The governor of Plateau State, Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang, speaks with journalists on his purported plan to join the All Progressives Congress (APC), relationship with President Bola Tinubu, non-appointment of a substantive minister from Plateau State into the federal cabinet, inclusivity in governance, disquiet over Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over choice of candidates for the upcoming local government election in the state, among others issues. ISAAC SHOBAYO brings some excerpts:
What has been the story since you came onboard as the governor of Plateau State?
You know that governance continues daily. It keeps improving. It’s like a football club; every season, you see clubs buying new players because they need to improve the competitiveness of the squad. I am happy with my squad, but I’m always looking for ways of improvement. As soon as we find ways in which we can improve, we will bring in the best hands that can be recruited.
Two commissioners in your cabinet were recently suspended; why were they suspended?
Well, let me say that we suspended them in order to reinforce discipline within the cabinet. Where we see some bit of lacklustre disposition, we try to rein in and make sure people sit up to their responsibilities. It is not because we are politicians that we just allow anything to go. But, I am sure those we suspended have learnt their lessons, and we will keep reviewing those suspensions.
One of the appointments you made recently seems not to go down well with some people in the state, that is, Special Assistant on Indigenous Muslims. What informed this appointment?
I really don’t like generating storms out of teacups. It’s not necessary. I didn’t create the idea of “Indigenous Muslims.” I met it on the ground as governor. It has been in existence and even registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) as indigenous Muslims. I don’t know what motivated them, but they are definitely a defined group within our space. And so, I didn’t create them. I only said, Okay, look, you guys exist. Let’s see how you can relate better with the government. That’s all we did. Therefore, I don’t see why anybody should deny them the right to existence. Some of them are Berom; some of them are Mwaghavul; some of them are Ngas, and some of them are Tarok. They want their own identity. And there is freedom of association guaranteed under the constitution. So, there is no need to deny anybody that right. We simply recognised what is in existence. We didn’t create it. What we have done, in trying to recognise the various groups, is to give everybody a sense of inclusion so that we don’t just throw something at the large group and some people within that group feel disenfranchised, feel disentitled, feel not included. That is why you can see for the first time in the history of Plateau, we recognised different groupings and gave them a channel of relating with government. We are running on this mantra of inclusion, equity, and fairness to all. Now if you are getting your own, don’t deny somebody the opportunity to get his own. That’s all we are saying.
About recognising other groups, nobody will recognise you except you. Once you organise yourselves, you will gain the necessary recognition. Others, who are organized, should not be denied recognition. But, be rest assured that we want to carry everybody along.
There is an insinuation in the state that you are contemplating to dump the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC) based on your relationship with President Bola Tinubu. To what extent are you thinking along that line?
First of all, let me appreciate Mr President for accepting me and opening his arms of fellowship to me. After all, he is the father of the nation. For instance, as the governor of Plateau State, I cannot discriminate against any Plateau citizen. So, for me to have that access to Mr. President, I believe it’s for the good of the Plateau people. Let me say this: I’m a PDP man to the core. My politics has always been dictated by God and the people. And I know that Plateau people own PDP. They see it as their own. If tomorrow, Plateau people tell me to move, I’ll move. But if they tell me ‘we want you to stay where you are,’ that’s where I will stay. So, I will always move with the people. Let me assure the people that, I will always move with the people. I relate well with Mr. President, but I don’t forget where I come from.
One of the issues agitating the mind of an average Plateau man at present is the non-appointment of a minister from the state by President Tinubu; since you have a good relationship with the president, what are you doing to facilitate the appointment?
The federal cabinet is a right as enshrined in our constitution. And I’ve had to engage Mr President on this. He has asked me to be patient. He is considering a lot of options. Of course, we will keep engaging Mr. President on this matter. Presently, the National Assembly is on recess—the Senate, particularly. I’m sure that when they resume, we are likely to hear something positive in this regard.
During the inauguration of members of the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC), you promised to change the narrative of local government elections in Plateau State by ensuring a level playing field, yet the recent local government primary of your party was fraught with controversies while those of the main opposition All Progressives Congress was done without much acrimony.
They only wrote names. They didn’t do primary; I can tell you that for free. Let them challenge me hereafter. Let them tell us where they did primary. They didn’t do primary for governorship. Names were just written; they didn’t do for local government election either. But, let me say this: we are going to prove to Nigerians that Plateau is a model in terms of conducting local government elections. We are bringing international observers to monitor our local government election. The reason why APC is participating is because we have provided a level-playing field. You remember the shameful local government election conducted in 2021 where they excluded the PDP on a very frivolous and scandalous basis, which was decided in the Government House, not even by PLASIEC.
We witnessed situations where before results could be counted, people were already announced and sworn in. That is not going to repeat itself on the Plateau. By the grace of God, we’re going to conduct a credible local government election. I was a beneficiary of such credible election in 2014, when I became a local government chairman. I cannot go below that standard.
Plateau people should be reassured; we’ll do the best we can to ensure that we have a credible local government election. For us in the PDP, we had hiccups here and there. Truly, the party belongs to the people, if we had situations where in communities members emerge as consensus candidates rather than by the party itself, because communities took ownership of the party. We are glad about that.
But let’s not exaggerate it. We had a few skirmishes in two or three local governments out of 17. And what I can tell you is that we brought everything under control. Of course, when you have a contest, some people will be aggrieved, it’s normal, but we are addressing it. And I am sure before the election, everything will be well. We are going to go into the elections, as far as the PDP is concerned, as one happy family.
There are complaints among some of your loyalists who were with you during the campaign that they are not getting your attention anymore; that they are not being carried along in the scheme of things.
You know, government does not begin and end in one day. People have expectations that once you come into government, everybody is going to get an appointment; everybody is going to get one thing done or the other. It doesn’t happen in one day. People have to learn to be patient. There is no way I can cut myself into pieces and give everybody. When I was the chairman of Mangu LG, I had this very naive idea that I could be seeing everybody, so I created two days in the week. The first two weeks, I almost died because there was no way I could see everybody. Now, I have to attend to issues in Abuja and also attend to issues here locally. I’m going to get journalists to keep company with me for a week and see my schedules. I believe that among many governors, I’m doing my best to be able to allow access to me as a person. I answer phone calls when the time allows; reply text and WhatsApp messages. I engage people when I have the freedom.
But somebody calls you, maybe you are even having a State Executive Council meeting, he wants you to answer his call. So, let me appeal to those who feel they haven’t been carried along to continue to be patient. We’ll continue to look out for that. People who know me know that I have no enemies or friends when it comes to governance. If you have any value to add to Plateau people, we’ll bring you on board. Some of those who competed with me during elections are in different offices today. Appointments were facilitated, you know. So, we’ll continue to do that. I appeal to people who have such feelings; let them continue to be patient.
From all indications, school fees in the state are discriminatory. What can the state government do to address this?
Looking at it, should we scrap the said discriminatory policy of indigenous and non-indigenes? Those are things that we will continuously look into. I hope that we can get to a day that we can even say that primary education is free. Once we have the breathing space to effect that, why not? We’ll do that for the benefit of the people.
What is your plan to alleviate the harrowing experience the pensioners at the local and state governments are passing through?
Pensioners at the local government are something that has challenged this administration very dearly. We have a backlog of over N15 billion at the local government; another close to N20 billion at the state level. We are looking for ways of how to clear those pension liabilities as much as we can. It’s not going to be easy, but we’ve started discussions with our financial advisors. So, we are looking at various options to deal with the pension issues with the local government autonomy that is upcoming. It’s going to be a challenge, but we’ll look at it and see how to navigate it.
The popular Zaria Road stadium has been under construction for more than three decades. It is like the project is a jinx. What plan does your administration have for the abandoned project?
I absolutely agree with you. I’m also passionate about sports, and I also don’t like to see abandoned projects. So, since I came on board, we’ve been having a series of engagements with the private sector about how to bring in funds to finish the Zaria Road Stadium, for example. Now we realised that it is not possible to fund it from the budget—both in terms of the amount required and also of the management capacity—because if you simply leave the management of the stadium to civil servants, it may not yield the desired results. Therefore, we’ll bring in the private sector as it’s done in Europe. We’ve taken stock of all the land around the stadium, and we are in the process of trying to demarcate the same, and all other things can be created around the stadium that are of commercial value.
We are going to be dealing with all the mechanic shops to recreate a village around the stadium where there will be other assets of value that will be created to give incentive for the private sector to invest money in finishing the stadium.
But we are doing some minimal things to keep our teams playing there in the professional league so that it won’t be taken away from us. Definitely, I am confident—and trusting God—that my administration will bring to foreclosure this project that started as far back as 1988.
Let me remind you that the last game of the season of the Professional Football League was played at the Zaria Road Stadium, and even the pre-season of the league kicked off on the Plateau. That tells you that we are still very much within the reckoning horizon of the Nigerian football league.
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