Dogara challenges Lalong to a popularity contest in Plateau State

From David Kuvie Bauchi

As the controversy generated over the same faith ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) rages, Former Speaker Yakubu Dogara has challenged Governor Simon Lalong and Director General of the APC Presidential Campaign Organisation, to a popularity contest in Plateau State.

Dogara, in a press statement issued by his Media aide, Hassan Turaki, alleged that Lalong could not construct  82 kilometre road in his seven years as governor.

The former Speaker and the Governor- two prominent Christians from the north- have been at daggers drawn over the Muslim – Muslim Presidential and Vice Presidential ticket of the APC.

It will be recalled that Dogara and some other notable Christian Leaders of the party from the north, including former Secretary of the Government of the Federation (SFG), Babachir Lawal, have strongly disapproved of the same faith ticket of their party.

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Pentecostal Fellowship Nigeria (PFN) and several groups have also expressed their disapproval of the same faith ticket of the APC, just as Dogara, Babachir and many Christian leaders who have carried out wide consultations, described it as unjust, unfair and capable of  sideling Christians

Since the APC Presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu announced Senator Shettima, a Muslim as his running mate in July, Dogara and likes minds have warned of the consequences of same faith ticket of the ruling party on the unity and stability of the country.

However, Lalong, one of the most prominent Christian leaders from the north, is in tandem with Muslim Muslim ticket of his party. Lalong has accepted to be the Director General of the APC Presidential Campaign Organisation for 2023 general election.

The campaign organisation recently  responded to Dogara’s  prediction that the same faith ticket of the APC was doomed, and advised Christians not to waste their votes.

Responding to Dogara, the Chief of Staff to the APC Presidential Campaign DG, Yakubu Dati, posited that the former Speaker was only aggrieved because he lost out in the nomination of Tinubu’s running mate.

“So, it is clear that as far as Dogara is concerned, all that matters in politics is not the development of his people or meaningful representation but self,” Datti argued.

But Dogara, speaking through his Media aide, Hassan Turaki, stated that Datti was merely a lapdog doing the bidding of Lalong.

According to Dogara, there was no comparison with the terms he spent as a four time federal legislator that turned his constituency,  Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa-Balewa, into a massive construction site to Governor Lalong’s two terms of “pangs, pains, devastation, anguish and death on the Plateau”

Dogara  alleged that Lalong has not constructed a 82 kilometer road in Plateau State in his seven years as governor.

 “We counsel him to check out Bauchi – Tafawa Balewa Road only before talking about an injustice done because a Legislator was returned for a  consecutive 4th term when no House of Representatives member from the constituency had ever won a re-election,” he said 

Dogara said he had always won his elections despite fierce opposition from “more entrenched self-conceited megalomaniacs than Governor Lalong”

He said he has willingly given up the seat and while doing so, insisted that  it moved to another Local Government Area unlike “Lalong who has refused to back any Christian aspirant to run for the ticket in his party in the spirit of justice, fairness and inclusiveness which he has always and still preaches. We challenge Governor Lalong to provide evidence that this is not the case”

The former Speaker said Lalong was a perfect misrepresentation of “the proud, courageous, sophisticated, spirited and patriotic Plateau people”

“What have his years of genuflection at some political altars yielded for Plateau people in terms of plump appointments and provision of critical infrastructures, if we may ask?,” Dogara quried.

“Posterity will judge him for dragging Plateau State backwards for another 20 years. Well meaning people should continue to pray for Plateau. Deliverance is near.

“In any case, as the campaigns get underway, we challenge Governor Lalong to organise a public issues-based  debate at a place of his choosing anywhere on the Plateau for us to thoroughly canvass our positions on national politics, most especially on the stale meat he begged to hawk for his ilks to buy. We earnestly await the date, venue and time of this public debate on the Plateau”