Lalong Will Resign If Things Do Not Improve In Three Years — DG

The Plateau State Director General, Research and Planing Professor John Wade has said by the time the present administration led by Governor Simon Lalong is through with its people oriented programmes that will herald strategic development in the state, the people of Plateau will have no choice than to return him in 2019.

Prof. Wade stated this in an exclusive chat with our correspondent in Jos, where he articulated the workings of the present administration against the discordant tones of the people of Plateau vis-à-vis the current hardship being experienced in the country at large.

He said part of the challenges experienced in Plateau is as a result of the rot inherited from the last eight years of the previous administration which the present government is intensifying effort to fix, noting that peace which is the primary root for development has been fixed by the Lalong led government within the space of 10 months.

His words, “it is certainly not expected for anyone to lay his mat on the floor of a house that is full of vipers and scorpions talk less of inviting people to lay with you. The first thing to do is to clean up the house, which is exactly what we are doing and I can tell you that, it is not an easy task”, he said.

According to him, if government allows itself to be carried away by the agitation of the people that it is moving at a speed of a snail speed, the people should also remember that speed kills.

Wade enumerated various achievements of the Lalong led government apart from attainment of peace, as he is also aware that people are eager to see the multiplication effects of theses achievements as it relates to their needs and aspirations. But however, I make bold to say that if this government spends between two to three years in office and we are still in this present condition, as a matter of principle the government will resign.

on the issue of the frequent travels by Governor Lalong, the DG said that he is disappointed that even educated Nigerians are questioning the frequent trips by the governor. He noted that governors all over the country travel to negotiate better developmental strides that will benefit their people.

According to him, “in leadership, if you don’t travel, you cannot think outside the box. There is no governor that has received insults from Nigerians like President Buhari for his frequent overseas trip. Any governor that stays a whole month in his state without reaching out to Abuja, will obviously have questions to answer, especially in this modern day governance”.

“Quite a number of these trips are products of functions of official duties of the governors. For instance, before the 5billion naira loan was released out of the 10billion applied for, Governor Lalong was always in Abuja meeting with officials of CBN and other officials in the government and financial sectors to facilitate the release of the loan”.

Recall that the bail out fund was used to settle salaries, we need not to over emphasis that we inherited over seven months owned civil servants salaries of which we have almost cleared and is remaining only two to three months.

“The recent 5billion naira that was released out of the 10billion sorted for, is to service the inherited capital projects. So you can see that the governor will not seat in Government House and facilitate these monies that has brought succor to the people of Plateau”, he added.

Wade said that by the time this present administration will complete all the abandoned projects and reposition Plateau with its five point policy trust, the people who are clamoring for only one tenure for the Governor, will be the one campaigning for him in 2019.