AN OPEN LETTER TO GOVERNOR SB LALONG OF PLATEAU STATE

This is the second time within the span of 1year that I am writing an open letter to Your Excellency, to articulate my misgivings regarding happenings in my dear state, which the Almighty God in His infinite mercy has bestowed in your care at this point in history.

While I previously wrote as a concerned citizen of Plateau state in diaspora, who is genuinely committed to seeing my mother land prosper in all ramifications regardless of who steers the mantle of her leadership at the material time; this moment I am writing with heavy heart and tears in my eyes, bemoaning the pogrom and systematic genocide being perpetuated against my brothers and sisters down home in the Northcentral state of Plateau in the subsaharan African country called Nigeria, by agents of doom who glaringly enjoy the full backing of federal authorities.

Your Excellency sir, I believe in my innermost heart that you are equally pained by the gruesome murder of your citizens in cold blood by these marauders, and you would have done anything within your powers to forestall its occurrence had you the foreknowledge of that dastardly act perpetrated against your people and humanity in general.

Even though the deed has already been done, you would have spread your security tentacles to fish out the murderers of your subjects had you the security apparatus under your direct control to so order. Alas, you are constitutionally handicapped to dish out such orders, evenas evidence abound in your fingertips as to who the killers of your people actually are.

On this premise, I sympathize with you, as much as I commiserate with those who lost their loved ones to the deadly barrels of those ravaging marauders and their conspirators.

It is against the backdrop of this unfortunate reality that I condemned in the strongest of terms, the attitude of some of our politicians who are banking on our collective misfortune to reap political gains. This is most barbaric and uncalled for in this 21st century where the sanctity of human life is upheld above anything else.

In trying to empathize with your dilemma in this quagmire, one cannot but come to terms with the tragic reality that our traducers are capitalizing on your naivety to perpetuate their nefarious activities unchallenged.

In as much as you are merely the chief executive officer of Plateau state, not the chief security officer by our constitutional provisions, you are not totally helpless in the unfolding circumstances, hence you can get the attention of the international community to put pressure on the unwilling federal government to do the needful.

Whether rightly or wrongly, the popular opinion among your subjects is that the Buhari led federal government is either actively or passively aiding the annihilation of the northcentral, nay Plateau minority tribes in continuation of the failed jihad of their ancestor, Othman Danfodio, to annex the minority confines into the caliphate.

Your Excellency sir, in as much as we appreciate your incapacity to contend with the crisis in your hands, your people had hoped that they would find a leader in you who would stand by them and tell their plights to the world without fear or favour.

It was Frantz Fanon, the great Algerian revolutionary, who enunciated that in times of great national debate, the man who seats on the fence is either a traitor or a coward. In the present circumstance, your Excellency is not just any other man, but the leader of a deprived people who must be seen and heard voraciously championing the course of his people. It is on this note that I want to situate your lukewarm attitude in confronting the unwilling federal authorities to put an end to this madness as either an act of cowardice or treachery.

Earlier this year, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state, a fellow APC governor had come out hard to indict the federal government on the killing spree in his state. The number of people killed in Benue at that time that brought to fore, the patriotic leadership attributes of Ortom were a quarter of the number killed in Plateau state barely a week ago, but we can’t hear our governor speak against the federal government’s complacency, either in any local, international media or even in the grapevine.

I am compelled to ask whether my governor is with us in this systematic annihilation of our people or against us? Are you that subservient to the Buhari led government at the detriment of your own people who queued under scorching sun to ensure your electoral victory in 2015 against the ruling party?

Do you think your unhealthy romance with the Buhari government can secure your return ticket against the wishes and aspirations of the Plateau voters?

If your people are killed mercilessly in this number without intervention of the security operatives under the command of the president, would there be anything left of Plateau by 2019 for you to lord over?

Do you think the interest of your party is anything comparable to the lives of your innocent people who are killed in cold blood by these agents of doom, that speaking against the president’s conspiracy of silence would jeopardize her chances of returning to power in the next election?

Your Excellency may have noticed that I skipped the niceties of salutations and pleasantries to delve into the crux of this letter; it is not out of malice or sheer disrespect to your coveted seat, but it was compelled by the gravity of the issue I need to put across to you.

I leave you with the posers above to ponder and reminisce upon as we await your action with regards to the on going killings of your people.

Mr. Dennis Yillah writes from Cologne, Germany.

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Plateau Germany-Based Businessman, Dennis Yillah Writes Lalong, Frowns at Increased Insecurity