February 04, (THEWILL) – Last May 29, when transfer of power took place in Plateau State, it sounded like a political witch-hunt and blackmail when in his inauguration speech, Governor Caleb Mutfwang declared that he was not mistaken or in doubt about the enormity of the task ahead.
That was actually a moment that sobriety came with sober sobs. An era of incompetent leadership and inchoate governance just left the state in an all-time-high debt profile, with the socio-economic environment around the state in stench and stink and the average Plateau indigene despairing at the nadir of hope about the Plateau Project petering into nothingness and possible extinction. This put the dawning dispensation under enormous pressure to deliver on good governance and quality leadership.
Beside the discouraging and disenabling handover details from the preceding administration, the Assets Verification and Recovery Committee uncovered what was disgusting enough – the large-scale theft of public property – to warrant the incoming administration to invite the leadership of the church in the state to intervene and facilitate the recovery of missing critical assets back to the state’s coffers.
With an empty treasury, a demobilised and despairing public service pulverised and traumatised by unpaid wages and devastated by hopelessness, no sooner did the new administration settle down to refurbishing a diminished official inventory and personnel morale than the ferocious scamper, bloodletting and comprehensive arson turned most of Plateau Central zone into an orchestra of humanitarian disaster and destination of global pity and human charity.
The crises in the Plateau Central zone early in the life of the Mutfwang administration did not only test the will and ability of the regime to keep its focus and forge ahead, they were of the potential to humble a leader with a frail character and resolve, and harass it to a terminal halt and total surrender.
That the main theatre of the crisis was Gindiri and other parts of Mangu, Mutfwang’s home local government area, and given the sophisticated weaponry employed by the terrorists and the superb coordination and sustenance of the onslaught, it was not really imperfect analysis to read political undertones into the deadly campaigns and that the fledgling Mutfwang administration was a target for blackmail and possible collapse.
But this major challenge also became a unique moment for the tender administration to demonstrate leadership potentials in the manner it rose and responded to the occasion and deployed resources to contend the violence in Plateau central zone that turned in heart-rending figures in death toll and internally displaced persons, IDPs.
The way forward, as demonstrated by Mutfwang, was in determination, brinkmanship, diplomacy, contacts, mobilization and deployment. The governor did not only secure audience with Mr President to present the urgency and emergency status of the situation in Plateau at the time, he won the attention of the President who did not hesitate to deploy security personnel on special intervention to Mangu and other parts of Plateau Central that were under terrorist siege and attacks.
Describing the attacks as “genocide”, and faulting the rather misleading old narrative of “farmer-herder clash”, Mutfwang visited the leaderships of the various state security formations and made several critical and strategic public and media appearances to decry the state of insecurity in Plateau, as well as the extent to which the natives have been endangered by non-state actors perpetrating ambush, attacks, killings, land grabbing, displacement, and destruction of farms and agricultural produce.
Part of the strategies to resolve, or terminate the cycle of invasion and attacks, has been to engage internal stakeholders, including religious leaders and faith-based platforms, elders, ethnic nationalities and their socio-economic assemblages, and reviewing the strategic roles local security arrangements such as the state-owned Operation Rainbow and vigilante groups can play to ensure enduring security that will bring about safe thriving and food security will be achieved by the new administration.
The Christmas Eve attacks in Bokkos, Barkin Ladi, and Mangu were not only large scale with humongous casualty in human and property destruction, they stretched the state in terms resources, with the point being emphasized that more still has to be done, and more hands have to get on the deck, if political leadership has to find workable solutions that will restore the State to its age-long status of “home of Peace and tourism”.
It is part of the programme and policy of calming frayed nerves that the Mutfwang government has offered to bear the medical bills of those injured during the attacks; with a greater resolve to liaise with all stakeholders to facilitate the return and resettlement of those who have been displaced to their ancestral homes. However, the policy frowns with emphasis at land grabbing, as it advises that those without title to land who wish to acquire land should do so through the due process, and should respect the indigenes value system.
In similar vein, the Plateau State Government has been deliberate about transparency and fairness in the administration of interventions and assistance received from organisations and individuals towards cushioning the plight of victims of the attacks.
Notably, a committee was constituted to oversee the disbursement of the five hundred million naira intervention brought by the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, on behalf of the Tinubu Foundation, in reaction to the July/August attacks in Mangu and parts of Plateau central zone.
Last week Thursday, led by its Chairman and governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, the PDP Governors’ Forum paid a commiseration visit to Governor Mutfwang at the Government house in Jos. On the occasion, Governor Bala Mohammed announced a one hundred million naira donation to assist the cause of the victims of the attacks. Importantly, the PDP Governors’ Forum Chairman added voice to the position that Mutfwang has consistently canvassed as part of initiatives to end or tame insecurity within states and inter-state crime, that the establishment of State Police and state policing be legalized to strengthen the efforts of the present organs of state security.
In demonstrating leadership beyond the crises, the Mutfwang administration has proceeded with public service and governance as if there are no distractions. Using the infrastructure renewal programme which has seen the government rehabilitating old roads and bridges, and completing projects abandoned by past administrations in different communities and different parts of the state, different settlements and groups – Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Fulani, native settlements and all have been captured and touched with one project or another.
As of press time, Governor Mutfwang was enjoying unprecedented positive reviews and excellent rating in social circles talks and opinion polls in the State. From the Hausa/Fulani dominated Bauchi Road to Fillin Ball in Nasarawa Gwong, to Ibo-dominated area of Apata, to the all-comers enclave in Tudun Wada area of Jos, all demographic groups are united in celebration and the dominant subject is that Mutwang’s eight months have surpassed Simon Bako Lalong’s eight years. Enthusiastic commentators prefer to dub the phenomenon as Leadership beyond the crises.
