Plateau State in the past 10 days of the Barrister Caleb Mutfwang governance has been plagued by a lot of political summersaults which have all the ingredients of taking the state back to the decadent days of the past PDP administration in the state. For these ten days, which is already like 10 years to many citizens, his reign of impunity has subjected every facets of the people’s lives to unwarranted agony.
Statement made available to this medium and was signed by Hon. SylvanusNamang,
APC State Publicity Secretary stated that
First, he marked his first two days in office by descending on the Local Government structures in the state, a constituency or a ladder which he used to rise to the exalted position of Governor, though which is still being keenly contested at the tribunal.
The handwritten manifesto of the PDP in Plateau state which is different from that of the party’s national manifesto is to undo and erase anything that has to do with the eight years of the Rt. Hon. Simon Bako Lalong administration.
We would not be surprised if one day we wake up to the decision of disbanding the Plateau Peace Building Agency, the demolition of the ultra modern High Court Complex and the British America Junction Flyover Bridge and Roundabout Road in addition to the Lalong legacy projects being part of its vindictive policy summersaults.
The All Progressives Congress in Plateau State had, in its Press Conference early this week, stated thag it is going to interrogate all his policy decisions as citizens and critical stakeholders of the Plateau project and heritage.
While the Governor is already grappling with disquiet in his own party over the appointments he has so far made, which some of the contestants for some positions, especially that of the Secretary to the Government of the State, SGS but lost out are already feeling disappointed. They are alleging that early signs have clear indication that the Mutfwang administration is going to be that of secondary school classmates by classmates for classmates.
Of great concern to the All Progressives Congress in Plateau State is his fast backpeddaling on the promises he made during the campaign and his inaugural speech.
Only yesterday evening, the state was visited with the news of the suspension of all appointments/employments into the state civil service made from 1st October, 2022 by the immediate past dispensation.
Additionally he reversed the appointments of Civil Servants to the positions of Permanent Secretaries to go back to their previous positions.
This toxic and very unpopular decisions are as condemnable as they cannot stand any integrity test by all discerning minds judged against his own sundry pronouncements.
He promised in his inaugural speech and in a video during the campaigns which has gone viral in the social media that he was not going to remove any worker employed into the civil service but is rather going to employ more hands in order to enhance the capacity of civil servants and reposition it to be one of the best in the country.
He described those who said he was going to do away with civil servants employed by the immediate past administration as “unimaginative liars” and “figment of their imagination”. What a melodrama!
In their previous press statements, this most unreliable PDP in the state which cannot be trusted had clearly stated that they are going to do away with all employment into the public service which they had already tagged were do e in “flagrant abuse of public service rules and non adherence to due process” which makes what the Governor has done a fait accompli
It is important to remind His Excellency that while throwing a stone into the open market, you cannot tell whose head it is going to fall on.
Some of these innocent Plateau unemployed youths whose source of livelihood has been terminated and their future made bleak will be full of regrets as some of them in the wake of all sorts of deception and the outpouring of religious sentiments during the last Gubernatorial election voted for him.
Parents who also forced their wards to vote for him with great expectation in return would by now be licking their wounds.
We thought that Governor Mutfwang who said he comes from a humble background should run a government with human face rather than choosing to do things and damn the consequences.
If we may ask, when he sleeps and wakes up, how does he feel as a Christian which he professes and zealously pontificates at various fora, about the proprietary of his decisions and actions thus far?
To be sure, all appointments made by the Lalong administration were done in line with due process and extant regulations. The heads charged with the conduct of the exercise are men and women of proven integrity and are very patriotic citizens of the state with vast experience and down- to -earth retired bureaucrats in their own right who did what would stand the test of time.
Rather than embarking on this journey to the precipice, we advise the Governor to toe the line of reasoning and tread softly.
He needs to know that government is a continuum. It is against this background that former Governor Simon Bako Lalong on assumption of office in 2015, went ahead and completed projects embarked upon by former Governor Jonah Jang.
He recalled all teachers and civil servants sacked by his predecessor Dara Jonah David Jang and paid those who went on strike under a punitive “no work no pay” policy.
What the Governor should have preoccupied his mind with at this early stage is how to find lasting solutions to the security challenges being faced by the state, especially in Mangu his home local goverment area where the people have been dislodged by armed gangs to be refugees in their own land.
Most of those displaced in over fifty communities in the local goverment are farmers who produce most of the food requirements of this state and beyond and have become so agitated and dissolutioned as the planting season is fast coming to an end.
Secondly, civil servants are on a strike action which was clearly instigated by the PDP to cause disharmony between the exiting government and the workforce.
He ought to pay them to return to work as they are already grumbling thinking his coming on board was going to be an Eldorado for civil servants.
The APC calls for the immediate suspension of his weird decisions especially the suspension of public servants whose source of livelihood has been aborted.
This is in addition to our earlier call this week for the immediate putting on halt the suspension/dissolution of Local Government Chairmen and the Legislative Arms.
What the state needs most is progressive decisions with human face and piety which he has so much preached to enable the citizenry enjoy the dividends of democracy rather than the pains they are groaning under at this very early stage of the PDP administration.
He really needs to tread with greater caution against the background of the pending case at the tribunal which could go either way.
