COMMUNIQUÉ ISSUED AT THE END OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL MEETING OF PLATEAU INITIATIVE FOR DEVELOPMENT AND ADVANCEMENT OF THE NATIVES (PIDAN) HELD ON JUNE 4, 2022 AT THE NUJ PRESS CENTRE, JOS.

1:00. The National Council of Plateau Initiative for Development and Advancement of the Natives, PIDAN, comprising of National Presidents and Secretary-Generals of National Development Associations of Ethnic nationalities on the Plateau met on June 4, 2022 at the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Jos. The Council discussed and arrived at the followings as its communiqué.

1:01 POLITICAL PARTIES PRIMARY ELECTIONS
The Council salutes the leadership of the parties in the State for the peaceful conduct of the primary elections. It is very pleased with the fact that the two major political parties in the State came up with candidates from the list of the 16 out of the 43 aspirants whom the PIDAN ranking exercise identified as the highly rated aspirants. It urged the parties to work towards ensuring harmony among the various intra-party interest groups so as to present formidable support for their candidates in the general elections. Council equally wished both the parties and the candidates’ success in the forthcoming general elections.
The Council also reiterated the reasons for which it approved the conduct of a ranking exercise. Council noted that given the background of massive killings in the State in which development associations bore the brunt of impact with respect to loss of lives and property coupled with Government inadequate handling of the crisis, it decided in 2021 that, measures should be taken to ensure that only aspirants with better understanding of the conflict situation and willingness to work with the communities, should emerge as candidates for the next governorship elections in the State. Council therefore reviewed the role its ranking exercise might have played in the primaries. It reviewed the design, analysis and dissemination of the results of the exercise. After noting a few inherent challenges with dissemination of results, the Council commended the Leadership for such a scientifically designed exercise which allowed the leaders of the autochthones development associations across the State comprising mainly senior civil servants, retired directors, permanent secretaries and Professors to rank aspirants using four-item questions targeting security, community participation, spirituality and disposition with respect to rule of law. Council was also very pleased with the use of norm-referenced test standard on the scores to identify the 16 highly rated aspirants from the pool of 43 aspirants.
Council also noted with delight the role played by the newly established Plateau Leadership Council comprising the PIDAN, the Plateau Youth Council, the Coalition of the Civil Society Organisations and the Interfaith Group which supervised the conduct of the ranking exercise and endorsed the final results. Council believes that its membership of the Plateau leadership Council is essential for supporting the advancement of Plateau towards the Plateau of our Dream. Council wishes to state its deep appreciation to the members of the Plateau Leadership Council.
Council, however, was not pleased with the behaviour of a few political stakeholders who attempted dragging the PIDAN Leadership into intra-party politics based on the ranking results. PIDAN maintained that its ranking exercise was meant to provide essential information to guide the development associations leaders on how to advise their subjects with respect to their involvement in the political process. It equally used the result to dialogue with Political Party leadership on the need to come up with highly rated aspirants as candidates for the general elections and the Council was happy that it achieved that dual objectives with the exercise.

1.02. SECURITY
Council notes the improved security level in the State capital and its environs and wish to thank the Governor Simon Lalong administration for such improvement.
Council, however, expressed utter disappointment over the unfortunate incident in Kanam where over 100 persons were massacre by suspected Fulani militia. Council wishes to commiserate with its people in Kanam LGA and pray to God to grant the souls of the departed eternal rest. It equally called on the government to provide support to the families of those who lost their loves one in the Kanam carnage and internally displaced persons from the incident. Government should also review the State Security architecture in the rural areas and further strengthen local community security structures so as to prevent the occurrence of such ugly incidents.

Council also condemned in strong terms the incessant harassment of Community leaders and traditional rulers in some communities by soldiers of Special Task Force, Operation Safe haven under the unsubstantiated claims of missing cows. A case in point is the arrest and unlawful detention of acting ward heads of Kuru Station Da Davou Ndoh and Village head of Sham Mr Sunday Stephen in Riyom LGA by soldiers from the Special Task Force, Operation Safe Haven on 14th May 2022 over alleged stealing and killing of unspecified number of cows by unknown persons on farmlands adjacent to such communities. We wondered why our traditional and community leaders are so treated when there is unsubstantiated claims of missing cows or stolen cows by unknown persons by the Fulani but similar treatment is not meted out to the Fulani Community leaders when there are killings of our people by suspected Fulani herdsmen. While we do not condone any acts of criminality, we urge the law enforcement agents to deploy thorough investigation strategies to fish out criminals in our communities irrespective of tribe and religious disposition. We equally, say no to the use of uncivil, bias and selective treatment of our traditional leaders especially in situations where they offer to assist with investigations of criminal incidences.
Council equally reiterated its support for the call by the different interest groups in the state for the resettlement of displaced persons with adequate security on over 102 villages under illegal occupation.
Council also appealed to each development association leadership to re-gig its local community security arrangement with emphasis on the vigilante and hunters’ groups to enable them improve on their security services to the community as a way of preventing future attacks. Council re-emphasis the need for government to assist community development associations to retrain and reposition community level security groups to enable them provide high quality security services as we move towards the general elections.

1:03. PIDAN CONSTITUTION AND ITS INTERNAL DEMOCRACY PRINCIPLES.
The Council received the report of PIDAN Constitution Review Committee. Council commended the great work done by the Committee and noted the recommended changes for implementation. Council however, directed that copies of the report be made available to all Council members and grant them time to thoroughly study it for discussion and adoption in the next Council meeting. Council also reviewed the overall performance of the National leadership and the subsisting ongoing review of the PIDAN Constitution and approved that the tenure of office of the current National Executive Committee should come to end on the 30th November 2023.

1:04 COLLABORATION WITH GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AND ORGANIZATIONS.
The Council noted with great delight the performance of the Plateau State Contributory Health Emergency Management Agency (PLASCHEMA) in reaching out to the grassroot with its programmes. Council was impressed with the decision of the Agency to reach out to development associations under PIDAN to identify highly indigent persons who will benefit from the highly subsidised health insurance schemes for at least 1000 such persons.
Council applauded both the Lalong administration for establishing such a laudable program and the Dr Fabong’s leadership for its exemplary implementation strategies of the exercise.

Council equally noted and appreciated the unquantifiable amount of support given to PIDAN by the Leadership of the Nigerian Union of Journalist (NUJ) Plateau State Chapter over the years. Council also singled out the tremendous support that the Mr Paul Jatau’ s leadership accorded PIDAN during the dissemination of the results of the ranking exercise of the political aspirants in the State, for creating the enabling environment, which allowed PIDAN to hold useful discussion with Journalists.

PIDAN Council observed that, that singular act had a great impact on education of the journalists and by the extension, members of the general public on the objectives of the exercise and equally addressed some misconception, misinterpretation and misuse of the result of the exercise.
Council also noted with great delight the decisions of Coalition of the Civil Society Organizations in the State, the Plateau Youth Council, the Forum of Ethnic Youth Nationalities, the Indigenous Ministers’ Forum and the Association for Propagation of Islam in Ethnic Languages in Plateau State to team up with PIDAN to put in place a Plateau Leadership Council with the main aim of leverage their strengths and resources to advance leadership and socio-economic development in Plateau State.

Prof Aboi JK Madaki
President, PIDAN.

Comrade Nanle Gujor
Secretary General, PIDAN.

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PIDAN Communique at the End of Its NEC Meeting