November 07, (THEWILL) – The Plateau State House of Assembly is on the brink of implosion due to the actions of divisive forces working from within and externally, UKANDI ODEY writes
During the emergent politics of post-state of emergency Plateau State , Joshua Dariye and Simon Lalong, as governor and speaker, respectively then, were constantly on the run because a raging intra-PDP opposition, spear-headed by Ibrahim Mantu, then Deputy Senate President, coalesced some interests and forces, which forced the state executive headed by Dariye and a section of the legislature led by Simon Lalong, into a political symbiosis that was strengthened as much by a ferocious EFCC manhunt as other subterranean interests.
Fifteen years later and with critical changes to the dramatis personae, the actors are either regrettably unavailable or playing the agent provocateur.
Less than a fortnight ago, at a thanksgiving church service held in Jos, the m state capital, Prophet Isa El Buba, who is also the vice president of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, could not have asked for a better opportunity to pull a master stroke, with Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in the congregation. Much to the relief of most worshippers in attendance at the service session, Prophet El Buba openly challenged and urged Governor Simon Lalong to go and fix the problem in the Plateau House of Assembly. It was barely two days after a drama took place in the House of Assembly and ended in the ‘impeachment’ of the speaker, Abok Ayuba, by only seven lawmakers in a 24-member House where eight were required to form a quorum and two-thirds for impeachment.
Although Governor Simon Lalong denied complicity in the festering crisis threatening to bring down the House and the state, it was clear to the Vice President that all was not well that had not ended well. This was even more obvious as Lalong’s claims and rebuttals angered many of those who were in attendance, forcing them to abandon the service before the minister in charge of the proceedings for the day ordered an immediate closure of all the doors so as to stave off an obvious embarrassment before the august visitor.
The following Monday, Prophet Isa El Buba’s admonition in the church received prophetic grace and endorsement as the premises of the State House of Assembly was besieged by hundreds of youths, apparently in solidarity with Speaker Abok and his 14 colleagues opposed to the impunity, parliamentary rascality, procedural absurdity and atrophy which the other seven lawmakers wrongly called an impeachment.
Favoured to emerge as speaker by Governor Lalong when the Assembly was inaugurated in 2019, what went awry between the governor and the head of the state legislature? Abok’s situation is said to be a synthesis of local politics and the 2023 aspirations, as well as the calculations, of some political force majeures in Jos East Local Government Area as the two leading political parties in the state are billed to get governorship running mates from the Plateau North Senatorial District, in which Jos East is a key factor in the permutations of one of the parties. To that extent, Abok is said to be haunted by a political mogul from the same area, who assesses Abok’s subsistence as speaker as inimical to his chances of becoming deputy governor in 2023.
Ironically, the same force that gave impetus to the emergence of Abok as Speaker of the State House of Assembly is also at work in the plan for his political dethronement and annihilation. Enter Lalong and the sentiments and trajectory of the poorly handled crisis arising from the killings in Rigwe land of Bassa Local Government Area in July and August this year, which forced the legislature to issue the governor an ultimatum and frowned at his complacency and display of lack of passion for the plight of the deceased and their grieving people.
In the ultimatum the House of Assembly issued Lalong last September, the members expressed concern over the spate of killings that were going on in the state and called on him to rise quickly and safeguard the lives of the people.
The ultimatum also requested the governor to visit the areas affected by the nocturnal attacks and commiserate with the people and provide them material intervention. Before the ultimatum, however, the Speaker had taken the initiative to provide or express official concern over the killings by visiting some of the affected places. This outing, according to sources, hit Lalong above the mid-riff, as he feels the Speaker did this more for political ego massage than for humanitarian considerations and respect for mankind.
Beyond the foregoing are issues that have to do with accountability and transparency in government and governance. The Speaker, Abok, is said to have become weary of the state’s debt profile and a culture of loans accumulation without results to show for the loan facilities already procured. As a matter of fact, the Speaker is contemptuous of how the loans collected have been used and he is not willing to allow the legislature under him to become an instrument for the executive arm to embrace ostentation and self-aggrandisement while the state’s developmental aspirations are compromised or plunged into oblivion.
However, the seven members loyal to Lalong, who are claiming to have impeached Abok, are accusing him of incompetence and corruption. They also allege that he has a matter to reconcile with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and so must give way for investigation of his tenure. This, however, has not impressed many, especially now that Government House betrayed its own complicity in the plot by the zeal and relief it displayed in receiving and pledging cooperation with the ‘new House leadership’.
Since last Monday, normalcy in the House has been on holiday. With the Assembly complex under security lock, legislation and parliamentary proceedings have lapsed into a state of stasis. As at press time last Wednesday, the debacle had claimed its first casualty as Edward Egbuka was replaced by Bathlomew Nnamdi Onyeaka as Plateau State Police Commissioner “with immediate effect”.
Immediate past governor of the state, Senator Jonah David Jang, has condemned the development and warned of its ugly implications for democracy and negative impact on the development aspirations of the State. Noting that the situation at hand in the House of Assembly goes beyond partisan politics and parochialism, he has called on the elders of the state to rise, intervene and save the Plateau project from being destroyed by the greed and ambition of a few individuals.
Nevertheless, Governor Lalong, whose public perception, with rating in local opinion polls, has been plummeting since the frenzy of killings that peaked last August and now in another free fall as a result of the executive-induced imbroglio in the State House of Assembly, said Jang was simply politicising the matter.
In a riposte to the statement issued by Jang, Lalong’s Commissioner of Information, Dan Manjang, called on the people of Plateau to ignore the call-to-duty alarm by Jang, saying he lacked the “democratic credentials” and “moral authority” to roll out the drums in this matter.
As the debacle subsists, many people are wondering the circumstantial and contextual nexus between Lalong’s claim that crises in Plateau are caused by politicians and the ongoing executive-legislature imbroglio.
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