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By Pam Ayuba
Barring any shift, all is set for the conduct of local government elections in Plateau State by the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission, (PLASIEC), come Saturday, October 9, 2021.
Jos South local government, one of the seventeen local governments participating in the Saturday local elections is set to win with a landslide victory.
The party said it was prepared to sweep the polls as they’re fully equipped.
The last local government council polls conducted by PLASIEC in October 2018 were held in 13 out of the 17 local government areas excluding Jos North, Jos South, Barkin-Ladi, and Riyom.
The exclusion of the four local government areas was predicated on security challenges following spades of mayhem that resulted in
a widespread pogrom.
The decision by Governor Simon Bako Lalong to conduct elections in all the 17 local government area councils followed reports of improved security surveillance that has seen peace fast returned.
Skeptics had speculated what befell the four local government areas in 2018 will repeat itself in 2021. The government has assured elections will hold in all the 17 local governments.
In preparations for the anticipated peaceful conduct of the local polls, penultimate week, the Plateau State Governor flagged off campaigns in Shendam where the All Progressive Congress, APC, faithful across the state attended the rally with pageantry.
In Jos South, the party had done much to show its readiness for the polls as campaigns had been done and concluded well ahead of the Saturday, October 9, 2021, polls.
Penultimate week, Hon. Gideon Dandereng, the pragmatic and astute politician left no one in doubts about his intentions to vie for the number one seat in the local government.
Immediately after securing the party’s ticket in August 2020, he embarked on a visitation to all the districts in the local government to seek the support of the five traditional rulers in their palaces in Gyel, Zawan, Du, Kuru, and Vwang where he received royal blessings.
The party, under the camping slogan, “Divine Mandate 2021” is being led by the flag bearer of the party, Hon. Ambassador Gideon Dung Davou Dandereng alone side his running mate, Hon Ayuba Pam Jagaba.
The choice of the duo by the APC leadership in Jos South has jolted the opposition considering their political pre-degree.
By share luck, the duo had served as councilors, Legislative Leaders, and Secretaries of the council at different times.
The flag bearer, Hon. Gideon Dandereng run the affairs of the council as Management Committee Chairman twice between 2018-2020 and was reappointed in April 2021 placing him as the right candidate to arrest the security situation in the local government following his track records.
Aware of the magnitude of the leadership bestowed upon him, Hon. Gideon showed he has enough capacity and determination to pull the council from the persistent friction between herders and farmers and his quelling of insurgencies proved he was more than willing to sustain the gains of peace so far accomplished by Governor Simon Lalong the last six years.
Jos South is the hub nut of Plateau State being a cosmopolitan local government area housing both the old and new Government Houses at Rayfield.
The local government, aside from boosting over 97 percent of industries domiciled in the area, almost all the political juggernauts across the length and breadth of the country live there.
No doubt, the economic viability of the local government gives it an edge over other local governments in terms of Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, which the Chairmanship candidate promised to leverage to provide democratic dividends to the people.
According to Hon. Gideon, if elected he will liaise with the Member of the State Assembly representing the local government to sponsor a bill to change the nomenclature and status of the local government from Executive Chairman to Mayor, a dream he said is realizable if they come out to vote massively for the ruling party.
He said his administration will also initiate moves for the creation of two or three additional State Constituencies at the State Assembly.
He said the situation where the local government with a majority of voters registration of over three hundred thousand can not afford to be shot changed politically while some local governments with less than one hundred thousand voters registration have two seats at the state assembly.
He said, with the INEC registration, the local government deserved a separate federal constituency out of the present Jos South/Jos East Federal Constituency
This assurance resonated in all the five districts of the local government including Vwang, Kuru, Gyel, Zawan, and Du that make up the 20 state electoral wards.
Aside from promising to upgrade primary health care facilities in the area council, Hon Dandereng assured his administration will give adequate attention to peace, security and uplifting, the standard of education in the locality.
The campaign tour which attracted the heavy presence of party loyalists witnessed the mass defection of the People Democratic Party, PDP, faithful across the five districts of Jos South local government area.
The LG elections come Saturday will be a litmus test against the 2023 general elections which is expected to balance power shift in the state.
All set and done, in just a few days, the ruling APC will be making a great in the road into the hitherto harden zone of the PDP, which is the core Berom land.
Minus or plus, the political graph will shake many tables should the voting pattern shift to the APC and this will redefine the political demographic as the Berom will be sending signals to re-embracing a centric government thereby correcting the deficit of the past.
Pam Ayuba is a Media Consultant, Divine Mandate 2021 Gideon Danrereng Campaign Organisation.
