Enough To Executive Impotence, Governmental Relapses, Childish Pandering, Plateau PDP Tells APC
Yakubu Busari
The Plateau State chapter, of the People Democratic Party, PDP, has stated that APC has no words of sympathy to the growing number of traumatized communities in the State, asking if they must add to the grief the people of Plateau are experiencing?
Hon. Emmanuel Goar spokesperson of the party said at a press conference held at the state party Secretariat on Tuesday that; “Since the APC government both at the Federal and state levels has dolorously proved inadequate in containing the overall insecurity daily threatening Nigeria’s, why can it not at least show some shame and apologise to the people of Nigeria for making them daily mourners, widows, orphans, widowers and displaced people in their nation.
“We have read with absolute shock, disbelief and consternation the latest statement by the APC in Plateau State blaming the PDP for the tragic insecurity in the state. We have always known that the APC is a desperate power seekers made up of some of Nigeria’s most incompetent managers. But we had not imagined they could go as far as gleefully dancing on the graves of the dead, and campaigning for votes among the badly wounded in hospitals following the unbelievable inhumane and series of unprovoked attacks on communities, especially in the Northern and Central Senatorial Districts.
The statement by the Acting Chairman, Caretaker Committee of APC in Plateau Hon Enoch Fanmak Ramnan is in every way irresponsible, insulting, and unforgivably childish.
Hear him, ” We want to specially commend the Governor for his proactive steps in ensuring quick intervention towards ensuring that the situation does not go out of control. We believe the Governor has done his best but is greatly limited because of lack of direct control of the security agencies.”
We ask Mr. Acting Party Chairman: Does the Governor require the “direct control of the security agencies” to stay at home with his people in their times of trial and to unite them to respond in one accord to security challenges? Does he need the control of whoever visits and sends relief materials to the destitute? Unbelievable! If the weekly harvest of dead bodies and invaded communities are the marks of Governor Lalong’s best, then he was never ready for governance, and even now he is simply leaning on a tottering fence. Mr Governor is simply enamoured by the glamour famous of his office and unhealthy distracted by chores outside the state in the name of chairmanship, solidarity visits, attending high profiled weddings, and being captured in ogito sessions with Mr President rather than facing squarely the responsibilities of his office to the people of Plateau.
In any case, does not the APC control the national assembly and the federal security set up? Is the Chairman of the Northern Governors a paperweight in seeking to constitutionally allow states a greater control over security matters? We find it anomalous that Mr Governor, who was in a hurry to quickly weaken the estate-grown security apparatus, Operation Rainbow, will now be looking up to some security specialists in Abuja to give him direct control over their own forces.
If he cannot manage Operation Rainbow, how can he exercise direct control over the armed forces and other federal security forces?
Again the words of the Plateau APC, “we note with utter disgust and total disappointment the desperate attempt by some members of the opposition PDP in the State and elsewhere to use this unfortunate development to advance selfish and cheap political ambitions.
In particular, we have noted their unacceptable utterances and inciting comments on both the traditional and social media which are carefully targeted at discrediting the Governor of Plateau State Rt. Hon. (Dr) Simon Bako Lalong and portraying the Government as uncaring, with the hope of reviving their faded glory as a rejected political party in the State and country at large.”
This is an old, convenient, and desperate recourse to justify the government’s total abdication of duty. There are no two political parties governing Plateau. The people are fed up with this APC favourite chorused blame game. Any underperformer does that. For six whole years, APC has given nothing but excuses. We believe that the party has come face to face with the consequences of their substitution of golf for governance.
If the APC feels that traditional and social media are all working in concert in trying to discredit the governor and “and portraying the Government as uncaring”, it then means that there is unanimity of opinion that the APC government in Plateau is both incompetent and uncaring, and everybody is talking about it. But it is because no one can miss this point! The media report what they see.
So if they are not invited by Rayfield to the commissioning of projects except renaming of streets and given press statements on “isolated attacks”, does anyone need to interpret incompetence to them. What APC has sown is what it is being compelled to painfully reap.
To make these childish allegations remain the rallying toy of political babes, the APC actually wrote out these words, “After the recent unfortunate attack on Yelwa Zangam village, the corpses of those killed were evacuated to the Plateau Specialist Hospital for proper handling.
However, the members of the party and their cohorts forced their way into the hospital, harassed and intimidated the hospital staff, and forcefully took away the corpses for a roadshow just to score cheap political points
They proceeded to the Plateau State House of Assembly where they were clearly seen in broad daylight executing their plans with their collaborators before finally carrying the corpses to dump at the Government House.”
This is horror taken too far. If APC does not honour the living, will it also disrespect and mock the dead? So, PDP commandeered the Yelwa Zangam corpses and made the grieving community a bunch of pretentious and mourning onlookers? See how far decay and reverse thinking has gripped the APC! What the APC is propagating here is in direct contrast to what has been widely reported by the community, survivors, journalists and the security services.
According to him “At the Plateau State Specialist Hospital, the Chief Medical Director, Dr Philemon Golwa, told Nigerian journalists that 15 corpses were deposited in the mortuary in connection with the attack, adding that the bodies were brought in by security men in the early hours of Wednesday.”
In addition, “Following the killings, aggrieved members of the affected community deposited some corpses of those killed at the Little Ray Field Government House, to protest the killing of their loved ones.”
36-killed-in-jos-attacks-angry-youths-dump-corpses-at-government-house/).
We say no more on this. We are still pained by the misfortune that has befallen the good land of Plateau and indeed Nigeria since APC rode to power on the back of frenzied propaganda.
Even something as obvious as the account of the “sleeping governor”, the APC wants to stand logic on its head. According to the ruling party, “a Member of the Party representing Rukuba/Irigwe Constituency Hon. Musa Agah rather than be with his people in times of difficulty after the killings in Bassa, ran to a radio station sympathetic to his party to propagate lies against the Governor to the effect that he went to see him and could not because he was sleeping. All this was a calculated attempt to rubbish the Governor and cast the Government in a bad light so as to obtain political favour from the electorate and also hide his failure to his constituents who already are dissatisfied with his representation.
He has not done a single project for them and hardly goes home.” Frankly, if one were reading all this from kindergarten politicians and administrators, one would have just overlooked it. But to come across it from a ruling party, kai, it makes one question their psychological and emotional stability. When a general is sleeping in the middle of a raging and life-threatening battle, does that not show that the general is in the wrong vocation? Truth is: Governor Lalong did nothing about Irigwe before, during, and after the annihilating attacks. The whole sleeping episode speaks about his capacity and priority. Period!
And to further expand the frontiers of incapacitation, the APC Acting Chairman has this to say to those whose lands have been occupied by force, “the APC is not aware that the Governor has received even one petition from anybody or community that some aliens have taken their land. If and when he receives such a report, our party is very sure he will act by directing the prosecution of such persons using the law he has put in place. Despite this, the PDP is continuously running propaganda and sentiments to win the hearts of the people.” Someone who heard this line of reasoning asked in shock: Are these people serious at all? We find the APC counsel as lazy and escapist.
Armed people took the land. Only the government is armed to.the teeth to repel attacks and safeguard the heritage of communities. And now the ruling party is urging these same communities to report and await the prosecution of armed robbers. Was it not because the communities could not resort to self-help that they were displaced forcefully from their land?
Who does not know that on a daily basis, the APC government in Plateau State exhibits governmental truancy and unbridled mismanagement of our good will, unity and sense of dignity as a people?
This nonperformance is also a subject of discussion even beyond Plateau. “Due to the incessant killing and blood-letting in the state, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has launched an attack on the Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, accusing him of being a weak leader.This was contained in a statement issued on Wednesday by the HURIWA National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko in Lagos” (https://www.ripplesnigeria.com/huriwa-accuses-plateau-gov-lalong-of-being-weak-in-wake-of-killings-in-state/?amp).
APC appears to convince itself that its self-inflicted weakness and PDP’s eve-solid consistency is all about the next election. That is even why PLASIEC, the state electoral body that further deludes APC with phyric electoral escapades is restless in seeking to stop PDP from participating in the uncertain local government election. But to any discerning person, the prevailing insecurity of Plateau is about the destiny of Plateau; the honour of Plateau; the prosperity of Plateau and the dignity of the people of Plateau people and their golden inheritance. They can go to no other state to claim as theirs. And they must not be displaced from and denied theirs by forces of violence that the APC and its government at the federal and here in Plateau State delinquently tolerate and promote.
These political actors in APC should wake up to the reality that they need more a peace building agency to win the war on terror in Plateau. What our people require is decisive and bold leadership to face this blood sucking monster that has targeted Plateau for its meals. Plateau needs a leader with exceptional courage to stay at home and lead the citizens in their moments of helplessness. Plateau people need more than talk shops – they need a purposeful leadership that will make them stand with each other and draw a red line against the next band of marauders. Plateau needs an unpretentious leadership that sympathises with the people in their grief. Enough to executive impotence. Enough of governmental relapses. Enough of childish pandering.
We see that APC has been hopelessly unable to free and heal itself from a gangrene of self-delusion and has become a festering wound of bare-faced lies, tendentiously hypocritical and incurably disconnected from the reality of the people. For even a visitor or a child has encountered the truth that the APC government has poisoned the chalice of national cohesion, dismantled our ctitical values and made a mess of our hitherto professional security apparatus.
Attacks have been consistent and relentless. More communities are weekly being uprooted and replanted in displaced people’s camps. Gunmen, ever boastful and arrogant, roam around unchallenged. Victims’ cries are unheard and unanswered. But the media waves and spaces are filled with stale press releases that carry no sympathy and unction. Government remains weak, absent and an object of mockery. But it is the people that pay with their blood, harvest and land.
APC must look at its ugly and repulsive record in the six years of its governance and get the work done or get out of the kitchen. Enough of your insults on the people of Plateau. Plateau people do not and will not accept APCs blame game of death and incompetence.
Let APC know that its resort to ungrounded disputation will not let it escape the deeper scrutiny and reflection of the people of Plateau. PDP is not looking at the next
Next time these APC non-performers speak, they should think much deeper than their well-known shallowness and speak to the hurting people of Plateau with respect, decorum and better emotional managerial skills. The people should be treated far better than only voters in the next election. They are human beings.
