AN OPEN LETTER TO GOVERNOR SB LALONG OF PLATEAU STATE.

Your Excellency Sir,

It is with utmost sense of patriotism and total commitment to the growth and development of Plateau state that I write you this letter.

Before I delve into the crux of this missive, it is imperative that I introduce myself.
My name is Denis Danladi Yillah. I am Ngas by tribe, from Kanke Local Government Area of Plateau state.

I am an international business man based in Germany, but always keeping in touch with my roots, either physically or through other means.

I felt particularly obliged to write you this letter because of my love for my state, particularly, and Nigeria as a whole, and the unquenchable desire to see my people prosper in all facets of their endeavours.

Let me make it abundantly clear that I am not a card carrying member of any political party, and I do not nurture any political ambition in the near future.

In the light of the foregoing, I urge you to construe my letter as the genuine voice of a concerned Plateau citizen, rather than the ranting of a ‘wailer’, as your proteges would want to interpret any dissenting view to your style of leadership.

I am a successful businessman of international repute, blessed with a loving and caring family, hence I am contented where God has placed me so far, and do not desire any patronage from your government whatsoever.

When Plateau people thronged their polling units in March, 2015 to vote you as their governor on a change mantra, they had in mind your promise to provide a people-centred leadership that would be a clear departure from the wrongs of the past PDP administration in the state.

Alas! Almost three years down the line, you have rather departed from all the good aspects of the past administration, to prioritize frivolities over pressing state needs.

At the inception of your administration, you doled out contract for the purchase of official vehicles for your appointees at the cost of over #5billion, even when you had not executed a single project worth #5million to benefit your teeming electorate.

Careful observers of unfolding events in Plateau state, like my humble self, shoved that monumental error as a teething mistake associated with a baby administration.

But as years roll by, your attitude towards governance portrays an accidental governor and a mere beneficiary of protest votes who was never prepared for leadership before throwing your hat into the ring to vie for the governorship of our dear state.

The decaying state of our tourism sector, which had been the hallmark of our state in the past decades, was further buried with the advent of your administration.

First, it was the felling down of trees at the Pandam Game Reserve in Quan-Pan LGA, then the systematic killing of the tourism potentials of the state, like the Wild Life Park and the famous Plateau Hotel, which were sources of huge revenue to the state.

Rather than prioritize such ventures, you elected to embark on spending spree of state resources by organizing carnivals and musical concerts, as a way of proving to the world that peace has returned to Plateau state.

While that was a total WASTE of resources, and ungodly way of celebrating peace, your attitude is in clear contrast with the Biblical injunction in 2nd Chronicles 7:14, where God promised that if His people that are called by His name will turn away from their evil deeds and seek His face, He will hearken to their cries and heal their land. What Plateau needs at this point in our pathetic history is the face of God, not the faces of some celebrities.

Little wonder, despite the political celebration of peace by your administration, our people are still killed in their numbers by our adversaries.

If the resources expended in staging those shows were channeled to upgrade our dilapidated tourism facilities, it would gone a long way in securing the place of Plateau as the home of tourism.

Or in the alternative, the state would have used part of the monies to organise crusades and prayers in our churches and mosques for the sustenance of peace in our state.
With the pace of development under your administration, Plateau had returned to its previous state between 1999-2007, which was already forgotten with the advent of the Jang administration, who set a bar of development that your administration might not outshine.

With almost a year left before the electorate will return to the polls to exercise their franchise, you still have some iota of goodwill that preceded your emergence in 2015; hence the need to act fast before it is too late.

You have done well by reviving the Plateau Youth Council, but you are doing next to nothing to uplift the Plateau youths to achieve their set goals. Government cannot provide all their needs, but they need the enabling environment to prosper, which government owes them the responsibility to provide.

You may find the parity in the revenues that accrued to you, and those that accrued to your predecessor plausible enough to justify your abysmal performance (even though I have huge reservations to such assertion) but haven failed to put the ‘little’ you have earned into judicious use, it is apparent that more resources would have intoxicated you and turned you into carefree spender.

Our holy books remind us that only those who are faithful in little, that would be faithful in much.

While I await a change of attitude towards governance from you, I need not remind you that the sentiments that worked in your favour in 2015 might not avail you in 2019, as you seek re-election.

Thank you and remain blessed.
Denis Danladi Yillah,
Writes from 5429, Strabe 107, Cologne, Germany

count | 156

Gov. Lalong’s attitude towards Governance portrays an accidental governor and a mere beneficiary of protest votes – Denis Danladi Yillah