By Peter Akpah.

The plateau number 2 that is the deputy is beyond church, or denomination, a critical look on the race on who becomes the number 2 that will deputize Dr Nentawe who is full of idea that will Revamp the state, when searching for a deputy the issues of church does not arise but Clan, Credibility, Competence, and Capacity that is what Dr Nentawe should look for in making the choice of a running mate, right from the time of Joshua Dariye, Da Jonah Jang, and governor Lalong, those decisions where highly considered. The 2023 general is not a child play or denominational, but strictly the numbers of votes and the population, the northern zone in this aspect is not a push over, the Beroms have the majority and as such Dr Nentawe should look upward to that direction and a mistake in picking the wrong deputy or persons will mean losing the election from the beginning and that should not be the mistake that APC and Dr Nentawe should make at this time, and a mistake will be disastrous and such mistake should be avoided at all cost sentiment should be set aside if APC Want to win the 2023 governorship election.
The PDP has carefully selected their deputy knowing the strength of their votes and a choice was made in Riyom LGA, a perfect dicision, the APC should also think that same direction in other to get votes, there are lots of perfect choices in the Berom Land, /Dr Nentawe should know that choosing the wrong deputy will mean loosing grips of so many votes, the opinion polls conducted by Farmhouse reporters is totally misleading and has generates so many reactions that mean the wrong choice is about to be made which may cost the party so much and will make their campaign very difficult, in an on the spot assessment by some media houses and sone critical stakeholders and a research has shown that a choice of a deputy in the Berom land will stand out and make victory sure for the ruling APC. Most of the recommendations has shown experience persons like Hon. Dan Manjan the current commissioner of information who have served the last administration and is full of experience and can be of a good assistance to Dr Nentawe, Pam Botmang is not a push over as well, various groups have come out to drum support for them, but most of all according to the research and the stakeholders Hon. Dan Manjan will make a good deputy because he is conversant with the system having served the 2 administration and his profile speaks of his great qualities.
Only recently an open letter was written to Dr Nentawe about the choice of a deputy, one which states that your ability to lead is in the choice of your deputy, this are wise councils that should give Dr Nentawe direction to look at Clan, Competence, Experience, Capacity, and the populations which without any fear of contradictions the Berom have it, when it comes to elections and votes and this should be a watch word for Dr Nentawe and not the choice of church, and politics don’t have any thing to do with the church but Clan, Competence, Experience, Capacity, and the populations that have the voting strength that will ensure victory.
This medium has carefully observed the recent developments in the APC and wrong decision of a deputy if not from the majority will spell doom for the party during elections, the PKK experience used by Hon. Yusuf Adamu Gagdi knows where the strength of his votes is coming from, many others, if an election is to be won you need the voting strength and capacity and competence and as it stands the Beroms have the largest numbers in terms of voting strenght, they also have people with great capacity.
Below is an open letter to Dr Nentawe and the APC as a whole.
The gubernatorial primaries in Plateau State have come and gone with the emergence of flag bearers for the two dominant political parties who have alternated the leadership of the State among themselves since the return of democracy in this republic in 1999.
While the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) settled for a Lawyer from the Mwaghavul nation as it’s candidate in a bid to return to the Little Rayfield Governemnt House to continue from where it stopped in 2015 when its sixteen (16) years at the helm was punctured, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has decided that its surest path to consolidating on its eight (8) years leadership of the State will come through an Electrical Engineer cum Computer Scientist from the Ngas nation. These two men come to the table with unique values but that alone does not cut it as far as the prevailing statutes of the country’s election are concerned. Under the guidelines of the Independent National Electoral Commission, a gubernatorial nomination is not valid and recognised without a complementary name for a Deputy Governor and here lies the crux of this piece.
Good as Mutfwang, Caleb (Esq.) of the PDP and Yilwatda, Nentawe (Dr.) of the APC may be, they will not be featured on the ballot if their parties don’t submit names of persons who will Deputise for them in the electoral process. While the writer does not want to wish away the place of the Party, community and other multi layered points of influence in the search for and approval of a suitable Plateau daughter or son to serve as running mate for the two, the final decision on who becomes a Deputy Governor nominee lies in the discretion of the candidate since like the saying goes; the buck stops at his table.
The history of selecting a political leader in Plateau State for a specified term may have been a function of religion going by the sentimental attachment of the people to their faith but it has never been about the sub-units of same. The people of Plateau State are not “predominantly” of a particular faith, they consider themselves “exclusively” of that faith and to them, this is all that matters and this makes it laughable when the narrative of a denominational balance is advanced as a comparative advantage in marketing or demarketing a particular candidate. For the people of Plateau State, the only criteria for picking a Deputy Governorship candidate is geography (zoning), faith and numbers (tribe)! Once you tick the geography box, is a practising Christian and you come from a tribe (clan) that has a large voting block; you are good to be on the ticket. The next step is the electability and votes your presence on the ticket is able to bring and make the chances of your party at the general elections brighter.
Between Dariye and Bot-Mang (1999-2007), Jang and Tallen (2007-2011), Jang and Longjan (20011-2015), Lalong and Tyoden (2015 – date), the place of geography, faith and clan was considered fundamentally and that propelled all the Deputy Governors to the next stage where their electoral values and ability to complement the tickets were considered and this will be the same in the current case where we have a Mutfwang and Nentawe.
Convention has made it easy for any one with a good knowledge of the political landscape on the Plateau to conclude that the next Deputy Governor of Plateau State will be a native of the Northern Senatorial Zone which has Barkin Ladi, Bassa, Jos East, Jos North, Jos South and Riyom as its component Local Government Areas (LGAs) and as such, these LGAs will either individually or collectively, directly or indirectly make moves to present to the Gubernatorial Candidates names of their daughters or sons for consideration but like said earlier, the final decision will be that of the Candidates to select running mates from the LGAs.
Having satisfied the zoning and religion conditions cherished by the average Plateau voter, What Mutfwang and Nentawe will do, if they are as serious as I think they should be, in arriving at their running mates is to go for Clan, Credibility, Competence and Capacity (4 Cs) to effectively balance the ticket and not (which) Church since the denomination was not an issue in 1999, 2007 and 2015 when Dariye (COCIN), Jang (COCIN) and Lalong (2015) respectively contested and won their elections. If denominations were a factor, there would have been an argument that Dariye’s successor would have been a non COCIN member. If Mutfwang and Nentawe are serious about their ambitions, they will zero their search for running mates to the Berom stock in order to use the combined numerical strength of the natives of the four native LGAs of the Berom as a harvest ground. Beyond the “Clan” consideration, the Credibility of the Deputy Governorship candidate should be on the same level as that of the Governor since it is a joint ticket and should be seen to operate as one. Whoever should be selected to fill the spot of the Deputy Governor should be a person who posseses a top-notch Credibility threshold that will allow her or him to fit seamlessly into the driving seat whenever the Principal is not on ground to carry out the duties of the office of the Governor or when there is need for the Governor to be assisted with other tasks and last but not the least, Mutfwang and Nentawe should be very careful so as to select for themselves and us all a Deputy Governor candidate who will be able to galvanise and maximised the votes of her or his Senatorial zone to the advantage of their political party.
If the writer is to go a step further in offering his two-kobo to both APC and PDP by way of an attempt at micro-zoning, I’ll suggest that since the PDP has Simon Mwankon of Riyom as its Senatorial candidate and the APC has given its ticket to Chris Giwa from Jos South, Barr. Caleb Mutfwang should concentrate his energies in looking for a Deputy from Jos South while Dr. Nentawe Yilwatda should not look farther than Riyom for his Deputy.
The choice of a Deputy Governor, like that of running the government when formed, is the prerogative of the Chief Executive and how he handles such delicate and very important task is a bright sign post to show how such administration will be run eventually. The Chief Executive must do everything in his power to own the process, insist his choice reflects the fundamental aspirations of his manifesto and more importantly, guarantees sustainability of the ticket so that the team can concentrate on delivering on its mandate for the maximum eight years of two progressive terms. Anything short of this will spell doom for the dominant parties and may lead to opening of the flanks for a dark horse from a third force to step in and cash out on an avoidable snare.
Pirfa Tanko Namwa
Wrote from Zamko in Langtang North LGA.












