Clinton Garuba, the Media Consultant to former governor, Senator (Dr) Jonah David Jang CON reflects on the disappointing 8-Year Lalong administration as he expresses hope for the incoming Leadership.

As the Lalong-led administration winds down after 8 years and seeing that it is one administration with a leadership style that no one will wish to see in a modern Plateau, one would have expected that it will sober enough to exit quietly without having to insult the sensibilities of the Plateau people. Alas! Goof and gaffes are the hallmarks of the administration that spent 8 years supervising the undoing of previous administrations’ programmes, projects and policies which had set the state on the path to sustainable progress and development.
It would have been okay to watch how this current administration ingloriously exits Government House, Little Rayfield but for the recent distortion of facts and barefaced lies of the governor who tried to score cheap political points to salvage his already diminished political profile which has made him lost favour with the Plateau people.

Former Governor Jonah David Jang has repeatedly said he stands out in a class of his own when the current administration is placed side-by-side with his 8-year reign which left the landscape of Plateau dotted with projects across the state. In addition to all that, Senator Jang remained vocal in defence of his people throughout his tenure, despite the now obvious, campaigns of calumny against his person and Government. Plateau people will agree that, no matter what the shortcomings of the Jang administration were, it is by far a better deal to the State than the last 8 years which have not only derailed the development of the state but thrived on blaming the previous administration while doing nothing to match up to what it had done.

In any case, the 2023 general elections were a referendum on the Lalong administration and by extension on the APC in Plateau State which did nothing other than dismantle structures put in place for a prosperous Plateau. The state of governance has nosedived that one would not envy the incoming administration for the enormity of work that it has to do in rebuilding the people’s trust in Government, its programmes and policies.

At a time when sections of the state have come under attacks from people hell-bent on waging genocide on the people, the Government is rather hurriedly commissioning projects, some of which it even inherited as ongoing projects of the Jang administration to cover for 8 years of nothingness. Perhaps the government realised too late in the day that it had pursued personal political gains to the detriment of the general well-being of the State and is in a hurry to claim that it at least did something when in fact did almost nothing .

Speaking blatant lies about the state of roads in the city centre at the beginning of the Lalong administration is the icing on the cake of the falsehood peddled by the government since the assumption of office. Every Plateau citizen knows that since the return of democracy in 1999, no government has paid attention to roads and infrastructure like the Jang administration. If Lalong and those who have failed to advise him on the need to be truthful as a leader think that they built Jos, the Plateau State capital from its foundation, let them continue to live in delusion. The outcome of the elections is a testimony to their performance in the last 8 years. Had they done better, Plateau people would have said so through the ballot box. Having failed, the best thing would be to quietly leave and continue with the lobby for appointment at the federal level where he had spent years of servitude abandoning the state to suffer a lack of leadership and governance.

For now, the Lalong administration should concentrate on clearing their tables as it is only a few days to the handover and the prayer on the lips of many a plateau person is, “May Lalong and this type of administration never happen to us again.”

Senator Jang commiserates with all the grieving communities and joins in wishing that the swearing-in of the coming administration will bring succour to the people and return the state to the path to progress and development.