Plateau and Lalong’s inclusive governance

By Mark Longyen 

President Muhammadu Buhari’s one-day historic working visit to Plateau State, the “Home of Peace and Tourism”, tomorrow Thursday provides, among others, the best opportunity to underscore Governor Simon Lalong’s scorecard, in view of the projects earmarked for commissioning by the President, since Lalong took over the mantle of leadership nearly three years ago.   Some of the road projects that the president is expected to inaugurate include the Mararaban Jema’a-British America Highway, the Low-Cost Road network, the Rantya-Rafiki Road network, the Rukuba Road network, the State Secretariat Flyover, the Angwan Rogo Road network, the Tudun Wada-Kabong Road network.  These include multibillion naira projects the governor inherited from past administrations and completed for the benefit of the people of the state, and similar multibillion naira projects he initiated and completed in record time, thus ending the culture of abandoned projects in Plateau State. Also included in Mr. President’s itinerary is the inspection of some of the ongoing rural roads infrastructure projects, which contracts were awarded at the cost of nearly forty billion naira (N40bn) and spread across the nooks and crannies of all the 17 local government areas of the state some of which are near completion. However, due to time constraint, the inspection may be restricted to those within the Jos-Bukuru Metropolis. Furthermore, Mr. President will inaugurate the Tractor Hiring Scheme, a mechanized farming scheme for massive food production across the state, another pacesetter of the Lalong Administration in which dozens of brand new tractors were acquired for hiring to interested farmers and farmers cooperative societies. The Tractorization Scheme which is to take off fully this farming season in line with the governor’s wise decision to diversify the state’s economy to Agriculture as the driver and mainstay of the state’s economy following the fall in oil revenues. President Buhari is also scheduled to hold a town hall meeting with the people of the state where a plethora of issues that have been agitating the minds of the people will be poured out for the President to respond to them directly without let or hindrance. The President is also slated to unveil the Plateau Roadmap To Peace, a model 5-year peace action plan for the state, which is the brainchild of the Plateau Peace Building Agency, PPBA, created by Governor Lalong on assumption of office to ensure that the state’s hitherto legion of crises are proactively arrested and nipped in the bud and Peace is perpetually engendered, maintained and sustained in the state. The peace roadmap was developed through a benchmarking exercise that brought together a wide-range of stakeholders, civil society organizations, security agencies and experts, international donor agencies, nongovernmental organizations, INGOs, the academia and the media, who all adopted  it, going forward. This aspect of the President’s visit is significant, especially considering the avalanche of security challenges in the coubtry. This unfortunate scenario accounts for the drafting of the armed forces to no fewer than 32 states of the federation to maintain or restore a peace that has been disrupted by insurgency, farmers-herders clashes, kidnappings, militancy, self-determination agitations, occult killings and other forms of violent crimes against the nation’s citizens. Relatively speaking, right now, Plateau is like an island surrounded by insecurity, especially considering the level of crises in its surrounding states due to the measures so far put in place by government to stem crises.  Lalong’s giant strides in governance have not gone unnoticed. For instance, the Plateau Youths for Change said the governor’s scorecard is second to none in the area of inclusive governance by his ability to carry along all of Plateau State’s 53 ethnic nationalities.  Patrick Dariem, Special Adviser to the Governor on Finance and Investment, while speaking on Lalong’s efforts aimed at diversifying the state’s economy through agriculture, the reviving of hitherto moribund state-owned Industries, foreign direct investment, tourism, among others, told newsmen recently in Jos that investments in the state have tremendously increased and raised the people’s hope of an unprecedented socio-economic growth. Another area of developmental stride that Governor Lalong has handled with uncommon zeal is Women and Youth Empowerment. Prior to his assumption of office, for instance, the youths were  in a chronic state of despair, disenchantment and disillusionment due to wanton neglect by the immediate past government. Their parents were not paid either their salaries or pensions and, as a result, many of the youths were not going to school. For some, their schools were permanently shut and there were no jobs for them, especially the graduates among them. However, Governor Lalong, never one to be intimidated by seemingly intractable challenges, took the bull by the horns in this direction by keying into the Federal Government’s Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency, SMEDAN. To this end, he immediately sent an Executive Bill to the State House of Assembly to establish the Plateau State Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (PLASMEDA). The agency has employed and empowered thousands of women and youths since its establishment. Governor Lalong’s support for the youths also saw to his total commitment for the state-owned Football Club, Plateau United, leading to their exploits in the 2016/2017 Nigerian Professional Football League, culminating in their lifting  for the first time the highest and most prestigious club medal in Nigeria when they were crowned the winners of the 2016/2017 NPFL trophy. Many of Governor Lalong’s critics and opponents have been compelled to bury their initial scepticism  due to the Governor’s achievements despite the plethora of daunting initial challenges that he faced. As seeing, they say, is believing, therefore, President Buhari’s visit provides the golden opportunity for the whole world to catch a glimpse of Governor Lalong’s footprints on the hills of plateau as the president inaugurates some of his landmark projects. Longyen is the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to Governor of Plateau State

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Plateau and Lalong’s inclusive governance