election.
The other 16 aggrieved aspirants who were cheated out of the APC governorship primary through a convoluted and manipulated process determined to produce Nentawe, who also worked very hard to ensure that the APC and Tinubu scored above 25 per cent in Plateau, are even more deserving of patronage than Lalong who lost in his polling unit and local government area in the presidential election. Before the aggrieved 16 aspirants, Lalong had mismanaged the party’s chassis, beginning with the neglect of the fulcrum of the merger – ACN, CPC, and the ANPP, and the sordid handling of delegates’ election which was largely bungled and miscarried.
The aggrieved aspirants however mobilised and neutralised the disharmony and secured at least 37 per cent for the APC in the presidential election.
For the defeated Plateau APC governorship candidate, his fate in the scheme of things lies more with the sympathy of the party organogram. He is not an ally of Tinubu, and his hyped and over-rated political Manfriday, Hon. Yusuf Gagdi, cannot help in this matter.
