INAUGURATION CHARGE BY REV MSGR PROF CLETUS T. GOTAN AT THE SWEARING IN CEREMONY OF THE SECOND TERM IN OFFICE OF RT HON. BARR. SIMON LALONG AND PROFESSOR SONNI GWANLE TYODEN AS GOVERNOR AND DEPUTY GOVERNOR OF PLATEAU STATE. 29.05.2019

Your Excellences, my lords spiritual and temporal, my dear brothers and sisters of Plateau State,

The elections have come and gone and it is now time to start to heal the wounds, and the rebuilding and reconstruction process. As we begin a new march, we must bear in mind that divergence of opinions is integral to party politics and you are bound to disagree as politicians but we must cast aside bitter recriminations and destructive predilections. Permit me here to request our political gladiators to sheat their swords and be united in dialogue about the serious issues raising their ugly heads in the State instead of sacrificing them on the altar of partisan politics. Heating the polity at this time of reconstruction is an I’ll wind that blows our common people no good. What is right is right and what is wrong must remain wrong irrespective of our political parties. Democracy, we must understand, thrives on infinite multiplicity of ideas and popular participation is one of its fundamental norms. The subordination of individual preferences for the collective will is essential if we are to avoid anarchy and tackle the serious challenges before us. All of us must be involved in the reconstruction project of Plateau State and now is the time to set aside our differences and work together to deliver the greatness we recognise in ourselves and aspire to. We all desire the upliftment of the living standard of our people and for Plateau State to achieve greatness.

We can rise out of the dust created from the elections and build a new Plateau State where honesty, prosperity and confidence can once again be our self-identity. We can pull ourselves by the bootstraps and shake off our current frustrations and disappointments by recognizing the need for a cohesive platform, indispensable to an effective and efficient implementation of policies and programmes which touch the hearts of our people.

I am sure, Your Excellences, that you listened to the voices of our people in the course of your campaigns to all the nooks and crannies of the State. You heard them loud and clear through their votes. You witnessed, first hand, the deplorable conditions under which some of our people exist. The collective interest of the State must be your paramount focus in order to make the welfare of your people the basis of all your activities. To achieve this, the main mission of your administration this time around should be to lead a patriotic, highly inspired and competent team to rescue the ship of our State, rebuild our economy, resuscitate damaged infrastructure, restore hope and return our state to a prosperous land.

I urge you also during this second coming when the mistakes of the past four years must have been learned to correct and try to break down the barriers that have made stagnation possible, the barriers to honest leadership, to comprehensive development, to physical growth and social security through the promotion of transparent leadership, rule of law, extensive consultation, quality and accessible public utilities and social security to restore hope and confidence to all.

The present state of the education sector in our State calls for concern if what is going on in some neighbouring States where education has been ignored is anything to go by. The philosophy of education, conceived on the idea of functionality for improved living has been reduced to a routine certification ritual, the culmination of which is the award of certificates, diplomas, and degrees to graduates who are left more confused than when they enrolled in school. The unemployment crisis, apart from being a global socio-economic phenomenon, is self-inflicted by the kind of education we provide our citizens. If education is the nurturing, training and mobilization of those who live in a society to confront the challenges of development faced, primarily, by the people in that environment, then the current situation confirms that we have since departed from that well-trodden path for a very long time. It is disturbing that a State, which was a clear leader in education in our neighbourhood and indeed the country at large, now lags behind. It appears that our curricula at all levels of training have failed to produce experts whose contributions to the growth of the economy are needed.

This administration should strive to reverse this unfortunate trend by promoting functional education aimed at real development. This calls for revisiting the issue of vocational training with a view to improving the skills of our artisans. This is also the time to reconsider the forceful take over of missionary schools by past governments and hasten the promise to return them to these missionaries who are the experts in education.

We acknowledge the enormous challenges faced by the State and the severely limited resources available to meet these ever-increasing and compelling demands. We acknowledge that there are mountains before us to climb and that sometimes we may trip or slip, but when we do, we must refuse to expire and should pick ourselves up and carry on so that at the end, we will reach our goal, which is to bring back jobs to our youths, food to families, safety, confidence and prosperity to this land.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have transited, regrettably, from a producing economy to a basically consumptive society, which depends, almost solely, on handouts to survive. The consequence of this unproductive attitude is grinding poverty, desperation and hopelessness among our people. It is a cruel irony that a state, richly endowed in material and human resources, wallows in inexplicable privation which expresses itself in anger, tension, violence and criminality of all sorts.

For us to reverse our situation and for a positive change to take place, we must all be ready for a sincere change of heart and come up with an attitude of belief and transformation which is the spirit and driver of victory in all successful cultures and societies. For us to see the change we all desire, we must all be ready to constitute ourselves into change evangelists with exceptional missionary zeal to succeed. We must know that the man in the mirror is you and me. We need to have faith and find courage in the words of the good Scripture that says, “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint” (Is 40:31). I believe that if we combine these abilities with the force of Providence, a lot of great deeds will happen.

We need no prophet or soothsayer to tell us that our state is particularly lucky. We have had and still have men and women of quality who have set the pace for others in the not too distant past. The country depended, to a very great extent, on our resourcefulness and our people were exemplars in virtually all fields of human endeavours. The story is, painfully, different today. The fault, as the saying goes, is not in our stars but in ourselves that our fortunes have dwindled considerably and we have become underlings.

Someone has blamed the reason why Plateau State, despite its being one of the richest states in Nigeria is currently one of the poorest to our disunity. We are located on the highest altitude in West Africa, which is a position of strength and not weakness, but we are weak because of our ethnic diversity which is God’s will and gift to us that we ought to appreciate and celebrate. An observer with whom I totally agree takes us back to 1970, to be precise to the month of March when the late J.D.Gomwalk warned us against tribal divisions and segregation. He warned the people of the then Benue-Plateau State of the danger in viewing events from tribal angles and he kept Benue-Plateau united by demonstrating what no governor has ever dared to do till date. He empowered selected men with money to start businesses to create employment for youths in the State.
It is true, fellow citizens that all is not well in our land where even the greatest of God’s gift to us, life itself, is in danger all over our land. Gunmen – and women, whatever their names, have been sowing death, destruction and misery almost everywhere. Property, well-being, harmony and peace are endangered by generalized insecurity. But all is not lost.

In this new term of office, there is need for a drastic change of government system, if our nation is to be saved from imminent chaos. For us here in Plateau State if we are to get up again, we must be united in such a way that the man from Du must see the man from Zawan as his own brother…. The Taroh man must see the Berom man as his own brother! The Hausa-Fulani on the Plateau must see every Plateau man as a friend not an enemy…. The Mwaghavul man must accept the Goemai man as his own brother…! The Ngas man must see and accept the Rukuba or Irigwe man as his own blood brother … Plateau United!

Of our over 53 ethnic groups on the Plateau, each and every one of these tribes is important, invaluable and indispensable on the Plateau! Everyone of these ethnic groups has something and none has nothing or everything. Every tribe on the Plateau represents a strength or skill and should be an identification of strength not weakness. All we need to succeed in Plateau State is Plateau United.
The Taroh people on the Plateau, it is often said, are bold and very intelligent when it comes to securing themselves and the land; the Ngas people are very good administrators; the Mwaghavul people love education and read a lot; the Miango people are very skillful artisans and very industrious; the Berom people are the most technically endowed people on the Plateau; the Anaguta people are also known as very bold warriors – etc.

The question then is, have we been able to maximize the strength in these tribal identities? The answer is NO. I personally, agree with the view that here in Plateau State, we don’t need a Ngas or Goemai nations; we need a Plateau United nation. We don’t need a Taroh or Bhoghom nations; we need a Plateau United nation. We don’t need an Afizire or Muyoum nation; we need a Plateau United nation. We don’t need a Pyem or Mwaghavul nations, we need a Plateau United nation and so on.

Our youths on the Plateau must be united to create and rewrite an alternative narrative for our children and younger generation, born and unborn. Only Plateau United can fight the enemy within. Only Plateau United can fight the organized crime currently happening on the Plateau…Only Plateau United can lift us up from the dungeon of poverty and division to the promised land of milk, honey, prosperity and development…Therefore, it is only PLATEAU UNITED that we need to become the Plateau we all desire!

With the assistance of the Almighty God and the good people of Plateau State, we hope to take the state out of the morass of privation, hopelessness and desperation. The welfare of our people shall be the fundamental objective and directive principle of governance in Plateau State.

Your Excellences, my lords, ladies and gentlemen and my good people of Plateau State, the hour is here and our journey to redemption commences now.

And to God Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth, the author and finisher of all things perfect and excellent I commend and charge your excellences to go forth and live up to the Christian and Muslim principle that all authority and power belong to God, and must be exercised under His will. May you be liberated from bad advisers and unhelpful associates. May you see the wisdom of bringing on board every segment of the State, for an improved sense of belonging, without which the problems of the State will not be successfully addressed. God has given us a beautiful State and wonderful people. May he give us the wisdom and the good will to make a success of it.

Long live Plateau State, Long live Federal Republic of Nigeria. I thank you very much for listening. God bless.

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