Retired General Jeremiah Useni yesterday said Governor
Jonah Jang is the real problem of Plateau State, which has
been plagued by internicine communal violence that led to
the death of a senator on Sunday.
Useni, who is chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum’s
board of trustees, said instead of Jang to be a unifying
leader as governor, he has been playing divisive politics
among the tribes in the state thereby fuelling the cycle of
bloodshed.
“The state governor, Jonah Jang, is not doing anything to
allay the fears of every citizens in the state. Some feel
marginalised; some are called all sorts of names. He says
he will not like to deal with some people; he doesn’t take
advice even from elders,” said Useni, who is a former FCT
minister and now a leader of opposition Democratic
Poeples Party (DPP).
He spoke in separate interviews with Daily Trust and the
BBC in Abuja yesterday.
“The problem is the Constitution giving all the powers to
one man who refuses to cooperate; there is nothing we
can do. He is not relating to people, the Berom themselves
are divided—we have the Du versus other Beroms. Then
you have the non-Beroms including Hausa-Fulani and
ourselves, we are not Beroms,” Useni said.
“One expects that as a governor of a state, everyone
should be yours irrespective of tribe and other affiliations
because everyone voted for you. So you cannot be a
Berom governor or Hausa governor, everybody must be
treated equally, failure to do that is inviting anarchy.”
Useni said Jang does not cooperate with the Federal
Government in trying to solve the crises in the state.
“He is not cooperating with the Federal government. The
Federal Government is helping to secure the state and you
are saying that the state of emergency in two local
governments be lifted. He said that and two days later the
latest violence happened,” he said.
“Like what former Benue Governor Akume said, whether
Jang likes it or not he is the governor and must wake up
and assume his responsibility as the chief security officer
of the state and not to sit down and be passing the buck.
“He should therefore have a rethink and work with
everybody, listen and work with elders whether old or
young. Younger ones may even give better advice and put
his house in order and treat everybody equally as the
governor of the state. For now, that is lacking.”
But Jang’s spokesman James Mannok dismissed Useni’s
allegations, saying: “By Jeremiah Useni’s assertions, is he
implying that leadership has failed in every state that there
is crisis?”
He said although the Federal Government is actually in
charge of security in the state, the governor was doing
everything he needed to do in cooperation with all security
agencies.
On allegation that Jang does not heed to advice, Mannok
said Useni himself has consistently refused to use
opportunities given to him to contribute his part to the
administration of the state by shunning invitations for him
to attend stakeholders’ meetings that the governor
convenes.
Useni yesterday also spoke on the general administration
of state matters, saying Jang has failed to discharge his
responsibilities. “Civil servants have not been paid, even in
local governments some are being owed four months and
when they are paid, they are paid half salary as if they are
doing half works,” he said.
He said another unfortunate thing is that a state
government that is not paying workers salary is building a
new government house with N4 billion while borrowing
money to finance agriculture and water.
Useni said Jang is not capable of running the state “unless
he changes his heart. Don’t forget that there was a time
the state was in turmoil for eight days. He was in India,
sitting down there. He didn’t rush down and there have
been many cases like that.
“When you advice him, he doesn’t listen to advice and
when he was asked why he doesn’t take advice, he said
he doesn’t have to take advice from anybody. How do you
expect a governor to say that? Who doesn’t take advice,
no matter how wise or clever you are? Even (the Biblical)
King Solomon used to take advice.”
Useni said the State House of Assembly is incapable of
doing anything about Jang “since they did not win
elections and cannot be accountable to people.”
He added: “We are praying that one day he would listen.”
Asked to comment on calls for withdrawal of the military
from Plateau State, Useni said, “I know some people are
saying it and Jang is one of them. You are handling the
security before and there is problem, then the government
deployed troops. He needs to cooperate with the Federal
Government.”
In his BBC Hausa interview, Useni responded to the calls
for troops withdrawal from Plateau thus: “This is nonsense!
How can they handle these crises without the presence of
military?”

Is this man OK at all? So tribal sentiments justifies all these bodies around or what exactly is he implying here? 160 here and another 50 there all in the name of tribal politics. Useni is surely out to score cheap points on these attacks.

that is the problem with plateau poeple, ethnicity! now a birom man s n power and a langtan man is strongly against him nd his people. was Dariye a berom man? was there no crises during his time? who can guarantee that if a langtan man becomes a governor tomorow d problem will disappear?