In this interview series, ViewPointNigeria sat down with Comrade Samuel Emmanuel Nanle – the head of Media and Publicity for the Lalong/Tyoden campaign team.

Samuel Emmanuel Nanle is a prominent political and social affairs commentator whom in the past was involved in critical discussions/negotiations in respect of justice, religious harmony and social equity at various levels of Government for the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).

In this interview series, ViewPointNigeria sat down with Comrade Samuel Emmanuel Nanle – the head of Media and Publicity for the Lalong/Tyoden campaign team.

Samuel Emmanuel Nanle is a prominent political and social affairs commentator whom in the past was involved in critical discussions/negotiations in respect of justice, religious harmony and social equity at various levels of Government for the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).

In his previous capacity as Director of Youth and Women affairs for CAN, he oversaw the strategic planning and implementation of programmes and projects geared towards enchanting social harmony and religious tolerance within and outside Plateau.

He is a lecturer at the Plateau State Polytechnic and is currently the coordinator or the Southern and Central Unity Forum – a forum for People from the Southern and Central Senatorial zones who are based in the Northern Senatorial zone.

(1) For the benefit of those who may not be familiar with Simon Lalong – could you describe his person to our readers?

Firstly, it is a pleasure to be sat here with you to talk about my principal/boss.

For simplicity, I shall use a few phrases to describe the person of Barrister Simon Lalong – Simon Lalong is a person who represents the core of the word integrity – especially as it relates to the diversity on the Plateau.

He is a team player – one who understands the enormity of the public trust placed in his hands and what that means for cohesion, social justice and fairness. He is one of the few people whom I can genuinely say is pro-people (and that is not to say, he is anti-institution), but it means he truly cares about the plight of ordinary Plateau citizens.

Lalong believes in giving people the opportunity to contribute their natural God given talents for the general good of all. He believes that everyone has something to offer and that no talents are mundane, sub-standard, redundant or inadequate. He is committed to the Plateau spirit of togetherness and brotherhood and would never do anything to circumvent or thwart that.

Lalong believes in what we stand to get from a united and close knit Plateau. He believes we are better when we stand together on the common denominator of accommodation and sacrifice as opposed to autocracy and exclusion. One of his favourite mottos/mantra is “what is good for the goose is good for the gander”. And he lives by that principle!

(2) In your opinion, what distinguishes Simon Lalong from other candidates?

Two key traits set Barr. Simon Lalong apart from the other candidates.

(a) Courage – Simon Lalong has the audacity, intrepidity, boldness and bravery to change what needs to be changed and move what needs to be moved. In addition to this rare courage, Lalong has the will-power to drive the change to its committed end. To illustrate this point, I have several examples of how this fine gentleman has stood alone (against the odds) for what he believes in, even in the face of intimidation, threats and at the risk of political suicide. Such rare courage is not something you’d not see commonly in today’s politics – many politicians would rather be ‘Yes-man”, being completely agreeable to everything presented by their principals and staying in the shadows of their Godfathers instead of asserting their independence.

During the Dariye administration, Simon Lalong (the then speaker) stood resolutely against the bullying tactics of some high profile Abuja politicians, he refused to be intimidated by the Federal might of the Obasanjo administration and stood behind his principles of truth and fairness.

Now, I must quickly caveat that, by saying that, this sort of resolute stance can be conveniently misunderstood by people who choose to, because they tag it as blind loyalty. But i must point out that Lalong at that time recognised that there were several political, personal and religious issues at play with respect of the plans to declare a state of emergency. And he was confident that Plateau State could sort out its problems by itself without the need for any external influences -hence he took a stand. How many politicians can do such? Very few……

And do not forget that most of the issues were externally influenced by rogue politicians from Abuja, in order to paint a bad picture of Plateau in the committee of states. The issues were never about Dariye or his leadership style – but they were solely motivated by a deep quest for power and as such Simon Lalong saw that and stuck to his convictions of faith, rather than indulging in the N150 million monetary bribe which was offered to him to join the impeachment plot.

(b) Accountability – Lalong has a conscience for both spiritual and physical accountability. He believes that once ordinary citizens entrust their confidence/trust in your hands, you become accountable to them, but ultimately to God. Simon Lalong has been longing for an opportunity to prove himself in an executive leadership capacity, so being elected governor would be a chance to offer service to his people.

(3) The Simon Lalong campaign has maintained a low profile and has not been as vivid as that of PDP, why is this the case?

I wouldn’t agree with the assertion that the campaign has been on the low side. You can certainly see our posters in all strategic parts of the state, but it is no secret that since our campaign is funded by ordinary Plateau citizens, we do not have the luxury of having a blank cheque (or limitless resources) for campaign expenses like the PDP.

As we speak, civil servant salaries are not paid, but the campaign machinery/funds of the PDP has not dried up – it continues to flourish because the bulk of the monies have been diverted to such purses for the campaign. Also, the Simon Lalong campaign organisation does not have the luxury of using the state wide media for campaign, like the ruling party can – we have to contend with the private media houses which are very expensive and equally not as friendly to opposition parties.

(4). Several aspirants in the APC including Solomon Dalung alleged electoral fraud during the APC primaries, could you comment?

The APC primary elections were credible, to the extend that an election can be said to be credible in Nigeria. It was a fair process which had minor hiccups, but not necessarily ones that were major -i.e., in comparison to that of the other party. There were certainly a few challenges in the process, but it was generally credible, fair and acceptable.

Firstly, unlike the ruling party’s primaries, there were no fictitious delegates. All the delegates at the primaries were real people with verifiable personalities – they were not imaginary or fictitious people who were simply cooked up to serve a particular agenda.

Secondly, no delegates were threatened with retrenchment or some sort of retribution. Contrast this with the primaries of the ruling party and you’d see that during the process, a lot of delegates who were political appointees or government employees were threatened with retrenchment or retribution, should they not subscribe to the agenda on ground.

Thridly, no delegates were baited. And no bribes were issued out to any delegates.

Unlike the ruling party’s primaries, where delegates were warehoused at certain secret locations and coerced/manipulated, this was never a happening at the APC primaries -we completely submitted to democratic tenets and allowed the will of the people to rule.

And to show you how organised we in APC are, all dissenting aspirants who had concerns about certain aspects of the process, went through the appropriate channels, by lodging their complaints to the appeal panel. After a thorough review of the process, the appeal panel gave its verdict and now all these aspirants have become key lieutenants of Hon. Simon Lalong. They are all firmly behind his candidature and have promised to work side by side him. Even Solomon Dalung came out to say he is firm member of the APC and that he will abide by the ruling of the panel.

(5) Could you explain what informed the selection of Prof. Sunny Tyoden as running mate to Barr. Simon Lalong

For a long time (even before the PDP Primaries), the APC had zoned the post of running mate to Mangu LGA. This decision was informed on the principle of equity and fairness, because we assessed that since Bokkos LGA had already produced a Governor and serving Senator (in Joshua Dariye) and now that the PDP had zoned the office of Deputy Governor to Kangke (through Yilji Gowmwalk), it made sense that for fairness, our deputy Governor comes from Mangu LGA.

Wide consultations were undertaken with respective party stakeholders and we came to the conclusion, that since the Mwaghavul nation had already endorsed Prof. Sunny Tyoden as their sole Governorship candidate for 2015, he had the will of the people and therefore was best suited to run with Barr. Simon Lalong.

Prof. Tyoden on the other hand, in protest of the injustice meted out to him at the PDP Primaries agreed to collapse and subsume his gubernatorial campaign structures to become the running mate under the APC.

(6) Could you tell our readers about the key manifestos and plans of the Lalong/Tyoden ticket?

One of the biggest problems facing Plateau state is that of finance, and as such we shall explore ways of raising the revenue generation capacity of our state from the meagre 3 Billion/per month to higher single digits. We shall do this through internal revenue generation and reduction of administrative overheads. In respect of administrative overheads – we shall not look to retrench or sack people but shall look at ways in which we can streamline certain activities to make sure that they are more efficient. You would agree with me that in the past, this administration has said that it found ghost workers etc, but the elimination of these so called ghost workers has not translated to any savings for the state. This farcical exercise which was undertaken simply for selfish aggrandisement shall be reviewed and looked into critically.

A Lalong/Tyoden government would be cost-specific! That means we shall look at the multiplicity of Government (in line with what the Federal Government is doing). We know that many ministries are simply servicing the overheads of other ministries and as such we shall critically review our current ministries and boards to determine which functions can be eliminated.

This current administration claims that it has hiked the revenue generation base of the State to several hundred millions -well, we shall be looking to significantly escalate that to approx. 2 or 3 billion. This can certainly be achieved if we revamp our comatose sectors like tourism, mining etc. In respect of mining, there is a lot of illegal mining activity happening in Kanam and Wase areas, which this government has conveniently ignored. We shall look at how we shall channel those earnings into the pockets of our state.

In respect of tourism – this sector has been progressively ignored by past administrations. We shall look to rejuvenate this sector, by opening up new avenues for foreign direct investment to come in. This will bring a raft of new opportunities, ideas and capabilities to Plateau – thereby increasing our revenue generation base.

Now, there is no way you can boost tourism, if insecurity persists. If insecurity is rife, the primary instinct of everyone would be to survive and not to go on tour. So we shall look at new avenues for which we shall end the raging conflict in Plateau. We shall actively engage all stakeholders and attempt to bring genuine reconciliation to the state. We shall promote community participation in neighbourhood security, but utilising information Technology and management to quickly disseminate information to respective agencies and authorities. This administration has been touting half baked concepts like Operation Rainbow, but in reality -the entire organisation was compromised by its lopsided recruitment process. This is the reason why it has remained ineffective.

Urban governance – We shall look at the housing situation in Plateau and attempt to resettle most of the squalid settlements which are an eyesore for tourist coming into the state. We shall consult the relevant communities to understand how we can best relocate and resettle them to better environments.

Industrialisation – Plateau boasts several unique agricultural produce which are not found in any other parts of Nigeria, as such, it is a no brainer that such farm produce are monetised for the benefit of the state. For instance the buoyant tomato and Potato micro-industries in Plateau can be turned into grand and super performing industries which can significantly alleviate the fortunes of the state.

(7) Could you give our readers and idea of the type of Government we can expect to see should the Lalong/Tyoden ticket prevail on February 28th?

A Lalong/Tyoden government would be a complete turn-around from what you are seeing now. Firstly, we shall do away with the idea of turning government into a family business/enterprise. Where the statutory organs of government are compromised to accelerate the primitive desires of wealth amassment. All projects and contract executed during the 8 years of the administration shall be thoroughly reviewed and re-assessed with the view of involving the relevant government anti-corruption authorities. Projects which were simply executed to serve certain interests shall be done away with, but those which are still relevant and serve a common good shall be expanded further. For each project, we shall review line by line, each procurement, service and contract to understand whether some corrupt tendencies may have taken place -where such is the case, we shall escalate to the relevant anti-graft authorities.

The award of contracts and the execution of projects under a Lalong/Tyoden government shall be based on budget intelligence and contract pricing. We shall prioritise projects according to the needs of the people and not according to the interest of the facilitators or the few corrupt people it seeks to satisfy. And as I said, it would be based on an analysis of the benefits that it would being to the general population and the associated cost burden of undertaking the project.

In summary, a Lalong/Tyoden Government shall depart from the following ills which have affected this government

– Lack of proper prioritisation of projects and contract execution.
– Contracts being driven by interests and not the need of the people
– Lack of synergies – where the good of one project is not leveraged on another thereby saving money, time and effort.
– An administrative philosophy which hinges on inordinate ambitions and patronages against the general good of the people.

Above: Emmanuel Samuel Nanle

Samuel Emmanuel Nanle spoke to ViewPointNigeria’s correspondent in Jos, Plateau State

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INTERVIEW: A Lalong/Tyoden Government will be a complete turn-around from this current one