A former member of the House of Representatives George Daika, has described Plateau State governor Gov. Simon Lalong a failure.

Daika, who is also a former speaker, Plateau State House of Assembly, told Sun that the Peoples Democratic Party will defeat the All Progressives Congress if Gov. Lalong contests in 2019 as he had failed to deliver on his promises.

He said, “In as much as I don’t see Lalong as an orphan in the APC, he is already a failure in Plateau State. It is clear that nobody will contest the party primaries with him ahead of 2019.

“It is true that he has been an Atiku’s boy but it was a matter of circumstance. If you remember very well, when Buhari emerged as President, Lalong did everything to endeared himself to Buhari, he was doing everything to please Buhari and that shows he has abandoned Atiku even before now. But certainly he is not going to make it in Plateau because he has failed to produce the desired result; there is no presence of governance in Plateau despite huge intervention funds provided by the federal government.

“It is rumoured that about seven governors and some members of the national assembly are coming to PDP, Lalong may be one of them, but personally, I don’t think Lalong is coming to PDP because he will not get the ticket to contest; he is going to start from the long queue of aspirants in the PDP.

“I will say this with confidence that if Lalong is given the APC ticket, PDP should go to sleep and wait for swearing in next year. He got the mandate in 2015 by default; there was lack of unity in the PDP coupled with a lot of impunity.

“But now, we are united stronger than ever and we now know what it means to be out of government, we are well organised to take over power by God’s grace in 2019 irrespective of whoever APC fields in as their candidate. I am also praying that the PDP should allow the will of the people to prevail during the primaries.

“Plateau people are tired and fed up with Lalong’s government, they have not seen any positive impact, there is no advancement in the economy, hunger is everywhere and it is consuming the people, despite the huge sum of money his government has collected from the federal government, Lalong has not used it wisely, he has failed and his failure is in favour of PDP.”

Daika speaking on his ambition to become the next governor, said he was still praying about it.

“People are really agitating that I should contest the PDP primaries for governorship election come 2019 in Plateau. As a grass root politician and somebody who believe in God and in the will of the people, I am still praying and consulting over it. Not that I don’t have ambition, as a young man, I should be ambitious to serve the people of Plateau State since I have the capacity and the enablement, especially now that they are calling on me.

“I don’t think I will say no to that with the support of the elders, youths and women in the state collectively, we shall take over governance from the APC. We have absolute confidence in our party chairman, a former sports minister, Damishi Sango, who understands the tricks, intrigues and politics of how to win election in the state, to lead us to victory.” He added.

count | 287

POLITICS 2019: Former speaker, Rt. Hon. George Daika speaks on guber ambition, says Gov. Lalong a monumental failure