By Taye Obateru

Second Republic civilian governor of Plateau State, Amb. Fidelis Tapgun who aspired for the governorship again on the platform of  PDP before his group pulled out into Labour Party, in this interview explains why they parted ways with Governor Jang and his deputy and why he is supporting former Sports Minister, Mr. Damishi Sango to be voted as the next governor of the state:

Various reasons have been adduced for the seeming collapse of the working arrangement by some hitherto governorship aspirants who moved out of the PDP.

There are speculations that some of you pulled out of the alliance to wrest power from Governor Jonah Jang because you felt bad that you were not chosen as the consensus candidate. Is that correct?

The speculation is not true. We did not pull out of the alliance to wrest power from Jonah Jang. We are still in the struggle to remove him, but maybe not in the same way we originally planned. We are now pursuing the same goal, but from different platforms, different political parties.

Why did you have to leave the original group? Some say it had to do with the way the elders handled the selection.

You know the struggle against Gov. Jonah started early in the life of his administration i.e. in 2008 when a faction of the ruling party PDP, broke out to form PDP Two. And the reason was very, simple: the Governor and his Deputy had reconstituted the state Exco of the party in the image that suited them.

There was outcry from all, especially from top politicians in the state, for that exercise to be redone, so that the interest of ever body would be accommodated. But this request was turned down by the duo.

The result was the emergence of PDP Two, and once PDP Two was formed, it became very formidable, because all the political heavy weights in the state moved to that faction. Gov. Jonah and his deputy did all they could to destroy PDP Two but the more they tried the stronger the faction became.

Even the intervention of the national leadership of the PDP to reconcile the two sides, including the dissolution of the two factions and the setting up of a caretaker committee were frustrated by the governor and co.

As I speak to you now, that caretaker committee has not submitted a report to the national headquarters of the party. Why? because Gov. Jonah Jang and his deputy refused to allow the committee to complete its work.

The struggle by members of PDP Two to obtain justice was fought with a single minded determination and lasted from 2008 until Jan 2011. All this our struggle for justice met with a brick wall erected by Gov. Jang and his administration. In late Sept. 2010, however, the deputy Gov. Mrs. Tallen decided to cross carpet from fighting PDP Two to joining it, for reasons which we in PDP Two did not know, but which has now become clear. Arc. Gyang Pam (Tallen’s running mate in the Labour Party) did not even join the party until Nov. 2010.

So you can see that both of them are new comers to the struggle, but it did not matter to us then because they helped to swell our membership. By the time both joined us, however, so much water had gone under the bridge in PDP Two.

Those who aspired to contest the governorship seat had started to canvass for support among members and we were five in number. As soon as they joined us, they also indicated interest, so our number rose to seven.

So what happened after they joined?

It was at this point that the larger house – the PDP Two Stakeholders’ Forum – resolved that those of us aspirants should meet and decide among ourselves who should he the flag bearer to face Gov. Jang in the 2011 election. We held series of meetings among ourselves and in fact, drew up a comprehensive set of criteria we shall use to grade ourselves. Meanwhile, the larger house had nominated a five-man elders committee to monitor us so that we did not delay in arriving at a decision.

However, because of the difficulties of getting the seven of us to meet at any one time, and there was pressure on us to come up with a candidate, we decided that the five-man elders committee could do the assignment on our behalf; and since we had already agreed on a set of criteria to be used, we handed, all to them. In addition to this, our campaign directors also drew up another set of criteria and handed it over to them. The five-man elders committee therefore had a very comprehensive set of criteria to use in scoring each one of us.

We had done all these based on trust; we trusted the elders committee and believed that by using those criteria we gave them, they would come up with a very fair decision. However, on the day they announced their decision to us some of us then asked to know what yardsticks they used, but they said they were not going to tell us, because if they did, it was going to compromise the secrecy of their work.

It was at this point that we started suspecting that something was wrong somewhere. What was even so worrying to some of us, however was the fact that the air was awash with rumours that these elders had compromised their position. But we refused to believe the rumours we thought that if they did, they would have betrayed not just we the aspirants, but the entire people of Plateau State whos future we had entrusted to them.

Some people are saying your action is at variance with the agreement you people signed initially that you would support whoever emerged as the consensus candidate and that you were actually the one that betrayed the cause.

To be honest with you, we truly believed in and trusted this five-man elders committee.

They are all indigenes of Plateau and we believed they were men of honour who had the interest of the state at heart. For these reasons and others, we had all agreed to accept the outcome of their deliberations and even agreed to sign an undertaking to that effect, with a pledge to support who ever emerged.

When it became clear in the end that they were not going to let us into the criteria they used which may have convinced us to accept their decision, some of us then felt we were not obliged to honor the social contract we had entered into among ourselves because we suspected foul play in the whole exercise. This is the main cause of what we have on ground today – going our different ways.

Won’t it then be right to say that the opposition against Governor Jang has collapsed and that your struggle to “rescue” the state as you said has been in vain?

Our opposition to Gov. Jang has not collapsed at all. Our fight against him has been a fight against injustice. If PDP Two, which includes the elders committee, sprang up to fight injustice, it will be a contradiction for us to accept a decision we consider as very unjust. This struggle will continue and as you know, truth will always prevail over falsehood.

Can’t there be some compromise between now and the election to resolve your differences or if either Jang or Tallen offers an olive branch to your group before the election as is being speculated, will you accept?
Both Gov. Jang and his deputy know that. They have been the main stumbling blocks to any reconciliation in Plateau State.

You know that they came to power in 2007 under very controversial circumstances and instead of realizing this and working out ways to bring everybody together they embarked on a mission of self destruction by singing to whoever cares to listen that it was God who brought them to power and that whoever is fighting them is fighting God. Incidentally, the deputy governor had been the mega phone for this self inflicted wound.

With this false notion in their heads, theywent on chasing whosoever they perceived to be their enemy. The emergence of PDP Two in 2008 was therefore a direct result of this attitude.

It was not until September 2010 that Mrs. Tallen decided to join forces with the opposition (PDP Two). So if they are making any reconciliatory moves now, the question will be why now? The election is virtually here already and we are all in the field. The people of Plateau State should be allowed to take the final decision.

From the way things have gone, it is certain that whoever emerges as governor of Plateau State after the election will face a Herculean task trying to bring the people back together, but I is a task that has to be done in the interest of all.

Governor Jang at a recent stakeholders meeting blamed lack of unity among the elite for the problems of the state. Do you agree?

It is laughable and amounts to being economical with the truth. The major problem of the state has been the failure of leadership – in this case personified in Governor Jang and his deputy- to bring the people of the state together as one united family. As long as they continue to chase shadows, the state will remain divided and the people will continue to suffer. But God forbid.

I therefore call on the good people of Plateau State to ‘shine their eyes’ and vote for someone who will salvage the state. Since we have been once beaten, we should be twice shy.