X-Raying Gov Lalong’s Achievements Against The Backdrop of Buhari’s Visit

By Mark Longyen

In this piece, MARK LONGYEN, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, x-rays the Governor’s giant strides within his nearly three years in office against the backdrop of today’s working visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to the state to commission some of the multibillion naira landmark, turnkey projects that were initiated or inherited and completed by the Governor.

Muhammadu Buhari, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeira, will on Thursday, March 8, pay a one-day historic working visit to Plateau State, the “Home of Peace and Tourism”. The President’s visit provides, among others, the best opportunity to underscore Governor Simon Lalong’s scorecard, in view of the plethora of projects earmarked for commissioning by the President, since Lalong took over the mantle of leadership in the state nearly three years ago. 

Some of the road projects that the President is expected to inaugurate include the Mararaban Jema’a -British America Highway, the Low-Cost Road network, the Rantya-Rafiki Road network, the Rukuba Road network, the State Secretariat Flyover, the Angwan Rogo Road network, the Tudun Wada-Kabong Road network, among many others.

These include multibillion naira projects the Governor inherited from past administrations and completed  for the overall benefit of the entire people of the state, and similar multibillion naira projects he initiated and completed  in record time, thus ending the culture and impunity of abandoned projects in Plateau State.

Also included in Mr President’s itinerary is the inspection of some of the ongoing Rural Roads Infrastructure projects, which contracts were awarded at the cost of nearly forty billion naira (N40bn) and spread across the nooks and crannies of all the 17 local government areas of the state some of which are near completion. However, due to time constraint, the inspection may be restricted to those within the Jos-Bukuru Metropolis.

Furthermore, Mr President will inaugurate the Tractor Hiring Scheme, a mechanized farming scheme for massive food production across the state, another pacesetter of the Lalong Administration in which about 400 brand new tractors were acquired for hiring to interested farmers and farmers cooperative societies. The Tractorization Scheme which is to take off fully this farming season is in line with the Governor’s wise decision to diversify the state’s economy to Agriculture as the driver and mainstay of the state’s economy following the fall in oil revenues.

President Buhari is also scheduled to hold a historic Town Hall meeting with the people of the state where a plethora of issues that have been agitating the minds of the people will be poured out for the President to respond to them directly without let or hindrance.

The President is also slated to unveil the Plateau Roadmap To Peace, a model 5-year peace action plan for the state, which is the brainchild of the Plateau Peace Building Agency, PPBA, created by Governor Lalong on assumption of office to ensure that the state’s hitherto legion of crises are proactively arrested and nipped in the bud and Peace is perpetually engendered, maintained and sustained in the state.

The Plateau Roadmap To Peace is a Model Peace Masterplan or strategic plan of action for ensuring peace and security over the next five years and was developed through a benchmarking exercise that brought together a wide-range of stakeholders, civil society organizations, security agencies and experts, Non-Governmental Organizations,NGOs, international donor agencies, international nongovernmental organizations, INGOs, the academia and the Media, who all adopted  it, going forward.

This aspect of the President’s visit is particularly significant, especially considering the avalanche of security challenges currently dangling on the nation’s and citizens’ jugular like the Sword of Damocles. This unfortunate scenario accounts for the drafting of the armed forces to no fewer than 32 states of the federation to maintain or restore a seemingly elusive peace that has been disrupted by insurgency, farmers-herders clashes, kidnappings, militancy, self-determination agitations, occult killings and other forms of violent crimes against the nation’s citizens. Relatively speaking, right now, Plateau is like an island surrounded by insecurity, especially considering the level of crises in its surrounding states due to the measures so far put in place by government to stem crises. 

Joseph Lengmang, Director-General of the PPBA, while recently giving a synopsis of the agency’s Peace Roadmap, which many have called on the Federal Government to borrow a leaf from, said the Federal Government stands to benefit a lot from the Plateau Peace model if it replicates same at the national level. 

He said, “what we did through all this process was to identify the gaps in the post-conflict peace building process on the Plateau and the idea was to see how to develop and design a framework for engaging issues of conflict and ways of resolving them toward promoting a peaceful society in Plateau State”.

He continued, “the creation of the Plateau Peace Building Agency, which is the first of it kind in the country, has also set the pace for states such as Kaduna state to  recently establish an agency called the Kaduna State Peace Commission”

“The Plateau State Peace Building Agency has, by way of the Plateau Roadmap To Peace, gone ahead now to develop a 5-year Plan of Action on how to proactively engage issues of conflict and to innovatively transform them as the demonstration of its commitment to delivering the promise of Peace and Security  to the vast majority of its citizens,” he added.

The establishment of the PPBA has, no doubt, underscored the seriousness and sheer determination with which Lalong’s administration has taken the issue of peace aimed at building confidence among the ethnic nationalities living in the state, as this has also culminated in  the multiplier effect of rekindling hope and the possibility of having a peaceful state built on the foundation of equity and social justice through his deliberate policy of inclusive governance.

Governor Lalong’s giant strides in governance have not gone unnoticed by critical stakeholders in the state. For instance, while commenting on the Governor’s great achievements within the last three years, a group under the aegis of Plateau Youths for Change, stressed that the Governor’s scorecard is second to none in the area of inclusive governance  by his ability to carry along all of Plateau State’s 53 ethnic nationalities in the governance of the state. 

The group,  in a press statement signed by its President, Malunga Alex, and made available to newsmen in Jos, said, “Lalong has shown that he is a proactive and exemplary leader, for in less than one year into office, he had reunited the people of the state who were hitherto divided by the past leadership in the state on the basis of religious, ethnic and party affiliations.”

Speaking further, they wrote, “We must also commend our governor for his efforts at entrenching lasting peace in the state and for clearing the backlog of salaries of civil servants, despite the huge arrears of workers’ salaries and humongous debt burden that he inherited from the immediate past administration.”

Continuing, the group wrote, “We indeed commend him for taking headlong the uncompleted projects inherited from the immediate past administration, most of which are key to the growth and development of the state.”

Patrick Dariem, Special Adviser to the Governor on Finance and Investment, while speaking on Lalong’s efforts aimed at diversifying the state’s economy through agriculture, the reviving of hitherto moribund state-owned Industries, foreign direct investment, tourism, among others, told newsmen recently in Jos that investments in the state have tremendously increased and raised the people’s hope of an unprecedented socio-economic growth under Lalong.

 Dariem said: “The importance of the prevailing relative peace in the state since this government came on board cannot be over-emphasized. As you can see, we have become the preferred destination for investors.

We have been able to get investors for the hitherto abandoned Panyam Fish Farm and buying back our BARC-Farms sold out about 30 years ago. So with these two large scale farms now being revived, you can only imagine the economic gains the government and the people will benefit in both the short and long run.

“Our attention to agriculture is not unconnected with where we feel we have comparative advantage. You know I am an accountant, so we have to bring investments that would benefit us more. The state has purchased tractors and fertilizers for farmers. But most importantly, the administration has showcased willingness by reviving our own Bokkos Fertilizer Blending Plant, which will go a long way in helping the farmers get fertilizer when needed and at affordable rates.”

He continued: “Just like most states in the country are now producing rice, we have also started our own dry season rice farming in Kalong, Shendam LGA. So as you can see, the government has already set the machinery in motion and with more investors coming in, Plateau state would experience economic boom like never seen before.”

Another critical area of developmental stride that Governor Lalong has handled with uncommon zeal is Women and Youth Empowerment. Prior to his assumption of office, for instance, the youths were  in a chronic state of despair, disenchantment and disillusionment due to wanton neglect by the immediate past government. Their parents were not paid either their salaries or pensions and, as a result, many of the youths were not going to school. For some, their schools were permanently shut and there were no jobs for them, especially the graduates among them.

However, Governor Lalong, never one to be intimidated by seemingly intractable challenges, took the bull by the horns in this direction by keying into the Federal Government’s Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency, SMEDAN.

To this end, he immediately sent an Executive Bill to the State House of Assembly to establish the Plateau State Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (PLASMEDA). The agency has employed and empowered thousands of women and youths since its establishment.


Governor Lalong’s support for the youths also saw to his total commitment and support for the state-owned Football Club, Plateau United, leading to their exploits in the 2016/2017 Nigerian Professional Football League, culminating in their lifting  for the first time the highest and most prestigious club Medal in Nigeria when they were crowned the winners of the 2016/2017 NPFL trophy.

Even the most ardent members of the opposition in the state are no less bewildered by Governor Lalong’s uncanny courage and ability to run the affairs of the state like a colossus and getting positive results in the process. Corroborating this school of thought,  Distinguished Senator Ibrahim Mantu, a former Deputy Senate President and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, while speaking during a recent consultative stakeholders meeting organized by the Governor, said that he initially pitied Governor Lalong, and did not give him a chance to succeed looking at the financial quagmire and other challenges that were staring him (Lalong) in the face ab initio.

Mantu told the large gathering of Plateau State stakeholders cutting across party, ethnic and religious divides that he was very sure that the governor would not have an opponent to challenge him for the seat in 2019, should he contest for a second term in office, because he thought the office would become unattractive.  He however said he was marveled by Lalong’s magic wand which drastically solved the innumerable problems, stressing that the Governor’s ability to tame the security challenges of the state alone had earned for him a pass mark. 

Like Senator Mantu, many of Governor Lalong’s critics and opponents have been compelled to bury their initial schepticisms  due to the Governor’s tremendous achievements despite the plethora of daunting initial challenges that he faced. As seeing, they say, is believing, therefore, President Buhari’s visit provides the golden opportunity for the whole world to catch a glimpse of Governor Lalong’s footprints on the hills of plateau as the president inaugurates some of his landmark projects.

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X-Raying Gov Lalong’s Achievements Against The Backdrop of Buhari’s Visit