With the date of the Local Government polls fast approaching (i.e., 21st Dec 2013), ViewPointNigeria investigates the political intrigues in Jos North Local Government area –the political hotbed of Plateau state.

Of particular interest in this investigation, is the “informal pact” made between the various ethnic groups –Afizere, Berom and Anaguta, just before the 2008 polls. The pact required that each of the ethnic groups would sacrifice their individual interest in favour of one consensus candidate, who when elected, would hold the office for one term before another consensus candidate would be chosen from a different ethnic group.

So in the first exercise of the pact, Timothy Buba was chosen as the consensus candidate from the Berom ethnic group and he receive the overwhelming backing of all ethnic group (Anaguta, Afizere & Berom) –hence his election as honourable chairman in 2008.

With the date of the Local Government polls fast approaching (i.e., 21st Dec 2013), ViewPointNigeria investigates the political intrigues in Jos North Local Government area –the political hotbed of Plateau state.

Of particular interest in this investigation, is the “informal pact” made between the various ethnic groups –Afizere, Berom and Anaguta, just before the 2008 polls. The pact required that each of the ethnic groups would sacrifice their individual interest in favour of one consensus candidate, who when elected, would hold the office for one term before another consensus candidate would be chosen from a different ethnic group.

So in the first exercise of this pact, Timothy Buba was chosen as the consensus candidate from the Berom ethnic group and he receive the overwhelming backing of all ethnic group (Anaguta, Afizere & Berom) –hence his election as honourable chairman in 2008.

Given this long standing pact, ViewPointNigeria has sought to investigate whether this pact would still be relevant during the 2013 elections and whether it would still be honoured or discarded.

In doing this, the opinions of 1048 Jos North residents were collated in an opinion poll -the demographic of the people polled included: market women, okada riders, students, youth, civil servants etc. It should be noted that in undertaking the sampling (i.e., choosing people to be polled), ViewPointNigeria made sure a proportional number of people from the ethnic groups resident within Jos North were taken, so as to be representative of the Jos North population. The results are presented below:

Q1. Has Timothy Gyang Buba, the current chairman of Jos North done enough to be seeking re-election?

Q2. Which ethnic group should be backed for the chairmanship position in the coming 2013 LG elections?

The opinion poll clearly shows that the majority of the people polled kicked against the re-election campaign of the incumbent chairman, Timothy Gyang Buba -with many of them averring that the mandate given to him was completely wasted. They argue that nothing tangible can be seen of his tenure and that even the pledge he made to move the Local Government secretariat to its permanent site still remains in limbo. For such reasons, they emphatically reasoned that he did not deserve another term.

In respect of the purported pact and questions about which ethnic group’s turn it was to be nominated as a consensus candidate -a lot of the respondents averred that either the Afizere or the Anaguta should be given the shot in this dispensation. Saying that since these ethnic groups overwhelmingly back the incumbent, such favour should be returned.

count | 170

Plateau residents object to the re-election of Timothy Gyang Buba as Chairman of Jos North -Opinion poll