Governor Simon Lalong
By M. Peter, Jos.
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Plateau state has asked the State Government, Simon Lalong to explain to citizens why the State was not included as one of the beneficiaries of the recent grant from the World Bank.
The party says the fact that Plateau state missed out in the grant showed that the Governor has failed to give focused leadership which would warrant the State to benefit from such gesture.
The PDP noted that with the Governor’s position as the Chairman of Northern Governors’ Forum, it is an indictment if the Governor and his Party, the All Progressives Congress, APC could not stay focused enough to gain the confidence of reputable organizations who would want to support governance in the State.
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The State PDP in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, John Akans says they need immediate explanation from the governor.
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“The Plateau State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has demanded an immediate explanation from the Governor of Plateau State ,Rt Hon Simon Lalong over the disqualification of the state from benefitting from the $43.416b world bank grant (SFTAS) under the International Development Agency/International Finance Agency Sub- sets of the world Bank group which was shared among 24 states in the country.”
“The Party believes that instead of the misleading narrative by the APC agents that it is merely being victimised, the Governor owes a great explanation to the people of Plateau. This is because it is not a politically sourced money, whereby the Governor, as the Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum would have picked it as a bonanza due to his favoured position as a good political son of the President.”
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“It is a fact that this money is granted to States on merit and on the platter of the satisfactory delivery of public governance that is within the orbit of rules of accountability. We believe that a State like Plateau under your government was disqualified because of its unfocused governance that operates outside the global norms and circle of transparency . What a shame!”
Akans maintained, “This situation has exposed the weakness of the APC leadership in the State for not competently competing with other States to earn such a relief. This is yet another manifestation that has further exposed the deceit, lies and failure of the APC in the State, and indeed a grave deficit and incompetence of a Governor among his peers.
“With a confirmation coming from the Federal Ministry of Finance itself which shared the money to the States, it gave details of how the money was shared, which is only to States adjudged to have performed well, particularly in areas of fiscal transparency, accountability and sustainability. In other words, States that followed global established procedures of accountability and transparency in managing resources at their disposal.
“How can a party continue to politicise and monopolize governance at this digital era of public administration and expect good results? No wonder the State has not responded because its lacks what to say as it is not a political matter where PDP will be blamed as usual. The Governor should challenge the World Bank if he feels he was qualified by his performance and yet denied the grant.”
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He added, “This is an indictment to the APC leadership in the State and it has also vindicated our calls for prudence, strategic and transparent economic planning in the State. Posterity will not be kind to APC under Lalong for incurring such a huge loss to the people of Plateau and for running a deficit governance in the State.”
However, at the time of sending the report, neither the State Secretary of the APC, Sati Musa nor the Publicity Secretary of the Party, Chindo Dafat could give any response as the Secretary did not pick his calls nor replied to a text sent and calls to Dafat’s known phone number did not get through.
The Director of Press and Public Affairs to the Governor, Makut Macham said he was not in position to respond to party issues.
