Kefas Vilji
Prince Mado Mado must be commended for always being blunt and courageous to express his views about people and events in Plateau State and Nigeria.
It is in this light that I want to comment on the latest attack on Sunday 8 April 2018 in Facebook by Prince Mado Mado on Ezekiel Gomos who is the owner of Jos Business School – it was posted unto a platform titled Movement for the Protection of the Plateau Heritage (MOPPLHA)
However, my first quarrel with Prince Mado Mado it appears that he is a faceless and unidentifiable character and his latest write up is only interested in bringing down personalities.
If someone can make such serious allegations like he did on Sunday in Facebook and even put the picture of Ezekiel Gomos, then why is he afraid to put his real name and what he does, so that Plateau people will not think that he is being sponsored. I checked the Facebook account of Prince Mado Mado and you will be shocked to find that there are more than three accounts in that name with no information about whom he is. There is nothing about him except his posts!
So who is Prince Mado Mado? Is he a sponsored platform set out destroying people that he is intimidated by, or people he doesn’t like? Is a real person who is out to help Plateau State.? Why is he afraid of putting his real name, where he comes from and what he does?
Do you remember the recent example in America during the election of Donald Trump, where it has now emerged that most of the write-ups that destroyed Hilary Clinton were written by Russian faceless trolls and put on Facebook to appear as if they are genuine Americans? Most of the write-ups portrayed her as very weak and a very crook and corrupt politician while they portrayed Donald Trump as a tough successful businessman who can chase out immigrants and terrorists. These write-ups were posted by Russians and sent to all popular American Facebook platforms, all designed to influence innocent voters.
In the end, it worked. Many Americans especially in rural Midwest, who are so hooked on social media believed the lies and hence Donald Trump was elected as President while Hilary Clinton was defeated. Facebook and Twitter have accepted their mistakes, and this led to Facebook even banning some Russian agencies. Now the ongoing investigation in the US has made people be very suspicious of any write-up on Facebook that appears only designed to destroy another person, especially when the writer appears to be faceless.
In the case of the write up on Ezekiel Gomos, the public will be glad to know who is the real Mado Mado- I challenge him to stand up to be appreciated and commended if what he wrote on Ezekiel Gomos is true. Let him not hide his real name and identity.
If Prince Mado Mado is not a faceless platform set up to destroy other people, but a genuine patriot and lover of Plateau State, then I am sure he will come forward and declare himself, more so when from the write-up, it appears that he is very passionate about Plateau State. People who are passionate about Plateau State on Facebook like Davidson Lar, Chinan Maclean, Jiritmwa Goyit, Salisu maigoro, Bagos, Arc Hart Bankat, John Lanzing, Stephen Sarki Musa, Nandom Andrew, Pamson Dagyat, Sen Bako Nanzing, Dan Manjang, etc who make regular postings about Plateau State on the Facebook are well known, they don’t hide behind shadows. They use their real names not fake names
My second quarrel with Prince Mado Mado is that most of the things he wrote about Ezekiel Gomos do not appear to be correct but muddled up as if he is just an angry writer who has only one ambition: destroy Ezekiel Gomos.
1) Prince Mado Mado said Ezekiel Gomos is not a business guru because he has not set up any industry in Plateau State and has not come up with any business model to improve the lives of Plateau peoples. I will not speak for Ezekiel Gomos but many people in the State know that it was he who started and managed a very popular programme on PRTV since the 90s called Business Foundation which was very helpful in educating thousands of people in the State to start and run their business. I am aware of hundreds of people who have used the ideas from that programme to start a business or expand their business. Some of them are youth, women etc. Ezekiel Gomos is still presently doing the education and enlightenment through the Business School where many people are being trained in several aspects of the business. In the global world of today, educating and enlightening people about how to do things, how to be self-reliant etc is one of the most powerful tools of empowerment, rather than giving people money or making people permanent employees in industries and civil servants. If people like Mado mado feel that this is not true, then this is one of the reasons why Plateau State is still backward in business. And who says that only people who set up industries are business gurus? Dr. Patrick Utomi of Lagos Business School has never set up an industry, and even the bank he set up ran into problems and was acquired and rescued. But he remains one of Nigeria’s most powerful people because Lagos business School has trained and inspired many people who are successful today. Or is Prince Mado should be telling us that Jos Business School has not trained any person at all in Plateau State ?? I personally know many people who have attended that school and are running their businesses in Plateau state.
2) I also know that Ezekiel Gomos established the first stock-broking company in Plateau State in 1995-PIPC Securities Ltd – through which thousands of people were able to buy and sell shares. When share business was at its peak before the prices tumbled, hundreds of Plateau indigenes and non-indigenes benefited and I personally know people who became millionaires through the buying and selling of shares including civil servants. Without PIPC Securities, I will never have to know what is shares and how to make money from stocks and shares. Today I still buy shares as an investment.
3) I have asked people who know about the sale of Julius Berger shares held by PIPC and they have told me in confidence that Plateau did not own 28% of Julius Berger as claimed by Prince Mado Mado, and the facts also reveal that some Julius Berger shares were actually sold during the Dariye government but Ezekiel Gomos was not even in Plateau State at the time they were sold, but was working in Kaduna at that time. Ezekiel Gomos who worked as SSG for Dariye from 1999 as SSG left in June 2003, before the shares were sold in 2004. If Prince Mado Mado needs answers on the sale of Julius Berger shares, he should contact Mr. Alexander Molwus and Senator Joshua Dariye. My investigation also reveals that Ezekiel Gomos, either as himself or proxy did not purchase any shares in Julius Berger.
4) On the shares of NESCO electricity company, information available in NESCO office in Bukuru reveals that Plateau state has never sold its shares to anyone since they were acquired by the late JD Gomwalk except the part that was surrendered to Benue and later Nasarawa State Governments as part of asset sharing.. Instead, the Plateau State Government during the time of Joshua Dariye bought additional shares. If Chief Joshua Dariye bought shares for himself in NESCO, I am not aware but the company secretary of NESCO confirmed that Ezekiel Gomos has no single share in NESCO. I expect Prince Mado to make simple investigations on who owns what shares in NESCO before making wild allegations.
5) Prince Mado Mado claimed that Ezekiel Gomos sold all the houses in Karu and Keffi. I don’t know which houses he is talking about but it is true that PIPC sold all its low-cost houses all over the old Plateau State in 1998/99. By that time Ezekiel Gomos was no longer in PIPC Jos so he was never involved in the sale of PIPC low-cost houses which was carried out in as at that time by Mrs. Mary Dang who was the MD of PIPC when the houses were sold after appropriate approval by the State Government. Later on in 2009, two PIPC houses in Karu were sold when Mrs Yop Gbadamosi was MD of PIPC and Sen. Jonah Jang was the governor. So how does Prince Mado Mado come about this? Lies or mischief or both?
6) On the so-called sale of metals of Jos Main Market roof, it is public knowledge that it was the Ministry of Commerce and Industry under Hon. Ezekiel Daju that coordinated the sale and Prince Mado should contact Ezekiel Daju. Putting the name of Ezekiel Gomos here is pure mischief.
It is surprising that Prince Mado Mado, who claims he is passionate about securing the future of Plateau State has all this information about Ezekiel Gomos and his role in buying this and that and yet will not write to ICPC but rather write to Facebook? So we can see the that the claims of Prince Mado Mado that Ezekiel Gomos has brought so much injustice and has raped Plateau State, is based on lies, falsehoods and total fabrication just to deceive the public.
Is Ezekiel Gomos so powerful that all the panels of inquiry set by Governors since 1999, none of this information about all these things that Prince Mado is telling us on Facebook was found and the man called to answer? Yet Ezekiel Gomos has always been in the State and if successive governments do find him worthy to serve the State in whatever capacity, is it the man’s fault? Has he been going around lobbying for appointments from these governments? Or are some people like Mado Mado so intimidated by Ezekiel Gomos, so afraid of him that they must work to bring him down at all costs. Maybe they are afraid the man is planning to contest an election in 2019. I don’t know his plans, but I suspect Prince Mado Mado and his sponsors are already jittery and afraid.
The man Ezekiel Gomos is equally involved as a consultant to several international organizations who have the ability to undertake background checks before they appoint people as consultants. If they have been using him in several assignments in the State and other states in Nigeria, it means that they have found him worthy. Or is Prince Mado Mado saying that these so-called things he told Facebook are so hidden that they can’t be found or known by anyone, except him?
Finally, I want to dare Prince Mado Mado to come out and show us the real man he is, and not to hide behind Facebook unless what are you saying are tissues of lies?
