May 23, (THEWILL) – Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State and his party, the All Progressives Congress, do not have a stronghold or clear advantage in Plateau South Senatorial District as the time ticks closer to the electoral hour of 2023.
At the celebration of this year’s Olum O’Tarok in Langtang North Local Government Area last week, fantasy and realism stood down and Lalong, who was special guest of honour, came face to face with the reality of dishonour and bottled anger as the gallery failed to pretend at him.
The governor and the Chairman of Langtang North Local Government Council, Bitrus Zulfa, only managed their stay at the event, as they had to put up with boos and jeers, indicating the surging crowd’s disapproval of their political personalities and underscoring their preference for the politically subjugated and oppressed.
That the lawmaker representing Langtang North/Langtang South Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Beni Lar, and the Chairman of Langtang North LGA, Joshua Ubandoma Laven, who Lalong admires but prefers to haunt of office, received tumultuous and sustained approval from the same gallery, speaks volumes of the political landmines awaiting Lalong’s senatorial bid during the secondary election in that constituency.
From appointments in the state government to the political leadership of Langtang North LGA, to the representation of Plateau State in the recently constituted National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress, the governor’s political ‘sins’ against the Tarok nation are numerous and still counting.
As part of the countdown to 2023, the two main local government areas of the Tarok people, that is Langtang North and Langtang South, have witnessed defection of members from the APC to the PDP more than any other local government area in the State. As a matter of fact, before the APC governorship congress, which held last Friday, a chieftain of the party in Langtang North bemoaned the situation to the effect that “there is so much discontent and confusion in the APC in Langtang that defection to the blossoming PDP opposition is now happening per second”. This situation is expected by analysts to worsen after the party’s governorship primary due to the malcontent and anger that the intrigues that will shape its outcome will generate. This is even expected to degenerate and precipitate grating trends in the party after the primaries have been concluded.
Thus, even if Lalong manipulates his way through to the senatorial ticket of the APC for Plateau South, as it looks likely with delegates forms declared missing up to the eve of the ad hoc delegates election last week, the secondary election will come with the much desired opportunity for the Tarok to serve him hot vengeance. This lethal punch will not just be a sucker one, but decisive in its banality especially if there is an indigenous Tarok option on any other party platform challenging for the same political position.
When a crowd of variously armed angry youth attacked and held the senator representing Plateau South presently, Prof Nora Dadu’ut, hostage on April 28, in Namu, Quaan Pan local government area, and tormented her and her entourage for over three hours, the youth did not pretend about their anger and grouse; they did not mince words either in letting the Senator understand that whatever befell her, including death as they threatened, she was merely a collateral casualty and by-the-way victim. Their anger, according to beholders in the scene, is meant for Governor Lalong who has used his office and power to deprive them of their preferred political leadership at the local council, and also imposed a Royal Father on them who does not really have ancestral foot in the people’s culture and heritage.
Senator Nora Dadu’ut was lucky to come out of the saga alive. But it is a postponed war, which hostilities and theatre will relocate to the polling booth and ballot, being pretty sure Governor Lalong will be passing by to the Senate. This prospect is deepened in verve and propensity by the mobilisation and popularity of the persecuted and ousted former chairman of Qua’an Pan Council, Isaac kwale, who has since become a rallying point for PDP resurgence and revitalisation and to that extent, the obliteration and sacking of the APC from the grassroots of Qua’an Pan local government area. Lalong certainly lacks the charisma and political brinkmanship to neutralize or reverse the odds against him to win Quaan Pan in the senate secondary election.
Even in Shendam, his home local government area, Governor Lalong is bereft of illustrious son popularity. Not even the location of the new Federal Polytechnic in his village, the ill-fated legacy project conceived as the teaching hospital of the Plateau State University and provision of urban roads, all in Shendam, seem to have persuaded or impressed the people. In local social circles within, his tenure and leadership of the state are disparaged and dismissed with scorn, with a lot of his Goemai tribesmen expressing lack of willingness to stretch his political fortune and travelogue beyond 2019. Beside the danger that there are also Tarok elements in Shendam with reasonable votes to pool, Shendam would be a real political nightmare for Lalong if another Goemai, John Bull Shekaru, as it looks likely, pulls through and clinches the PDP senatorial ticket for the Southern zone this week.
Last week at the PDP State secretariat, Jos, John Bull said his challenge is to secure the ticket of his party, dismissing a potential Lalong threat as a soft target he can walk over easily in the secondary election.
Yet, there are other matters arising amidst pending issues. That the minister of Women Affairs has declined contest and participation in the race does not suggest she has surrendered, and is not a non-competing competitor. Her stakes in the political leadership of Plateau South are still very high, and she will align with forces and interests that will enable her to keep the bar and secure her place and relevance in the unfolding dispensation. Simon Bako Lalong is not a likely ally of Pauline Tallen for now – till further notice.
Again, there is a growing distrust and seething enmity between his Chief of Staff, Noel Donjur, and Lalong. On the one hand are the problems perceived to have been unnecessarily created by the office of the Chief of Staff that have unsettled sentiments and provoked passions in the local politics of Shendam, home of the duo. Things even got worse recently as Governor Lalong has successfully imposed a gubernatorial candidate on the APC, thus rubbishing the choice of his Chief of Staff and his shadow cabal. In the course of his senatorial race, Lalong would have to pay dearly for this – more likely in the secondary election when ambush is easier and sweeter.
In Mikang Local Government Area, Lalong does not have any political respite either. The people have their own preference and choice which Lalong has to accept or forget about his senatorial election. He is pushing for the present member in the State House of Assembly, Hon Naanlong Daniel, to be re-elected to enable him emerge as speaker in the next Assembly, against the popular preference of the people who is Henry Yunkwap, who recently defected from the APC to the PDP to enable him get re-elected, and eventually emerge speaker.
The details from Wase local government area about Lalong’s chances are scanty. But the deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Idris Maje, is struggling to secure his chances to be re-elected because of PDP domination of the political space there currently. In the Kadarko area of Wase, dominated by the Tarok people, it could still be bad electoral news for Lalong in 2023.
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