In this interview, the Governor of Plateau State, Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang, speaks on numerous topical issues including his relationship with President Bola Tinubu, the forthcoming local government election in the state, how to improve infrastructure in the state and payment of backlog of pensions, among others. Excerpts
What has been the story since you came on board as 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.
Recently, you suspended two of your commissioners. When that was done through your Director of Press, you didn’t tell the world why you did it. May we know why it was done?
Well, let me say that we suspended them in order to reinforce discipline within the cabinet. Where we see some bit of lackluster disposition, we try to rein them in and make sure people sit up to their responsibilities. We can’t for political reasons, allow anything and everything to go. But I am sure those we suspended have learnt their lessons; and we will keep reviewing those suspensions.
There was an appointment you made recently which generated a lot of fuzz. I’m sure you saw the reactions even from the Jama’atu Nasril Islam about a Senior Special Assistant on Indigenous Muslims. There seems to be too much hues and cries. I don’t know if you want to explain anything in that light?
I really don’t like generating storms out of tea cups. 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 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 government”. That’s all we did. Therefore, I don’t see why anybody should deny them the right of existence. Some of them are Berom, some of them are Mwaghavul, some of them are Ngas, and others 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. So, we simply recognised what is in existence.
We didn’t create it. What we have done in trying to recognize 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, and 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 the 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.
“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”
It appears you have a smooth relationship with Mr. President; to the extent it is feared that you may want to possibly jump ship someday. Are you thinking in that direction?
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. And so, for me to have that access to Mr. President, I believe it’s for the good of 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 about this; I will always move with the people. I relate well with Mr. President; but I don’t forget where I come from.
Just a few days ago, the APC stakeholders on the Plateau met. Since you have this good relationship with the President, do you have any information to give us in the light that Plateau has been without a minister for a very long time, even though you don’t belong to the APC?
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 trying to rejig his government and certainly has not forgotten about Plateau.
He is considering a lot of options. Of course, we will keep engaging him on this matter. Presently, the National Assembly is in recess – the Senate, particularly. I’m sure that when they resume, we are likely to hear something positive in this regard.
May we know what your administration is doing to address the quality of taxes imposed in the state?
On the issue of tax on land tenancy agreements, it’s not something that we created. I know that the Joint Tax Board – which is a national body of all the states – usually has all the tax heads in charge come together. Normally, if you have a tenancy agreement, it’s supposed to be registered with the government; and you are supposed to pay something on it.
But I’m not sure that many landlords in operation today have tenancy agreements; and I can assure you, they are not paying anything to the government. So, if they are charging you extra, it is not because they want to pay the government. But we will soon be dealing with all the issues around tenancy rates in Plateau State. We are not going to leave it for landlords to take advantage of people. We are going to come into that space quite soon.
Recently, the government moved against the location of certain parks. What is the motive behind that action?
On the issue of illegal parks, let me say it loud and clear that we are going to regulate motor parks. We have started; we shut down the one in NTA because unregulated motor parks are dens for criminality. We are not going to allow it to continue. We want to encourage those who were shut out of NTA Park to make use of the one in Jos South.
It’s for your good and safety, because we want to make sure that both passengers and motorists are not put in danger. We want to appeal to people who are operating those motor parks to know that their days are coming to an end. We’ll definitely get them out of those spaces. But let me also assure you that we are going to create decent motor houses all over the city for people to have access to.
Again, on the issue of parks, we are also making arrangements to construct modern parks into the city gates from the Riyom, Bukuru, Mangu-Foron-Barkin Ladi, Zaria and Bauchi road axis.
We are looking at how to be able to bring modern facilities in that regard. Again, we like this to be private sector driven. That’s why it’s taking us a little bit of time because we want to cross the T’s and dot the I’s.
What is the deal for pensioners in the local and state governments? Do they have reason to smile under your government?
Pensioners at the local government are something that has challenged this administration 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 on 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. And, 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.
What are your plans for the provision of water in the Jos/Bukuru metropolis?
We have already started to take a look at the issue of water supply on the Plateau, especially in the metropolis. It is a huge challenge on the ground. But we are working on it. What we have done is to reorganize the administrative machinery in the water sector. You may have heard that I appointed a Special Adviser on Water Management recently. It’s because of the kind of plans we have.
We cannot sustain urban water supply with boreholes. We have to have a comprehensive water scheme that can supply the city effortlessly. It is going to be challenging.
With all the dams we have, we should be able to have sufficient and quality water supply on the Plateau. But the pipes to carry the water from Lamingo and Shen dams, and all the other dams, we have already put together; we are equally working on them. It is not a one-day solution. But we hope that will really improve urban water supply by God’s grace.
There are some grant-aided missions and other private schools giving quality education, but they are limited. May we know if you are thinking of their sustainability?
I am a product of a grant-aided school. I went to Gindiri, as you know, which is a quasi-public school because it’s not an individual that owns it; and it’s not for profit. So, it’s something desirable. But we are working, trying, to first of all improve our financial capacity. Once we do that, we are going to look at how to be able to aid those schools. I believe in that policy; but we will look at it within the limits of our resources.
It may not be immediate; but we will certainly attend to it at some point in time. On the issue of scholarships, certainly we have improved on the scholarship scheme we met on ground because when we came in, I think every student was being given N4, 000, which was owed as at last year. I remember that I approved close to N300 million to be shared to students. We have also reduced the school fees for Plateau students in the tertiary institutions owned by Plateau.
We are always looking at how to improve that for the Law School students. Maybe because I’m a lawyer, you know, we’re able to pay some of their fees. And we are looking at how to encourage professional development of our students.
There are health concerns at the Jos Abattoir. What can you do to bring it to standard using best practices?
I’ve listened to the pleas about the abattoir. One of the projects that are dear to me is that abattoir. We are going to rebuild the abattoir to a modern facility. We are making arrangements to do that. You need to know this, presently big hotels like Transcorp import meat from South Africa. Because they claim that our meat production is not up to international standards. There are countries that are waiting to even import beef from Africa. And they have identified Plateau State as one of those states they can import beef from.
Therefore, we are making plans to set up a modern abattoir which would mean that all the butchers will have to be trained and retrained. Some of them may have to run other ancillary facilities linked to the abattoir. They need to also know that the butchery business is no longer going to be for those who didn’t go to school.
So, they need to start improving on themselves now.
The local government elections are just a few days away. You have repeatedly said you created a space where it would be a level playing ground for everybody. The people don’t believe that what you’re saying is going to happen. Your party had a bit of a stormy ride in the primaries. The other party seemed to be very quiet. They did their primaries and everything went on smoothly.
Did they do primaries? They didn’t do primaries. I can tell you that for free. Let them challenge me hereafter. Let them tell us where they did primaries. They didn’t do primaries for governorship.
Names were just written; they didn’t do for local government elections 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 observe our local government elections. The reason APC is participating is because we have provided a level playing field. You remember the shameful local government elections 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 credible local government elections. I was a beneficiary of such credible elections in 2014, when I became a local government chairman. I cannot go below that standard.
Plateau people should be reassured that we’ll do the best we can, to ensure that we have credible local government elections.
For us in the PDP, we had hiccups here and there. Truly the party belongs to the people, if we had situations where communities’ members emerge as consensus candidates rather than by the party itself; because communities took ownership of the party. And 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 elections everything will be well, and we are going to go into the elections, as far as the PDP is concerned, as one happy family
“Plateau people should be reassured that we’ll do the best we can, to ensure that we have credible local government elections”
It appears that some of the people you started with in your journey through your campaign appear not to be getting your attention anymore – they have been left in the cold. What is your position on this issue?
You know, the 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 chairman of Mangu, 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 when 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. And 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.
What measures are you putting in place to help get sponsors for Sport teams in Plateau State, especially through companies existing on the Plateau? What are the companies giving back to the state as it will lessen the general burden on your government in funding these local teams?
We are trying to reorganize sports from the grassroots and look at various aspects of the administration of sports as it is presently. Government is bearing the burden for virtually all the teams, whether in football, basketball, badminton, every aspect of sports, because when we got on board, the Sports Council was almost dead.
We’ve been able to bring in one of our veteran sports administrators, Professor Ezra Gunnen. We brought him from Abuja to become Director of Sports. He was a record holder in 1500 meters here on the Plateau. We are thinking of how to be able to rebuild from the base.
Of course, part of the critical thing that was coming was the contributions of the private sector. But before you ask the private sector to give, you must first of all also give them.
So we are looking at what the enabling environment is. What is the enabling environment for the private sector to thrive? They don’t do Father Christmas; they do what is called corporate social responsibility – which is done after they have made profit.
