ViewPointNigeria is conducting a series of interviews with the respective party flag bearers of PDP (Sen. GNS Pwajok), APC (Rt. Hon. Simon Lalong) and LP (Amb. Bagudu Hirse) -in order to ask pertinent question regarding their manifestos, plans and programmes for Plateau.

In this first series – we sat down with Senator GNS Pwajok to discuss several sundry issues including – the fallout/disagreements from the PDP Gubernatorial primaries, his selection of Yilji Gomwalk as running mate, his plans for Plateau state if elected, the allegations of a secret covenant document involving politicians from the government and the forth coming televised Governorship debate being organised by ViewPointNigeria, Plateau Intelligentsia and MOPPLAH. Below are the excerpts:

Note: Interviews with Simon Lalong of APC and Amb. Bagudu Hirse of LP party are currently being organised and shall follow shortly.

ViewPointNigeria is conducting a series of interviews with the respective party flag bearers of PDP (Sen. GNS Pwajok), APC (Rt. Hon. Simon Lalong) and LP (Amb. Bagudu Hirse) -in order to ask pertinent question regarding their manifestos, plans and programmes for Plateau.

In this first series – we sat down with Senator GNS Pwajok to discuss several sundry issues including – the fallout/disagreements from the PDP Gubernatorial primaries, his selection of Yilji Gomwalk as running mate, his plans for Plateau state if elected, the allegations of a secret covenant document involving politicians from the government and the forth coming televised Governorship debate being organised by ViewPointNigeria in conjunction with Plateau Intelligentsia and MOPPLAH. Below are the excerpts:

Note: Interviews with Simon Lalong of APC and Amb. Bagudu Hirse of LP party are currently being organised and shall follow shortly.

Q1. With the massive fall-out from the December 8th 2014 PDP Gubernatorial primaries – if you had one message for the disagreeing aspirants, what would this be?

My message to them would be that – since the common denominator in our individual aspirations, is that we uplight our state to higher heights, we should sheath our swords and drop the mudslinging and negative tactics for the interest of Plateau.

Being respectable leaders of thought, who have each held positions of authority, they should think carefully about the interest of our people and how this raging battle is affecting the unity, oneness and collective destiny of Plateau state. I would request that we all surrender our individual interests and aspirations for the collective good of our people, and do away with the dissent and the individuality that has characterised our politics lately.

From the very first time that I aspired to run for political office, I was privy of the fact that power only comes from God -and that no one can thrust or thwart power from whom God seeks to give it to and as such, even if the outcome had not gone my way, I would still be grateful to God for the opportunity to run, whilst seeking ways of how we can work with whoever God has chosen so that we collectively advance the state forward.

I don’t say this lightly, I really do mean what I have said, because I know what it means to aspire for political office and I know the pressures that come with it, especially from our associates and supporters -but I still think we must continue to put our citizens/people into perspective, because the interest of our citizens/people should be paramount over any individual interests that we hold.

Q2. Have you been reaching out to these aggrieved aspirants? Any successes so far?

Absolutely, my team and I have been doing all that we can to squash the negativity by reaching out to all of them. We extended an olive branch to everyone who ran, telling them that our doors will always be open – some of them accepted our invitation and have indicated their interest to work with us, which is great. For others, we are still waiting.

And we shall continue to reach out to the remainder of them, because as I said, we believe that governance is an opportunity to serve and not a right to rule over people. And since the common denominator in our aspirations is Plateau people, we believe our self interest should not overrule the trust and mandate given to us by ordinary Plateau citizens. So we must surrender our self interest for the common good – this is the philosophy behind our campaign mantra “Greater Together”. We truly believe that together, we can achieve a lot more.

Already, I have been holding meetings with not only aspirants who ran for elective office at the Senate and House of Reps level -but have also been meeting with people who ran at the House of Assembly Level and below (both winners and those that didn’t win) and have been challenging them to view their mandate as the electorate bestowing their confidence and trust on them -and therefore to receive the gift of such trust/confidence with humility and determination to deliver.

We are assured that with God on our side, and with the support of Plateau electorate -especially the youth, we can win the forth coming elections and the lost glory and grand standing of Plateau state in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, shall be restored.

Q3. What sort of Government would you run if elected in 2015?

Well, every government comes with its programmes and manifestos -but ours would be a continuity of this present one. It would be the consolidation of the gains scored by this present administration and the continuation of the programmes and blueprints set down by the “Redemption Team”. These programmes include the lifting-up of the state from an ordinary “civil servant state” to an entirely sustainable state which can function like a self sustaining entity which is capable of generating internal revenue to take care of its expenditures and overheads with little help from the centre.

We’d be looking to further exploit our agricultural capability, given that 70% of the population of our state are agragrain. So in that regard, the ASTC which the present administration has done a phenomenal job of constituting would be further expanded, redeveloped and rejuvenated so that its offering and benefits become more far reaching and widened for the entire state. We shall look at ready markets for key agricultural products and work out ways that we can cultivate, process and monetise agricultural products more readily for the state.

In terms of internal revenue generation, we shall consolidate on the work already done by this administration, where they implemented new systems, safeguards and processes that enabled the state revenue generation capacity to rise to approximately N8 Billion per year (where hitherto it was less than N1 billion during previous administrations). So essentially, the work already done to computerise and automate tax collection systems and protocols would be further expanded to other sectors, in order to bring these sectors within the remit of Government fiscal accounting.

We shall look at human capital development -knowing fully well that for a state to thrive, its human capital has to be significantly improved. So for instance, the development of our people in terms of skills and aptitudes shall be given absolute priority. Education of our children and wards will be given its requisite attention -we shall look for ways to accelerate the learning and development of our citizens.

To summarise, our government would be an all inclusive government which shall look to tap on the capacities and capabilities of our citizens whilst seeking out new ways to deliver value to them.

Q4. What informed the choice of Yilji Gomwalk as your running mate?

As you can imagine – one of the cardinal things to consider when you choose someone who will work closely with you, is that it has to be someone whom you share a lot in common with, someone whom you can work with, someone who is able to understand the overall vision of the team, buy into it and selflessly give himself to such service. We have seen such qualities in Yilji Gomwalk and that as well as many other reasons have informed our choice.

Plateau is a state with numerous challenges, ranging from security, to social and economic challenges and as such, it needs a strong leadership team – who fully understand the challenges of governance and how to turn those challenges into opportunities for its citizens. The Redemption team (which both Yilji and I have been a part of) are continually striving and looking for ways in which we can turn the difficulties that our state is experiencing into spring boards for success.

In more ways that one, the choice of Yilji to partner me is like a marriage between the past and present -and I’d explain – through the stellar work of Governor Jang’s redemption team (for which I have been a part of) and the visionary work that the late J D Gomwalk (who is Yilji’s father and mentor). I firmly believe that such a marriage is something that all Plateau people should embrace because it brings with it the opportunity to secure the achievements of the present administration, whilst consolidating on the gains of the past era.

Q5. ViewPointNigeria in conjunction with Plateau Intelligentsia and MOPPLAH are organising televised debates for the governorship race, are you willing to participate in such a debate?

Absolutely – firstly, let me commend the organisers of this laudable initiative – whom I hear are mostly the youth. It is laudable that different groups are coming together to aggregate themselves under one umbrella to participate in the process of governance by organising such debate. This is quite an impressive feat and I’d encourage that we sustain this collaborative spirit and not allow the divisive tendencies in our politics -whether ethnic, religious or otherwise to hamper on such a good model of cooperation/togetherness.

About my participation -I would be very pleased to present myself for this televised debate. I think all of us aspirants owe Plateau citizens the right to hear what we have in stock for them. I think it is important that people listen to what programmes we have got planned, so that they can make up their minds on how to cast their votes. If would help so that the arguments are focussed on the core issues which affect people lives day to day as opposed to the usual sentimental arguments of ethnicity, religion and geography.

I look forward to being notified.

Q6. Lately several incriminating documents, video and dossiers have been circulated about Jonah Jang about an alleged plan to perpetuate his locality in power – could you respond to this?

Laughs – All people of discerning minds know that at political times such as these, desperate politicians escalate their tactics by trying to taint and paint their opponents in a bad light. They circulate false stories, peddle lies and even go as far as fabricating fake documents just to circulate certain propaganda to discredit government.

We are aware of their dirty tactics and we know that their desperation for power knows no bounds – they will go to any extent to fabricate mischief and falsehood just to score political points. We don’t think the documents/videos released warrant any response and so we shall not be responding to them.

Frankly, I’d normally ignore these sorts of baseless allegations, but since you asked, I can tell you that all the documents are spurious, lacking any iota of truth and credibility. One thing I know is that Plateau people very intelligent and they can see through the lies being peddled. We shall not waste our time crafting a response to such baseless things, but shall focus our energy in delivering value to our people.

The Governor is a man of faith who believes that every one deserves a fair chance – so for people for cook up stories about a said convention etc is quite laughable. But again like I said earlier, we in the Redemption Team are also in politics but we shall not descend low to their level of dirty politics. We choose to take the high road and shall play fair and square with them and we’d allow them carry on with the mudslinging and lies. We shall not begin to craft up stories or start making videos to discredit anyone because we are confident, that Plateau people will not allow their intelligence to continue to be toyed around with by these desperate politicians who think they can use propaganda to deceive the electorate.

As usual, their tactics is to try to distract attention of the electorate from the key issues that affect our state -such as the economy, agriculture, infrastructure etc and focus it on ethnicity, creed and geography which divide us -we must ignore these distractions and keep asking them questions on how they intend to govern -that is how we can have a meaningful discussion.

Interviews with Simon Lalong and Bagudu Hirse are being organised and shall be published soon.

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GNS Pwajok Exclusive Interview: Allegations of a Secret Covenant in Plateau is Laughable