As Governor Jonah David Jang of Plateau State settles to his last year in office, the prevailing political discourse in his state, has not veered much into who would succeed him, but has centered around which of the three senatorial zones should produce the next governor.
The state is divided into Central, North and South senatorial zones and each of the zones is insisting that for fairness, it deserves to be given the slot next year.
Those from the southern zone hinge their agitation on the fact that it is the only zone that would be in deficit of eight years in office by 2015 when the northern zone must have done eight years in the Plateau government house.
They argue that since the combination of the tenure of Solomon Lar and that of Fidelis Tapgun does not equate what the other zones must have spent in office, then it is only fair, that aspirants from the other zones be made to concede to them.
State vice chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Saidu Musa, recently expressed this sentiment arguing that any balancing to be done in the state must be within when the current structure of the state and not when other states were part of it. He argued that the new Plateau emerged in 1996 when Nasarawa State was carved out of it.
“Since the creation of the present Plateau, the southern senatorial district has not produced a governor. I am talking about 1999 to date,” he said.
Musa who also contended that what is now Nasarawa State was where Plateau governors mostly took their deputies from when Nasarawa was part of Plateau, said what is now southern Plateau has long been losing out in the power equation of the state and that it deserves to have an equal stake.
“The southern Plateau zone has capable hands to take over and build on the legacies established by the PDP government under the leadership of Governor Jonah Jang,” he said adding that no zone of the state was more PDP than the southern zone and that PDP would only be acting fairly by conceding the governorship to the zone.
His view is supported by a university don, Ezekiel Adeyi, who at a recent seminar, said the southern zone had not had the governor since 1999 and that it would only be fair to allow it take the slot in 2015.
Former chairman of the National Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) in the state, Mr. Haroun Audu also corroborated this view saying the ideals of fairness and sense of belonging eminently stood southern Plateau in good stead to have one of its own as Plateau State governor come 2015.
A group, known as Plateau South Democracy Watch, has also lent its view to the position of people from Southern Plateau.
National secretary, Nanya Daman, in a statement, said the agitation by some individuals and interest groups that the rotation of the governorship seat of Plateau should begin from another senatorial district of the state other than the south is not only in bad faith, but repugnant and unacceptable.
“Equity and good conscience dictates that Plateau South Senatorial District is next in line to produce the governor of Plateau State. We shall refuse, reject and repeal forthwith any further act designed to subsume and supine us as a people under any guise whatsoever,” he said.
Prominent politicians from the zone like Barrister Solomon Dalung and Ambassador Yahaya Kwande have stressed that power should return to the southern zone ‘in the interest of fairness and justice’.
Plateau South Senatorial zone comprises six local governments namely, Langtang North, Langtang South, Mikang, Qua’anpan, Shendam, and Wase.
But as the south makes its case, stakeholders from Plateau Central are also mapping out strategies to clinch the governorship position after Jang, insisting that the other zones have had their share of the number one seat and that it is only fair that the position should return to their zone.
Raising this view in a communiqué issued after a meeting in Pankshin, the zone which consists of Bokkos, Mangu, Pankshin, Kanke and Kanam local government areas, argue that it should be the turn of the zone to take power by the time Jang hands over next year.
Mr. Yusuf Tokit, the PDP national vice chairman, North Central, who spoke the minds of the stakeholders said, “since all three zones have occupied the governorship seat, the zoning formula should re-start with the central zone.”
The northern senatorial zone which is made up of Barkin-Ladi, Bassa, Jos East, Jos North, Jos South, and Riyom, and currently has Governor Jang representing it, is also making the same demand for fairness. But unlike the other zones, some from within it disagree that the zone should be the next beneficiary of the zoning arrangement while some even suggest it is better to jettison the idea of zoning entirely so that all indigenes of the state could vie for the seat.
A group known as Plateau North Political Front has come out to assert that the northern senatorial zone of the state reserves the right towards 2015 to seek the gubernatorial position of the state.
Chairman of the group, Evangelist Daniel Izang, rebutted claims of a zoning arrangement among the three zones. “We challenge anybody with claims of a zoning arrangement to step forward and present their case and facts if ever there was such an agreement entered in our political history,” he stressed.
The group, which said it was speaking with the consent of leaders from the zone, argued that the three senatorial districts of the state had each served as governor and that Jang’s eight-year tenure only completes the circle and called on citizens of other zones to queue behind a northern candidate.
“The zone still has a lot to offer the state and it is only logical that it should be accorded the right and privilege to present a candidate because we have been tested and found trustworthy for good governance,” he said.
Their position differs from that of a youth group by the name ‘Coalition for Concerned Plateau Northern Youths,’ which is supporting southern Plateau to produce the next governor.
The group which addressed a news briefing in Jos on the subject of which of the three senatorial zones of the state the next governor should come from, said it would be unfair for Plateau North zone to insists on holding on to power next year when one of its own would be completing eight years in office by next year.
Spokesman of the group, Mafeng Gwallson, argued that “desiring to spend another eight years would amount to great inconveniences for people from other zones who have the potentials to replicate the gestures of people from Plateau north, if not better.”
Gwallson said his group decided to speak out because it believed in inclusiveness, equity and fair play, and that such principles need to be respected if the current leadership of the state is to have something agreeable to preserve for the future.
Significantly, the raging zoning debate has taken much from the belief that it is up to Jang to decide who succeeds him.
As it is, many goaded by their interpretation of what constitutes fairness, would be prepared to challenge the governor if he throws his weight behind a candidate perceived by others as coming from a zone, which should defer to others in the next dispensation.
Analysts say a situation in which all the three zones are agitating without let up, leaves Jang in a tight corner though the governor has refused to give in to pressure from various quarters on him to reveal his candidate.
