PLASIEC Comes On

Plateau state governor, Simon Lalong, constitutes and inaugurates the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC), with a charge to hit the ground running, eliciting hope that the next local government elections could be coming sooner than later. CHAMBERLAIN ODEY reports on this development with all the frills and sentiments dominating and shaping the political firmament in Plateau

Disquiet, distemper, desperation, and even disillusionment were last month turned in different directions as Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State ran a ring around the issues surrounding the fate of aborted tenures of elected councils, the controversies girding why the immediate past PLASIEC could not conduct fresh Local Government Councils (LGCs) polls, and the geo-political propriety or otherwise of the nominations into the new commission by swearing in a new seven-man PLASIEC headed by a retired permanent secretary, Fabian Ntung Ari. Speaking during the swearing in ceremony at the new Government House, Ray Field, on November 29, Governor Lalong, still smarting fresh from leading an APC election committee to a gubernatorial election victory in Ondo State, urged the new electoral umpire to be fair and firm, and come up with guidelines and programmes that will culminate in credible, free, and fair Local Government Councils elections come 2017. According to Lalong, the state, as indeed the entire country, cannot afford to continue to have unelected representatives to preside over the affairs of the third tier of government in the country, most especially as President Buhari himself is championing the cause of full autonomy for the councils, courtesy of the executive bills he has forwarded to the National Assembly for consideration to that effect. Before the inauguration of the new PLASIEC last month, igniting the hope that democracy may come alive at the grassroots of Plateau State soon, An anomaly with amorphous political implications especially for the growth of democracy has been holding sway at the councils since July 2015 when Lalong pulled a long knife and snuffed life out of the tenure of the elected local councils due to perceived political differences and fear of disloyalty and possible sabotage. Although the estranged local councils’ chairmen have been in court ever since in an assertive legal battle to revalidate their mandates and tenure, and are still awaiting judgment, Lalong has literarily demonstrated that the elected councils, irrespective of the judgment they may secure from the law court, cannot get back to their offices during his tenure. Sources close to Lalong said he is exploring a lacuna in the local government law of 2005 and that of 2007 which have not been harmonised by the State House of Assembly into a citable legislation on which to solidly substantiate and authenticate the claims which the embattled chairmen (their tenure is to expire on February 2, 2017) predicate their claims and pleas in the court. The Lalong administration has however submitted an executive bill to the state legislature seeking amendment to the local government elections law. At press time, the bill had passed through second reading, indicating that the amendment sought will grow the teeth of law to enable the PLASIEC swing into action as charged. However it goes, the political ambience in Plateau is steaming and percolating towards 2019. Earlier in the proceedings, when the opposition PDP addressed a press conference and passed a damning assessment on the “profligacy, ostentation, over-invoicing, lack of direction, and misplacement of priorities” of the APC government after one year in office, the state PDP chairman, Damishi Sango, wished the Nigerian constitution provides for mid-term elections, so the PDP could teach the incumbent APC mid-season electoral lessons, and issue vital warnings and feed-forwards ahead of 2019. Yet, the opposition party and other geopolitical blocs in the state kicked and groaned over the headship and composition of the new state electoral empire, a situation which could neither be remedied nor altered ultimately because the governor’s prerogative on membership make-up derives from a weak constitutional impetus. Thus, by and large, the opposition and others must accept, put up, and work with a PLASIEC headed by Fabian Ntung Ari, who hails from the same Plateau South and Goemai ethnic stock as Governor Lalong, and was retired as permanent secretary in order to take up the election umpire plumb job. All the same, those familiar with the former permanent secretary say his choice is perfect because “he is meticulous, astute, and well organised with the presence of mind needed for the job”. Come what may, it is a political revelry prefacing a heavily impregnated El Clasico as a determined opposition mobilises against an incumbency dragon which of recent has chopped off a chunk of the opposition’s rungs and jugular. Just before the composition and inauguration of the PLASIEC, Senator Joshua Dariye, on the floor of the senate, defected from the PDP to the governing APC, As the constitutionality of his action created a heated debate around party and legal circles, the Deputy Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Yusuf Gagdi, together with the member representing Kanam state constituency, of the PDP, also announced their defection into the APC. Not to worry, say the state PDP, as the legal papers are being worked out to brief the courts and get their nod on why the defected should also forfeit their mandate which is rightly a property of the PDP. With the PLASIEC inaugurated, Lalong and his APC have literally told the opposition that political hostilities have been formally launched, and war has begun with 2019 as the chestnut and grand finale.