Governor Caleb Mutfwang has admitted that he and other elected officeholders were not voted into power to complain or pass the buck of governance.
“We are fully aware that you did not elect us to complain or pass the buck,” Mr Mutfwang stated. “In the last year, despite the unnecessary impediments put in our path, we have used every opportunity at our disposal, both locally and internationally, to seek wisdom and partnerships to build a Plateau economy based on the rule of law, equity, justice, and inclusion.”
He said 2015 to 2023 were the “season of the locusts.”
Mr Mutfwang said this in a statewide broadcast on Tuesday following the imposition of a 24-hour curfew in Jos North and the Bukuru metropolis in the state capital, Jos.
The governor explained that the curfew was necessary to prevent foreign elements from disrupting the peace that Plateau had enjoyed throughout the protest.
“Credible sources have revealed that because of the peace that Plateau is enjoying, merchants of violence invited hoodlums from neighbouring states to disrupt the peace in Jos,” the governor explained.
He added, “As we continue our onslaught against poverty and its attendant consequences, we cannot deceive ourselves into thinking there are quick fixes.”
The governor provided a sobering assessment of his administration’s economic challenges inherited from the previous APC-led administration.
He attributed these challenges to mismanagement, which pushed Nigeria and Plateau into indebtedness and hindered development.
“We cannot deny that the period between 2015 and 2023 was the season of the locusts,” Mr Mutfwang stated. “Years in which we were stripped of our dignity as a nation, going from the biggest economy in Africa to becoming the poverty capital of the world! Even at the state level, we inherited a distressing state of affairs, about N400 billion in debt without tangible evidence of progress in any sector.”
