Senator Jang has responded to Governor Simon Lalong’s press release of 12th June 2016, in which Governor Lalong referred to him as “a man of troubled conscience”. It would be recalled that in Lalong’s press release, he chastised and lambasted Jang for commenting on the grazing issue, calling his comments callous, reckless and mischievous.

Gov. Lalong’s response was predicated on a prior press release by Mr. Clinton Garuba – media aide to Governor Jang on 11th June 2016, where Jang rejected the concept of grazing reserve on the Plateau – saying that the idea was “anti-people, dangerous and self serving”.

In a 512 worded reply yesterday, Senator Jang responded to Lalong’s vitriol with strong words. In his reply, Jang pointed out that Lalong has conveniently avoided giving Plateau people straight answers with regards where he stands on the grazing policy and further queried why he sneakily roped Plateau into the grazing agenda without due consultation. He expressed disappointment, that rather than engaging Plateau people and giving them straight answers, the governor has adopted an “escapist” approach by turning the matter into personal vendetta, by attacking his (Jang’s) person.

He advised Lalong to focus on governance and delivering dividends of democracy to the people instead of challenging his records. He said “In a bid to hurriedly score some cheap political points, the plateau state governor who lacked the voice to speak, to his people on his endorsement of the grazing reserve policy has suddenly found it convenient to attack the person of Senator Jonah Jang who only came out to clearly state his position on the matter.

Rather than tell Plateau people why the government has so much disdain for them on issues that affect their very existence, the Director of Press and Public Affairs, sought the usual convenient, escapist route of blaming its failure on the immediate past government, a practice which has become useful in the hands of the government of the day. Except for the fact that the governor and his government are bereft of ideas, he should have stuck, to the issues raised by Sen. Jang on the grazing resereve“.

Full text of the press release as signed and circulated by Senator Jangs’ media aide – Mr. Clinton Garuba is below:

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RE: JANG A MAN OF TROUBLED CONSCIENCE

In a bid to hurriedly score some cheap political points, the plateau state governor who lacked the voice to speak, to his people on his endorsement of the grazing reserve policy has suddenly found it convenient to attack the person of Senator Jonah Jang who only came out to clearly state his position on the matter.

Rather than tell Plateau people why the government has so much disdain for them on issues that affect their very existence, the Director of Press and Public Affairs, sought the usual convenient, escapist route of blaming its failure on the immediate past government, a practice which has become useful in the hands of the government of the day. Except for the fact that the governor and his government are bereft of ideas, he should have stuck, to the issues raised by Sen. Jang on the grazing resereve.

The question one is to ask is: was it Sen. Jang who advised the Government to take a position of such a weighty issue without first consulting the people for whom the decision was made? Or was it Senator Jang who sent the current Commissioner of Information to tell Plateau people what the government of the day had decided to do?

To say that the government sees “the people of plateau as it’s priceless assets” and will stop at nothing to ensure that they stay united and in peace, claiming a consultative style of leadership” is a clear indication that the present government is not only bereft of ideas but will go to any length to fabricate falsehood just to look puritanistic in the face of those who allow themselves to be deceived.

How consultative is the government that it will key into a policy that has the tendency to throw generations into perpetual hardship without first seeking the opinion of the people you claim are your assets? The most laughable part of that release is the claim that “Lalong’s success alone is sending shivers down the spine of Senator Jonah Jang”.

One wonders what success is being referred to here that is good enough to make a man who has served as military governor of the old Benue and Gongola States respectively, not to talk of his towering achievements as civilian governor of plateau state shiver.

The achievements which the Lalongs and the Nanles of this world claim they have is one year is all tied to the projects Sen. Jang had started and expected his successor to complete. At a time when the government is suffering a huge relationship deficit with plateau people, it is only in its interest to stay silent and make up the incomprehensible blunders it is committing than to ride on the back of Jang to redeem it’s already battered image. If there was anyone who is under a burden of conscience, it should the Lalong who has taken Plateau people for granted and gone ahead to decide on their behalf without asking what their opinion is on the matter – a hallmark of irresponsible governance.

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Jang replies Simon Lalong, challenges him to clarify his position on grazing policy