Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, recently had interaction with journalists in Jos, the state capital. He used the occasion to state his vision for the state in his second tenure. The governor also spoke on the controversy, surrounding RUGA and ranching in the state and the general state of insecurity in the North. ANDREW AJIJAH was there.
During your first tenure, your heart was on a five-point agenda – security and good governance, infrastructural development and sustainable economic rebirth. Now, why are you pruning them down from five to three?
Yes, from the beginning, you would understand that the first tenure was also part of taking over from another administration and so, why we created five was partly to look at what we inherited and then examine some of the challenges that were on ground. Therefore, the five-point policy thrust was to help us carry a holistic approach of what we promised the people. You know when you are campaigning, you will promise the people many things and by the time you get into the office, you see a different picture, which you were not privy to. In that scenario, we had to come up with the five-pillar thrust to help us settle down for governance.
Now, after staying in office for four years and we are coming back for another tenure, we realise that we have taken care of some of the challenges we inherited. Having taken care of such things, you now have to remain focused for the remaining four as, as you cannot do everything byt, at least, you must do about 60 percent to 70 percent. I always don’t want to say I am perfect but I must strive to do my best to hit within the level of a B, or an A. If I get a B, fine but if I get an A, that is excellent. And that is what I am trying to do. Now we have reduced the 5-Pillar Thrust to three namely: Peace, security and good governance; physical infrastructural development and sustainable economic rebirth.
Before your emergence as the governor, Plateau was referred to as a civil service state. But since you came on board, there has been a lot of attention on economic growth and internally generated revenue increased by 100 percent between 2015 and 2018. You have also promised that there would be a yearly increase in IGR. What are the strategies put in place that will make you achieve this?
Thank you. We have put in a lot of strategies. First, I told you that we engaged the Boston Consulting Group, BCG, to prepare a development plan which they have finished now. After the development plan, we are also planning an Economic Summit, which I think is going to be the first of its kind in Plateau State. Secondly, in terms of revenue, I have engaged a consultant, the woman who did the magic for Kaduna State, Mrs. Ofueko Omoigui Okauru, who was one time chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service. She is already in Plateau State to prepare and put in facilities for the improvement of our revenue and that will take another four years. So, we are not joking when we say look, we are determined to take away Plateau from being a civil service state and that is why when we mention economic rebirth, we are talking about infrastructure and enabling environment. When you create this kind of environment for people, the private sector will invest. If you continue to say we are a civil service state and you go and sit down in your office and wait for 4 o’clock and then you leave after eating lunch, that does not make the state productive. We are thinking out of the box. As a civil servant, you must be able to get something doing outside that office. That is why we are emphasising on skill acquisition and a lot of other empowerment programmes.
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The Plateau State Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency, PLASMEDA, is doing very well, engaging people and we have done a lot of sensitisation, saying to our people, don’t just be a civil servant. Be a civil servant with something extra that you are doing. We are emphasising on agriculture; we are saying, look even as a civil servant, it doesn’t stop you from farming. It doesn’t stop you from getting a loan to do something outside the civil service and so a lot of it is coming through empowerment which we are doing.
I have not been a civil servant in the past. I will say, like my friend El-Rufai that I am also an accidental public servant because I have been in the private sector all the time. But when I came in, I realised that even if you are doing something, you must prepare for the rainy day; for either a rainy day or a bad day so that you know that either way, if there is no salary or something unusual happens, you have something to fall back on and embrace rather than always sitting down saying that we are not going to do this because we are civil servants. I have done my best in terms of salaries, compared to what is happening in most of the states. Like I told some people, even if you don’t say he has done his best, at least the lizard that has climbs the Iroko tree will say let somebody too go and climb and fall.
Do you think the mindset of people is changing in that regard?
I must say I am very happy because without the cooperation of the people, we would not achieve what we have achieved. So, I thank them for the level of cooperation particularly in ensuring that there is peace in the state. But I am emphasising that we should do more just, as I am also doing my best.
In the recent past, Plateau State witnessed crisis and violence, but peace has substantially returned. Now how do you intend to rebrand the state? How do you intend to change people’s perception to the original Plateau as the Home of Peace and Tourism?
Thank you very much. Yes, we have done a lot in terms of addressing the causes of the problems and sustaining the peace. Sustaining peace goes along with dealing with poverty. I have noticed that when there is abject poverty; you see, stomach insecurity leads to physical insecurity and we have a lot of youths out there who are not working. So, we have a special package. You can see that I am the only state that created the Peace Building Agency, the only state in the Federation. So, we are developing that to sustain the peace and conflict management in the state. I have mentioned that you must always find ways of empowering people. Now, when you empower people, you get them off the street, but the moment you leave them roaming about, they become very vulnerable. Every time they can be used for a peanut. That is why you see youths engaging in several vices that will be detrimental to the society. As part of the scheme, we are also talking about industrialisation. We must find Plateau to become an industrial state by creating the enabling environment and then people will come and invest in the state. I have always said that each time you sit down and you claim to be driving people away from your state, you lose. If Lagos was like that, Lagos will not be the way it is today. We should not drive people from our state. We are Plateau people but we need investors to come to the state. Why are we calling investors to come, if we then turn around to create unviable environment? It is the responsibility of government to sit down and fish out criminals within us whether they are indigenes or not. We must fish out criminals from within us. We are doing very well with the security apparatus and we are also empowering and also expanding our ‘Operation Rainbow’ in case we wake up one day and the Federal Government says we are withdrawing ‘Operation Safe Haven’. That’s why I am preparing. Already, I have an advantage, when people talk about state police. I say I have ‘Operation Rainbow’, which functions in a similar fashion. All I need is to enhance the capacity of the ‘Operation Rainbow’, which we are doing right now. I am very happy the Federal Government is already talking about community policing, which has been an idea I support all along. We are engaging and employing people from each local government or each community to serve as informants and that way, we will help in sustaining the peace we have in the state.
We are also addressing volatile areas. You can see that we have already established a Mobile Police Squadron in Shendam. We have established Air Force Search and Rescue Unit at Kerang, Mangu Local Government Area. And I am already preparing to finish the establishment of another Mobile Police Squadron in Gashish, Barkin Ladi Local Government Area.
In as much as you are doing your best in terms of peace and security, we know that there are always elements within the society called merchants or sponsors of conflict and they are the ones that no matter what you do, they try as much as possible to sabotage the process so to say. What are you doing in this regard especially since some people say they have never seen the arrest of any sponsor of conflict?
Well, it will be unfortunate if they say that because I know that several times, the police, the army and other security agencies have been parading suspected people for various offences. Even recently, the commissioner of police told me that there are some notorious criminals that he caught and are in detention. As part of facilitating prosecution, we have passed the law; we have amended our penal code and also amended our other relevant laws to facilitate quick and easy prosecution in the state. Our administration of criminal justice law is one of the best in the north now and because of that people have come to Plateau State to copy what we have amended so it won’t take time for you to prosecute. Police are doing their best in Plateau State. So, you don’t need to carry a criminal to Abuja again. You know in the past, people complain that they see criminals here and when they are caught they say when they take them to Abuja, they will never see them again and they won’t know whether they are prosecuted or they are just released. But today, they are in Plateau State. I know that they are here, they are undergoing prosecution. What I am thinking of doing next is to also enhance the capacity of the Ministry of Justice. You can see in the last few months, I have dwelled seriously on the Ministry of Justice. Some of the things they wanted, they were complaining about, we have enhanced it and also the judiciary, I am building the high court to make them comfortable. I am a lawyer; I cannot leave this place without a good judiciary. So, together with the Chief Judge, we are collaborating. We are trying to enhance the capacity of the judiciary and also the Ministry of Justice in terms of prosecution and also about ‘Operation Rainbow’ and of course the police. Recently, I bought four Hilux vans and I gave it to the police, apart from the 53 vehicles that we bought and gave the security in the last two years.
The vehicles we gave them recently were specifically to tackle the problems of kidnapping. There has been influx of kidnappers into the state and we decided to ask the IGP to send us the Special IRT Group from Abuja, led by DCP Abba Kyari. They are here and when they came and said, look, what we need are vehicles, I said take vehicles and you can see every day, they are picking kidnappers from their hideouts. So, if we address the issue of kidnappers, the issue of cattle rustling, armed robbery and the issue of banditry, our people will be safer than ever before.
You are also the chairman of Northern Governors Forum and quite a lot is happening in the North. How are you tackling insecurity in the region?
Well, thank you very much. That is another big challenge. When I was elected as the chairman of Northern Governors Forum, I said wow! I have a headache here in Plateau State and another headache (was) added. However, I said by the grace of God, I would do my best by applying the wisdom that He gave us to deal with the challenge here in Plateau State; we would extend to the other parts of the north. And if you recall, from the very day I was appointed the chairman of Northern Governors Forum, I set up a committee on security chaired by the Governor of Katsina State, Aminu Bello Masari. Since then, he has also had to contend with insecurity in his state. However, that committee is working very well. I have also prepared that we will soon have a meeting of the Northern Governors Forum which will be my first meeting formally to receive the report of the committee and decide the way forward. Right now, we have the challenges of banditry, cattle rustling, and kidnapping, which are very prevalent in the north. So, we shall be receiving the report of the committee and also preparing for a Northern Security Summit.
Aside from that, I have always been in touch with the Inspector General of Police, IGP. He is doing well because part of the recommendations we made so far, they are implementing it. I attended the meeting of the North-west Security Council and it was very wonderful. In some cases, you need dialogue to succeed, because it is not always responding with confrontation. I will ensure that the success of such engagement is extended to the north central. The IG has gone to the south west where he did the same thing. We are preparing to have our own in the North central just like the North east is already established even as it is taken care of by the Federal Government. One of the area too that we saw that is a problem and needs to be tackled is the Almajiri system. So, we have set up a committee that will bring out how to address the Almajiri system because in a society where you leave a large population that is doing nothing but roaming the streets, that is another cause of insecurity not only in the north but in the nation at large. So, we have also set up a committee to look at it. And once we conclude on the issue of the Almajiri, which also goes with the issue of employment, we shall have some respite.
You have done a lot obviously in terms of sustaining peace to ensure Plateau become an enabling environment not only for the indigenes, but also investors who wish to come and invest for the benefit of the people. Recently, you were in Japan and I know a lot of people were full of praises when you talked about accessing $300 billion from Afri-Japan to finance some projects, especially in the rural areas. Can you expatiate on that?
Well, we went to Japan to attend the TICAD 7 Summit, which is an investment summit for Africa spearheaded by Japan. For me, that was the first time I was attending. I realised that President Muhammadu Buhari attended the summit in Kenya in 2016. We are talking about the fact that Japan is putting $50 billion for investments in Africa, especially in rural development and so Plateau will also want to go in and see what we can get out of the $50 billion. During the course of our attendance, we were able to interact with a lot of investors both African and Japanese investors. I realise that instead of sitting here and talking through emails inviting people to come and invest, it is batter to go and meet them to discuss properly. Some people say you can sit down in one place and talk to investors. It is far different than when you meet them. Recently, I had cause to address the Zumunta Association, which is the body of sons and daughters of northern origin in the Americas, and they were asking questions that clearly showed that they are not in touch with the things we have been able to achieve in the last four years and the kind of opportunities that exist in the state. In fact when I heard some of their questions, I said look, it’s like you are out of this world because all these things you are talking about, we’ve gone pass them. They said but they don’t get such information as what they read on social media and the internet is different. This is the kind of problem we have and so when you go there and you explain to them direct, you give them complete facts and they look at it and they see. When I went there, I had cause to address some Japanese investors and I told them that our state is now the best in terms of SMEs in Nigeria. They said ah! How come that Plateau is best on SMEs, technology, and skills acquisition. My young people are doing excellently well. Every year, we go to Abuja, we are taking home all the prices. The best person in 2018 was from Plateau and second best in 2019 is still from Plateau. We will continue to produce the kinds of Jerry Mallo, just like the Japanese. Why I have this passion for skills acquisition is to create a skilled generation that can solve problems. That is why I am reviving the Technical School in Kuru. I am going to expand and equip that school just as I am also putting the same in all the zones. There is going to be one in Shendam and the other one in Pankshin, which will create opportunities not only for the youth, but even the civil servants because you can go there and do two or three or six months course. Sometime, if your go there and do six months course in tailoring, that is an advantage to you. You come back and establish a tailoring shop. When you get out of work after 4pm, you are in your tailoring workshop. So this is what we are doing. We drew a lot of attention in Japan and I did not go alone. I went with the Managing Director of Plateau Investment, Chrysogunos Yilzak and the Director General, PLASMEDA, Haggai Gutap, who are now linking up with several companies that are likely to come and invest in Plateau State.
This also applies to agriculture. We have a lot of potentials in agriculture and we are already working towards exporting potatoes as we improve our food value chain. We have already started working with the African Development Bank. If you go to Riyom, you will see one of the processing zones we have already built. We have done the tissue culture in Mangu, which is almost completed and the next process is building dams which will start in the next few weeks. With these in place, people who want to engage in potato cultivation will not be doing potatoes once in a year, but twice. Each time Mr. President sees me, he will say look, you know I like potatoes very well and I don’t want to eat imported potatoes. I want to eat Plateau potato and I have assured him that all year round, he will eat fresh potatoes from the Plateau because of what we are doing.
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Could you explain to us the issue of livestock management in Plateau State, because there seems to be a lot of misinformation about it?
On my own, I set up a 12-man committee headed by Prof. Ochapa Onazi. Traditional rulers were involved. Religious leaders were involved; CAN and JNI, the civil societies were involved as well as representatives of youths. They were the ones who developed the scheme. They went to Abuja, they came back and the recommendation was that Plateau should adopt ranching. When we finished the ranching, we went to the local governments for sensitisation apart from all the various stakeholders in Plateau State. At the end, the conclusion was for us to go with ranching. Now, the first issue was to go and get the land. Because the Federal Government is going to sponsor the pilot scheme, it does not mean that Federal Government is the one carrying it out. Now a budget for pilot scheme was announced for those states that wanted to do the entire livestock business according to their own peculiarities as a voluntary initiative. No coercion. So, we also said any local government that wants to establish in her local government should provide land. Some local governments agreed and provided land and that was when political manipulation started. Some said we are grabbing land, we are doing this, we have done that. At the end of the day, we suspended land from the local government but we have a grazing reserve in Wase. We have a grazing reserve in Kanam and from the archive; they brought out to us, the number of grazing reserves that we have in Plateau. They are eight. Out of the eight grazing reserves we have in Plateau, six were taken over. If I embark on recovering them, it will create another problem because past leaders, especially the military, shared all the land among themselves and the ones that are left are just Wase and Kanam. If we leave it today, another regime will come and we will not see it again and I said nobody should go to these areas; they are grazing reserves owned by Plateau State Government. If this is the case, we would make sure we use those grazing reserves not for real grazing reserves now but for investors to come and invest in ranching and dairy. While we were doing that, we started hearing the issue of RUGA, and people said Plateau is doing RUGA. I said no, we are not doing RUGA on the Plateau. Here we stand on livestock production through ranching. I have continuously explained to people and said, look, don’t put religion or ethnic sentiments into investment. Don’t! Because it will scare away investors, who want to bring in their money. My plea to people is, if you hear a concept, listen to it and understand it. As for RUGA, whatever it is, those who want it in their states, let them do it. However, for us, we are talking of livestock production, which is not restricted to cows. It is also sheep, is also piggery, is also poultry and everything. So, if there are incentives or palliatives or subsidies for this item from the Federal Government, I have keyed into it and we are waiting for this subsidy to help empower our people.