(Excerpts from an editorial of THE NIGERIA STANDARD newspaper, Wednesday, May 29, 2024)
While he waited to be sworn in following his victory in the gubernatorial polls of March 18, 2023, one of the seemingly intractable problems that has wreaked havoc on parts of Plateau State for decades reared its ugly head in a most bloody manner.
On May 15, 2023 (two weeks to Barrister Mutfwang’s inauguration as governor), suspected herdsmen struck his homeland – Mangu. Over 100 innocent people, mostly women and children, were murdered in cold blood as they slept in their homes.
And almost one year and a week later, yet another tragedy occured. It would further accentuate the kinds of obstacles that Governor Mutfwang has had to contend with in the onerous task of cleaning the state’s Augean Stables he inherited from his predecessor.
On May 22, 2024, a police officer attached to the enforcement team of the Jos Metropolitan Development Board, JMDB, was accidentally struck by a stray bullet fired by his colleague. This resulted in his death. The security personnel were deployed by the state government to enforce the law against street trading in the Jos city centre. They were trying to disperse traders that had continued to defy that order.
And although these two unfortunate incidents appear to be unrelated, they share the same broader, sinister, motives of subjugating Plateau people to the control and whims of extraneous forces and interests. However, it is to the governor’s credit that he has been able to navigate these hostile waters so far.
The Mangu massacre and the events that led to the accidental death of the policeman and many other equally unsavory situations he has had to struggle with in-between would have ordinarily weakened and demoralized another leader.
But not this governor. Rather, these provocations and distractions only served as impetus to work harder and make even more sacrifices to change the terrible narrative he inherited.
From the beginning, he had left no one in doubt about his firm resolve to bring life to an almost prostrate state. On inauguration day, exactly one year ago today, he had declared: “I must mention that there are no quick fix solutions to these challenges, but one thing is certain, we are prepared to take the challenges head-on and we will hit the ground running immediately.”
The governor has continued to put this decades’ old problem in proper perspective by declaring that the conflict is not between Plateau indigenous peoples but a deliberate attempt by outside forces bent on using terrorism to facilitate land-grabbing.
The cost of transportation sky-rocketed as a result of the sudden removal of fuel subsidy. Proactive and responsive, the Mutfwang administration speedily set in motion strategies to alleviate the resultant pains in a most pragmatic and viable way. Today, the state metro bus service is fully functional.
Political analysts say that there is a strong feeling among members of the main opposition party in the state, the All Progressives Congress, APC, that the government does not consider them as partners in progress. That they are perceived as enemies while in actual fact they should be taken as co-travelers working for the progress of the state.
However, as we have pointed out previously, government should look into genuine concerns and address those that will not jeopardize its strategic plans.
Well aware of the enormity of the task before him and the need to have the people on his side to be able to chart a new course during this new era, he had solemnly stated on that inauguration day: “I want you to trust me to be there for you in the next four years.”
*Read the complete front page comment in the hard copy of today’s special bumper edition of the newspaper