Exclusive: Why Lalong Failed To Deliver Plateau For Tinubu – Reps

A member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yusuf Adamu Gagdi has attributed the religious sentiments that characterised the 2023 presidential election as being responsible for the failure of former Governor Simon Lalong to deliver Plateau State for President Ahmed Bola Tinubu.

Gagdi who represents Pankshin/Kanke/Kanam federal constituency made the clarification while reacting to former Minister, Dasuki Nakande’s taunting Lalong for failing to deliver Plateau to APC.

He said:The acrimonious religious bigotry imputed into the 2023 election in Plateau State, explains why Lalong could not deliver his Ward, LGA, and state to the joint Muslim ticket of the APC.

“While casting aspirations on Lalong for his inability to deliver his Ward, LGA, and state, you forgot to intimate us if any of the persons you are sympathetic to have delivered their wards and LGAs to Tinubu.

“However, the good news was that Lalong’s APC was not defeated by Nakande’s newfound bride, the PDP.  Nakande’s PDP came a distant third in a state they had never lost a Presidential election since 1999.

“Nakande, a former member of the All Progressives Congress who crossed the carpet to the Peoples Democratic Party shortly after Lalong was named the APC Presidential Campaign DG, should ordinarily maintain sealed lips when APC and how Tinubu administration should form its cabinet is discussed.

“As someone who left APC to PDP shortly before the 2023 general elections, it is commonsensical meddlesome for Nakande to delve into the affairs of a party he wished had lost at the polls; even more so, that he left the party because the person named to lead the campaign was someone he never wished well.

“Rather than stick to the issues raised, my elder brother, Dasuki Nakande, a former minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and a statesman in his own right, condescended so low as to rain diatribes and invectives on the person of Rt Hon. Simon Laong, the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign DG, in what could only be borne out of sheer envy”.

According to Gagdi, “In a Christian-dominated state that experienced incessant religious upheavals, every sane person should expect that leading the campaigns of a joint Muslim presidential ticket is a daunting task that only the bravest of warriors can undertake – a description that Lalong perfectly fits into”.

He said “Lalong was branded ‘enemy’ of Plateau state by Nakande’s PDP not merely for accepting to lead the campaign for joint Muslim ticket, but they used it as a tool to further disinform the gullible Plateau Christian voters as a confirmation of his affinity with Nakande’s Jos North Muslim community, because he treated them as part and parcel of Plateau citizens, rather than the pariah treatment meted on them under the previous PDP administrations in the state, which Nakande is a member.

“The least I expected was for Nakande to exercise restraint if for any reason he must comment on the internal political wranglings in the APC, and do so as an onlooker that he is, rather than dabble into the arena.

“There is no disputing the fact that Nakande was Tinubu’s political foot soldier in Plateau State, while Lalong was with Amaechi during the 2022 APC Presidential primary. But how that translated into their individual commitment and enthusiasm towards the electoral victory of President Tinubu, with the former ally turning into a political foe, while the former opponent leading the presidential campaign to victory, tells more of who is the true lover of Tinubu. A true friend is one who stands through thick and thin to the end.

“Let me unequivocally remind Nakande and his ilk that APC lost in Plateau State in the 2023 election because Lalong treated the Muslims in the state as equal partners in the development of the state, and appointed them into his government more than any government in Plateau State in the past – a development that was used by religious bigots to incite hatred for Lalong.

“Here is a poser for Nakande and his cohorts; who actually is a winner between Aminu Tambuwal who as Atiku’s DG, delivered his constituency and lost the election, and Lalong who as Tinubu’s DG lost his constituency but delivered his principal?

“After all, who would have imagined that Tinubu could be defeated in Lagos State by an Obi of Igbo extraction? Yet, that minor setback did not stop Tinubu from winning the election against Atiku and Obi who won their respective states”.