Jonah Jang

Governor Jonah Jang is serving his second and final term as governor of Plateau State on the platform of the PDP. It is clear that he is heading for the Senate in 2015.

By then, he will be over 71 years old. When Senator Gyang Dantong was killed in a stampede during a mass burial in 2012, Jang backed his erstwhile Chief of Staff, Gyang Pwajok, to replace the late senator. Political analysts believed that Jang supported his trusted lieutenant to secure the seat for himself.

Though he is likely to face stiff opposition from the non-Berom speaking communities who have cried marginalisation in his government, the governor is certain to scale through. Jang’s biggest challenge is choosing his successor. The topmost issue on the agenda is which of the three senatorial zones will produce the next governor.

Note the piece below has been culled from the newtelegraphonline!

Jonah Jang

Governor Jonah Jang is serving his second and final term as governor of Plateau State on the platform of the PDP. It is clear that he is heading for the Senate in 2015.

By then, he will be over 71 years old. When Senator Gyang Dantong was killed in a stampede during a mass burial in 2012, Jang backed his erstwhile Chief of Staff, Gyang Pwajok, to replace the late senator. Political analysts believed that Jang supported his trusted lieutenant to secure the seat for himself.

Though he is likely to face stiff opposition from the non-Berom speaking communities who have cried marginalisation in his government, the governor is certain to scale through. Jang’s biggest challenge is choosing his successor. The topmost issue on the agenda is which of the three senatorial zones will produce the next governor.

Jang himself is from Plateau North, which is the last of the three zones that produced an elected governor for the state.

Now politicians in Plateau Central and South are bracing up to take over. But feelers from Government House say Governor Jang and some of his close associates believe that since all three zones have taken their shot, it doesn’t matter where the circle begins again. This suggestion has fuelled speculations in many quarters that the governor is planning to support his tribesman.

The idea does not appear to go down well with the other zones because it will give Plateau North 16 straight years in the corridors of power. As the usual practice with state governors, by the time this matter is resolved, Jang will still have an upper hand in deciding who picks the PDP ticket, from whichever zone.

Apart from having control of the instrument of government, he has done his job half way by blocking the likes of his former deputy, Pauline Tallen, his predecessor, Senator Joshua Dariye and many political bigwigs who defected to the Labour Party (LP) in the run-off to the 2011 polls from returning to the PDP.

But there are two things that Governor Jang has mooted at different times in the public. In the early days of his second term, he said he would leave with his deputy. Then of recent, he spoke of handing over to the younger generation. Whether he is sticking to his guns is what observers are waiting to see. But he has said time and time again that it is God that will ultimately choose the right person for the people.

Ibrahim Mantu

Senator Mantu, former Deputy Senate President, is currently at the National Conference. A shrewd politician, Mantu has been out of limelight since he left the Senate in 2007 after losing election to a coordinated realm of political forces. Mantu said it was a gang-up. He badly needed the victory because he was a strong contender for the Senate presidency.

In his heydays in the Senate, Mantu wielded enormous powers. At a point, he was seen as a defacto Vice President when Vice President Atiku Abubakar was in long drawn fight with his boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo.

He became the ultimate political leader on the Plateau, carrying along Jang and many political bigwigs opposed to then governor, Joshua Dariye. He was largely instrumental to the declaration of state of emergency in the state.
He was also believed to be behind Dariye’s impeachment. Mantu led another group of PDP stalwarts to oppose Governor Jang in what came to be known as PDP 2 during Yar’Adua’s brief tenure. They lost out with the emergence of President Goodluck Jonathan, but Mantu failed to decamp to the Labour Party (LP) as his allies in the group did. Now feelers are that he is bracing up to return to the Senate in 2015.

The question for Mantu is whether the forces that uprooted him in 2007 have vanished. First, he remains the Muslim that he was, a factor that was used against him by the largely Christian voters in his constituency in 2011. Second, there is still no love lost between him and Governor Jang, and it is very unlikely that he will get the support of the governor to the Senate.

Third, he will be contesting against the incumbent, Senator Dariye, an equally strong politician who can match Mantu’s naira for naira. But one thing will count for the veteran politician; his constituents believe that none of the two politicians that succeeded him impacted on their lives the way he did.

During his time in the Senate, Plateau State politicians had representations on the boards of federal agencies like never before. His closeness to President Jonathan and connections at the national level of the PDP may also help his ambition.

Joshua Dariye

Senator Dariye is currently in the Senate representing Plateau Central on the platform of the Labour Party (LP). He presided over eight turbulent years on the Plateau as governor from 1999 to 2007 on PDP’s platform.

First, there was a low revenue profile that slowed the process of governance; then came a sustained ethno-religious crisis that saw erstwhile president, Olusegun Obasanjo suspending him from office after declaring a six month state of emergency in the state. No sooner had he returned from suspension than a six-man squad in the 24-members State Assembly impeached him, though he was returned by a court order which pronounced the impeachment as illegal.

Dariye’s move to return to PDP has been blocked by Governor Jang who publicly asked him and others to stay where they are, because they are not wanted in the party. Seeing the humiliation ahead, many of the former governor’s political associates in Plateau, those who make up his think tank and field commanders have joined the All Progressives Congress (APC).

They were said to have moved after a futile attempt to convince him against returning to the PDP where they believed Jang was waiting to take his pound of flesh. Now he wants to return to the Senate in 2015. Dariye had run a welfarist government, and that made him popular among the people. But his political structure may have weakened during his tenure in the Senate where he has maintained a low profile.

His seeming laxity to lead his lieutenants in the changing partisan game has compounded his challenges. In the recent local government elections in the state, the candidate he supported for councillorship in his ward was reportedly defeated. But the former governor is a no nonsense fighter on the political front; he does not spare any arrow in his quiver, so when the chips are down concerning his senatorial ambition, he may pull surprises.

Pauline Tallen

Mrs Tallen, Minister of Science and Technology in the Obasanjo government, was Governor Jang’s deputy between 2007 and 2011. But that obviously marked the lowest point of her political career. She was locked in an unproductive battle with her boss, until she quit the PDP and contested the governorship election against him on the platform of the LP, where she got a devastating defeat.

It is not clear what she wants in 2015. For now, Jang has blocked the way for her to be re-admitted into the PDP. But she is a woman of substance and a shrewd schemer when it comes to politics at the national level.

She was said to have played a key role in Jang’s emergence as candidate of the PDP in 2007 for a promised reward as his deputy. Those close to Jang say she was overambitious and at the national level of the PDP may also help his ambition. She hails from Plateau South, one of the two zones favoured to produce the governor, but her inability to return to the PDP may have substantially clipped her wings.
The rivalry between her and former Governor Fidelis Tapgun, former federal Permanent Secretary and governorship hopeful, John Alkali, in her immediate constituency is also a factor in her politics.

Ignatius Datong Longjan

Mr. Longjan has been Governor Jang’s deputy since the beginning of the governor’s second term. Longjan who hails from Plateau South was Chief of Staff to the governor during his first term. After his experience with Tallen, Jang needed a less controversial, less ambitious person, but someone he could trust so as to avoid the kind of stress he went through with Tallen – Longjan was handy.

During his electioneering in 2007, Longjan was the financial secretary of the PDP, and Jang was said to have been impressed with the way he managed funds, which is why he made him Chief of Staff.

For now, he has not declared if he wants to succeed his boss. Those who have worked with him closely say he is not the type that will do this because he is not ‘outwardly ambitious’. When politicians were scheming to succeed Tallen as deputy governor, Longjan emerged as the dark horse.

Quite unassuming, the deputy governor is said to possess a fatherly disposition and is generally liked by key stakeholders including those who earn the governor’s respect. The governor’s disposition for now does not suggest he is keen on handing over to his deputy who is slightly younger than him. Analysts, however, believe that if Jang will broaden his circle of confidence in the decision over his successor, opinion is likely to favour his deputy.

John Clark Dabwan

Dabwam is the immediate past Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly. He hails from Plateau Central senatorial zone. A grassroots man, Dabwan is said to be very close to Governor Jang. He also commands a wide political structure and is in firm control of his homefront. He comes from the Mangu Local Government just as the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Shedrack Best.

The two have been locked in a battle of political wits to control the structures of the PDP in the local government. In the last LG polls, Dabwan secured the upper hand when his candidate won the primaries and subsequently won the election. If Jang decides to finally throw his weight behind a candidate in the central zone, the former speaker may be a likely choice.

John Nanzip Shagaya

Shagaya, a very principled retired army General, has made inroads into the Nigerian political arena. He was senator representing Plateau South between 2007 and 2011. While he was in the Senate, he along with Pauline Tallen and many top politicians in Plateau State defected to the Labour Party (LP) after a sustained quarrel with Jang over the formation of party structure across the state.

He fell to Senator Victor Lar of the PDP in the 2011 polls. Shagaya is currently the interim state chairman of the APC and has an eye on the governorship seat. Age is not on his side but many analysts believe that Shagaya, a cosmopolitan person, may just be the kind of leader that this highly ethnically divided state needs.

But his APC needs to work extra hard because PDP is the dominant party in Plateau State. The APC may however benefit substantially if Jang mishandles his choice of the PDP candidate, especially if he insists on having his Berom kinsman succeed him.

Jeremiah Useni

Gen. Useni has been in the opposition since 1999 and even though he hasn’t delivered Plateau State, he held on strongly to the local politics in Langtang, his constituency in Plateau South.

Useni has been a prominent national player in the opposition. When the defunct All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) ran into trouble in the run off to the 2007 general elections, he and the former Sokoto State governor, Alhaji Attahiru Baffarawa, formed the Democratic People’s Party (DPP), a party he still leads. DPP was part of the merger talks that produced the APC but did not get a good deal from the outcome. Thus, rather than join the APC, Useni is said to be contemplating joining the PDP whose national chairman, Ahmed Mu’azu visited his Abuja residence recently.

But the retired General appears to be cautious because there is no love lost between him and Governor Jang, the leader of the PDP in the state. Useni lost the Plateau South Senatorial election to Senator Victor Lar, his long time political son, but remains in firm control of the Langtang axis. DPP is said to have won the last local government election in Lantang North, but the state electoral commission has held on to the result. Useni has not indicated that he is vying for any position in 2015, but he is known as a big spender on his political course.

Victor Lar

Senator Lar has been networking in the bid to achieve his long term ambition – to govern Plateau State. He is said to be laying foundation for the take-off of his campaign.

He is currently the senator representing Plateau South. He defeated his mentor and political godfather, Gen. Useni, to clinch the seat in 2011. Lar had represented Langtang North/Langtang South for two consecutive terms from 1999 to 2007. Before then he had been chairman of Langtang North Local Government.

A shrewd politician, Lar’s ambition to be governor dates back to 2007 when he contested but lost on ANPP’s platform. Noting the weakness of the opposition in the state, Lar defected to the PDP ahead of the 2011 elections where he first sought to be Jang’s running mate but ended up in the Senate. His zone, Plateau South, has produced two civilian governors for the state, late Solomon Lar and Fidelis Tapgun, but this does not lessen his chances because while Lar’s second tenure was cut short by a military coup, Tapgun barely spent half of his four years when the Babangida transition programme was aborted.

But feelers suggest that Jang is not comfortable with him. If the governor is shopping for a successor that will ‘listen’ to him after he hands over, the answer is not in Senator Lar who is seen as a political wizard that is capable of pulling surprises. But the question is; what would he do if Jang dumps him and settles for another person.

Longmas Sambo Wapmuk

Prof. Wapmuk is the incumbent Director General of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF). He hails from Qu’an Pan Local Government of Plateau South senatorial zone.
He worked and rose to the position of Permanent Secretary in the Plateau State Civil Service during the Second Republic before he went back to the University of Jos where he became a professor. His second tenure at the ITF ends in the coming weeks. Wapmuk is said to have started networking and creating structures to push his gubernatorial project.
Those who are close to Jang say they are in real good terms, but if the governor makes good his promise to support a younger person, the ITF DG may well be on his own. Some observers believe that Jang is pushing him to destabilise former governor Fidelis Tapgun who has shown interest in the job.
The professor is believed to have the money to prosecute his campaign but his name has not been heard much on the political arena. He therefore has the tough task of branding his project, or count on Governor Jang to anoint him.

Ahmed Idris

Idris represents Wase federal constituency in the House of Representatives. He won his election to the House twice on the platform of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Now he is with the APC after the merger of the opposition parties. Idris had belonged to the PDP during the Dariye administration when he served as Executive Secretary of the Plateau State Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board.

At that time, Wase was a PDP stronghold. But he moved over to the then Action Congress (AC) alongside Dariye and his many supporters who were in a battle of political survival against a PDP largely controlled by the former Deputy Senate President Ibrahim Mantu. Since he joined the opposition, the PDP has been unable to find its bearing in Wase.

Idris has demonstrated firm grip of the politics of the area to the extent of being a kingmaker. He may not be looking beyond the House of Representatives in the 2015 elections, and observers say it may just be a walk over for him.

Beni Lar

She is the daughter of the Second Republic governor of Plateau State and pioneer national chairman of the PDP, late Chief Solomon Lar. She is serving her second term as member representing Langtang North/Langtang South in the lower chamber of the National Assembly.

She was one-time special assistant to former President Obasanjo. Lar actually rode on her father’s name in the beginning, but she has come to understand the game that made her popular, and currently she is a grassroots mobiliser. Her father was a mentor to many politicians, from whom she got some support in her political career. But her home base–Langtang–is full of big time politicians; the refined and the rugged.

She has been challenged in the past by combined forces, but her father’s influence saw her through. The question is whether the goodwill she got in her father’s lifetime will still accompany her in his death. For now, she may not be looking beyond the House of Representatives in 2015.

Edward Pwajok

Barrister Pwajok is the incumbent Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of Plateau State. He hails from Jang’s Berom ethnic group and is a close confidant of the governor. A very resourceful young man, Pwajok is said to be a member of the governor’s think tank. He is said to have performed immensely to the governor’s admiration.

He could well fit into the class of young men that Governor Jang would wish to hand over to. However, his biggest hindrance is that he comes from the same Du district as Governor Jang. In the constitutional spirit of federal character therefore, the Attorney General may be disadvantaged, except the governor chooses to close his eyes and damn the consequences. His other constraint is his apparent limited political network outside Plateau North.

Gyang Pwajok

Senator Pwajok is currently the senator representing Plateau North. He was Governor Jang’s Chief of Staff at the time of the demise of Senator Gyang Dantong, and he was handy when the governor was shopping for a replacement. He gave him all the backing to defeat the likes of former military administrator of Delta State, Col. David Dungs (rtd). A former university don, Pwajok is said to have contributed immensely to the strategy and programmes of the Jang administration.

Before he became Chief of Staff, he was the Director General, Research and Documentation. As a youth, Pwajok falls into the category of those Jang has promised to hand over to. But he is also from Du, the home district of the governor.

Therefore, if federal character is anything to go by, he will be disadvantaged in the succession plan of the governor. Also to his disadvantage is the fact that he had his first exposure in partisan politics when he was invited by Jang into the government. On arrival therefore, he was more of a technocrat, suffice to say that his political exposure is limited. Pwajok is equally bidding farewell to the Senate in 2015 because Jang has indicated interest.

Jimmy Cheto

Retired director in the service of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, Engr. Jimmy Cheto is said to have indicated interest in the 2015 governorship and has started reactivating his political structure. The governorship contest is not new to Cheto who hails from Langtang in the Plateau South senatorial zone.

He first made an impressive outing in 2007 but lost the primaries to Governor Jang. He later decamped to the Labour Party ahead of the 2011 elections and took another shot, but was defeated by Pauline Tallen at the party’s primaries.

Unlike his compatriots in the LP however, Cheto is said to have been readmitted into PDP and is enjoying some good rapport with the governor and his associates. But unlike his 2007 outing, Cheto may not have the financial muscle to prosecute the governorship campaign. He may therefore be hoping to be Jang’s anointed candidate.

Simon Lalong

Barrister Lalong was speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly during Governor Dariye’s turbulent years.

He paid the prize of loyalty when he refused to lead Dariye’s impeachment as instructed from Abuja then, even when he had a chance to be governor. He and 15 other Dariye loyalists who decamped to the defunct Action Congress (AC) were sacked from the Assembly to pave the way for the six-man squad that sat in the dead of the night, to effect the impeachment that was later quashed by the court. But before it could be corrected, he had wasted six months of his legitimate time in the Assembly.

Lalong, who has kept a low profile since he left office in 2007, is back on the stage, vying for the governorship position on the platform of the opposition APC. He is expected to slug it out with Gen. Shagaya and a few others for the party’s ticket. Even those close to him say he hasn’t got the financial muscle to run a guber race.

His existing relationship with Senator Dariye is not clear, but the former governor appears to have enough battle to fight in 2015 against Governor Jang and Mantu, if the former Deputy Senate President really decides to enter the ring. However, Lalong may be counting on the support of friends including the governor of Rivers State Rotimi Amaechi, whom he met during their days in the Conference of Nigerian Speakers.

Shedrack Best

Best, a professor of political science, has been the Secretary to the Plateau State Government since the beginning of Jang’s second tenure. Emerging from the academia, Best did add to the crop of strategists that Governor Jang planned to assemble in the last lap of his government.

He hails from Mangu in Plateau Central, where he is locked in a political battle with the former Plateau Speaker John Clark Dabwan. He is among those being tipped to replace Jang even as he battles with his local front.

Political contest is not new to Prof. Best who has been in and out of the university contesting for the House of Representatives. He never made it. But observers believe that he has acquired sufficient field experience in political campaigning. He is hoping to be endorsed by his boss.

Fidelis Tapgun

Sir Tapgun was governor of Plateau State on the Platform of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Babangida’s brief transition programme. He has been very active at the national level in the politics of the PDP.

He was Director General in the Obasanjo/Atiku re-election campaign in 2003, and later Minister of Commerce. Now, he wants to return to the job he spent only two years under the SDP. Tapgun has been working underground for sometime, networking his contacts and seeking the support of those that matter. An ardent supporter of President Jonathan, Tapgun has tremendous goodwill in Abuja. But he is perhaps the last name that Governor Jang would like to hear.

During the last special convention of the PDP, the Jang-led state delegates of the PDP, attempted to humiliate him, saying he was not a member of the PDP. In the disagreement with Jang, Tapgun had defected to the Labour Party alongside Dariye and others.

The Plateau PDP therefore, insists based on Jang’s instruction that he is not a member of the party. But Tapgun’s supporters argue that Jang himself had abandoned the PDP and ran for governor on the platform of the defunct ANPP, before he returned unconditionally to the party. For now, Jang is using the ITF DG Wapmuk to try to destabilise Tapgun’s base in the Shendam axis.

The former governor also has Senator Victor Lar and others to contend with in the race for the PDP ticket. As it is, Tapgun who is strong on ground will be counting on any mistake that the governor will make in his bid to anoint a successor.

Sam Galadima

A trained architect, Sam Galadima had aspired for the governorship on the platform of the defunct AC. He later returned to the PDP where he had been at the inception of the present democratic dispensation. Galadima had been commissioner several times in successive military administrations in the state before 1999.

He comes from Plateau North, the same senatorial zone as Governor Jang. He will therefore be disadvantaged if the argument against Jang’s wish for the zone to retain the governorship slot fails. If the position scales though, his Jarawa tribe, arguably the second largest in the zone, will naturally make a case. In any case, will he get the support of Governor Jang?

Yahaya Kwande

Kwande was Nigeria’s Ambassador to Switzerland in the Second Republic. He has been a strong associate of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. He moved with him to the AC when Atiku contested the presidency after he left the PDP following a sustained fight with his boss, President Obasanjo. He hails from Quan-Pan in Plateau South, but he lives in the state capital, Jos, where his son, Suleiman Yahaya Kwande won election into the House of Representatives under the DPP.

Kwande joined the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) but expressed outrage when Atiku left PDP recently for APC and not the PDM which was linked to him. Kwande is not likely to put up for any elective post but he represents the elderly voice in any party he joins. His son has left DPP for APC.

Culled from newtelegraphonline.com

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2015 elections: Men and women to watch in Plateau state