The meteoric political rise of Senator Lalong can aptly be captured in the cliche: ‘from zero to hero’. But, like the saying goes, “the faster they go, the louder the bang of their fall”.
Within barely two decades, Lalong has occupied virtually every elective or appointing position most politicians aspire to achieve in a lifetime, except the position of President and Vice President. However, having risen so quickly, the almighty law of diminishing returns has set in.
A culmination of factors, expectations and downright self-destructive traits have conspired to have Lalong arrived at his terminal political bus stop sooner than anticipated. The most decorated politician In plateau state is suddenly unelectable!
Is Lalong; the former speaker, the former Governor, the former Chairman Northern Governor’s Forum, the former DG of APC Presidential Campaign Council, the former Minister of Labour, the former leader of the ruling party in Plateau State and a sitting Senator, now a national treasure or a liability?
Unarguably, Lalong is the most decorated politician in the history of Plateau State. His ascension to political stardom was rooted in his emergence as the Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly in 2000, following the impeachment of Rt Hon. George Daika. By virtue of that position, Lalong was (s)elected as Chairman, Nigerian Speakers’ Forum.
He survived a federal government masterminded recall attempt, because of his firm stance against then President Obasanjo’s orchestrated plan to impeach his benefactor, then Governor Joshua Dariye, who had a running battle with the Obasanjo administration and had just returned from a six-month suspension through a state of emergency declared on Plateau State in 2004.
After the 2007 elections that ushered-in the Jang administration, Lalong lost touch with power and was relegated to the back burner of Plateau politics, because he had ditched PDP to pitch tent with the ACN. He was rumoured to had relocated to Rivers State and became one of Rotimi Amaechi’s boys.
Notwithstanding his unimpressive political antecedents, Plateau people rose in unison to vote him in as governor in what was tagged ‘Plateau project’ in 2015.
Lalong ‘s governorship was a sort of an ‘own- goal’ the then PDP led government in the state scored against itself. Had Jang not insisted on foisting Pwajok as his successor, the need for that project would not even have arisen.
It is common knowledge on the Plateau that it was neither because of Lalong’s pedigree, popularity, deep financial pocket nor any known political followership or network that he became governor. Like the hausa man would say, ‘nagoye bai san nisan tafiya ba’. A child who is backed by his mother hardly knows the distance covered on a journey. Circumstances had placed Lalong in a position that he achieved electoral victory effortlessly.
No sooner had he emerged Governor than he became power drunk. He stabbed the elders that stood for him and funded the ‘Plateau Project’. He back-stabbed the leader of his tribal group of elders that campaigned for him and ensured he was adequately funded, by denying him the traditional stool he had craved for since childhood. Lalong trumped up lies and sponsored the removal of the state party chairman that stood by him through thick and thin. The extent of his power drunkenness exceeded intoxication to wallowing in stupor.
As sitting governor, Lalong hijacked the process of the 2023 APC presidential primary electioneering campaign by insisting that all aspirants must address delegates within the premises of the government lodge for proper monitoring. He even denied one of the aspirants the ‘permission’ to address delegates, under the delusional guise of Plateau being reserved for his preferred aspirant who eventually lost.
Along with this imperial satisfaction, came a self- righteousness ensconced in a dumbfounding sense of entitlement. Lalong lost the language of persuasion, cultivation and diplomacy. Every and any dissatisfied
stakeholder who dared to complain about his style of governance were told to go to hell.
On the whole, the people of Plateau South who had expected that Lalong would initiate and execute signature capital projects in the southern zone, like Jonah Jang did, were utterly disappointed. Not a single capital project worth paltry fifty million Naira was cited, completed and commissioned in any local government area in the Southern zone by the Lalong administration, except in Shendam.
As it is right now, Ajikamai, Lalong’s village, has no water, no access road and no record of economic empowerment of anybody from the community apart from his blood relations.
At the twilight of his second term in office as governor in 2023, he was tasked with championing the infamous Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket of the APC as its Campaign DG. The joint Muslim ticket was not popular among the predominantly Christian population of Plateau State. Hence, Plateau people massively voted Peter Obi of the Labour Party at the presidential election and opted for PDP National Assembly candidates, who clinched majority seats at the polls conducted the same day.
The APC joint Muslim ticket eventually triumphed, but ostensibly, without any tangible contributions of the campaign DG, who was roundly defeated at how own polling booth. Charity, they say, begins at home.
Nevertheless, history has it that Lalong had spearheaded a presidential campaign that produced Nigeria’s President as its DG. That was an enviable accolade to his rich profile.
His short spell as Minister of Labour and Employment under the Tinubu administration has added flesh to his impressive resume, while his court procured Senatorial seat, further adorned his colourful political profile that cannot be rivaled by any living politician in Plateau State.
Alas! Behind the rich political profile highlighted above is a nostalgic glory of a personality that now embodies huge liability to party politics; at least, within the bounds of Plateau South Senatorial District.
As permutations for 2027 begins to gather momentum, Lalong is touted to nurture interest in the APC ticket for a return to the National Assembly as senator, retaining his current seat.
By every human calculations, this is a pipedream.The possibility that Lalong would clinch Plateau South Senatorial seat in 2027 is not within an achievable contemplation, even in the unlikely event that he succeeds in pocketing the APC nomination.
It is on record that no serving senator in Plateau South has ever had a consecutive two terms in office, and that trend is not likely to change in the foreseeable future.
Three successive senators of the zone who sought second consecutive terms in office were met with strong resistance, notwithstanding their individual performances in office.
Late Senators Silas Janfa, Cosmos Niagwan and JN Shagaya, of blessed memories, had respectively gunned for second terms in office, but failed to clinch the seat. Their tenures had recorded more creditable performances than the incumbent and were more in sync with the wishes and aspirations of their constituents than what the zone is entangled with right now.
The self succession jinx might eventually be broken, but definitely not by Lalong who was vehemently rejected by the electorate in his previous attempt. He was controversially smuggled into the Senate through the back door by a court judgment that was considered an aberration to Nigeria’s electoral jurisprudence. If anything, the resentment against Lalong’s trademark politics of cronyism and personal aggrandizement has surged geometrically, especially now that his current mandate was not obtained through popular choice.
Without an iota of doubt, ethnic consideration is going to dictate where the pendulum would swing comes 2027. Lalong is believed to have enjoyed massive support of other ethnic groups enough to gentlemanly quit the stage and allow power to change hands or he should be prepared to face worse humiliating defeat than the outright rejection he suffered in 2023.
The 2023 Senatorial election results in the Southern zone was a clear endorsement of a power shift in the zone, a replica of the resolve that brought Lalong to power as governor in 2015. The truncated mandate freely and fairly given to retired AVM Napoleon Bali, which Lalong now enjoys was a warning signal that for any party to mount a serious challenge for the seat in 2027, such a party must field a candidate of Tarok extraction; preferably from Langtang North/South Federal Constituency.
Having been in the corridors of power for so long a time, the Goemai people, as well as other ethnic nationalities of the southern zone have justifiably placed some expectations on Lalong. As Speaker for 8 years, there is hardly any defining capital project that Lalong brought to the people of Shendam constituency. The same people who stood up for him and resisted the recall referendum during Obasanjo’s Presidency.
There is ominous sense of tiredness, even amongst the Goemai people, as many openly grumble that Lalong is not the only son of the land.
The misplaced citing of Federal Polytechnic in Lalong’s village of Ajikamai, a remote settlement lacking every basic amenities required for the sustenance of an institution in the status of a federal polytechnic, was the height of wickedness Lalong inflicted on the southern zone. The institution was earlier proposed for Shendam and Langtang respectively, based on the bills passed for its establishment, as sponsored by Johnbull Shekarau at the House of Representatives and Late Senator JT Useni at the Senate in that order, during their terms in office as members of the eight National Assembly.
Lalong used his closeness to then President Buhari to hijack the institution to his village. Ajikamai was never contemplated among feasible proposed locations; the only reason being for the humongous compensation paid to land owners.
Dissatisfied feelers emerging from Ajikamai indicated that Lalong’s younger ones benefited hundreds of millions of naira as compensation for hectares of land, much higher than what others got in comparison. Different parameters were allegedly used in deciding what went to each land owner. Those related to Lalong were said to have been paid almost double what others received as compensation for similar or even larger portions of land.
Years after commencement of academic activities, the institution has less than 40 number of students in its register, because of the unattractive location that made it unsuitable for academic activities due to the obvious lack of necessary amenities to ease the demands of academic challenges.
Lalong had recently pledged to pay tuition for any student that wishes to study at the institution as an incentive to attract students, but even that doesn’t seem to salvage the situation.
This deliberate misadventure has received widespread backlash, describing the development as a monumental waste that deprives the zone of a giant developmental stride that would have placated for Lalong’s wasted eight years as governor.
No feasibility study was conducted to determine the viability of citing the federal polytechnic in Ajikamai, neither was any law passed by the National Assembly for establishing the institution at its present location. President Buhari established the school through executive fiat, at the behest of Lalong who wielded so much influence at the center.
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Plateau South Progressive Front (PSPF)
9th June, 2025.
Streetbell Online 