CONSOLIDATION IS NOT A MERE POLITICAL SLOGAN,BUT A DEVELOPMENTAL SLOGAN-DR PATRICK DAKUM

CONSOLIDATION IS NOT A MERE POLITICAL SLOGAN,BUT A DEVELOPMENTAL SLOGAN-DR PATRICK DAKUM. 

Recently Dr Patrick Sunday Dakum (PSD),the Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN) Abuja and a Plateau State Gubernatorial hopeful held a Stakeholders meeting in his Millionaire Quarters Residence, Jos after which he spoke to a select Media Executives on various issues, ranging from the meaning of Consolidation For A Greater Plateau From 1975-2023,his campaign slogan. He hinted that Consolidation is not a mere political slogan but a developmental slogan meant for the rapid socioeconomic cum political development of Plateau State, the Home of Peace and Tourism;Educational Challenges of the nation as replicated in his village of Jiblik which necessitated the intervention of his wife,himself and his kinsmen, Youths and Women involvement in leadership and development. 

Dr Dakum in the Media Chat

NewsGate Magazine:What is your view on the Educational decay in Nigeria today and how best do you think they can be addressed?

Dr Patrick Dakum:In answering your question, I have to illuminate the picture of our rural schools with our individual efforts. My wife took a project upon herself so that she could make things condusive for people there, now some of us are paying the salaries of Maths, Chemistry, biology teachers. When we investigated there were no teachers for those subjects. They said their salaries was Fifteen Thousand Naira(N15,000) each,so we got some of our people and decided to pay the  teachers salaries for the whole year. Everyone brought a little and we now have the Maths, Chemistry, Biology and we are paying. 

Now, there has to be a policy that guides all of these, which is a role at the states level, that puts a target that will have a reward system and a cumulative system.If I say that I am responsible for policies for promotions, you cannot say, "because I have been a teacher for five years I should be promoted".The question is, what is the past grade of the school you are coming from? It will determine whether you are to be promoted or not. Therefore, you raise it and put a target, I will give myself a target that within the first two years let us raise the literacy rate from about 35-40% or of it is 46% let's see if it can be raised in two years and make it a target for the entire community including the PTA who will act on the attitude of the parents. We also know that finance is a barrier to parents in the education system.We are going to be working with the various PTA's to see how vulnerable people be helped. I defined a developed community as a community that has the capacity to take care of the disadvantaged amongst them.For instance, if I go to a community and I  ask," are you doing well in your communities", we should be able to ask, "to what capacity can you take care of those who cannot take care of themselves?"To what extent can they take care of the orphaned, vulnerable children and the widows? The more they are taking care of it, the more developed you are. That will be it for this question.

NewsGate Magazine:What is your view on the issues of Zoning in Plateau State and Nigeria as well as the issue of Majority and Minority tribes on the Plateau?

Dr Patrick Dakum:There is a question regarding zoning and the minorities. 

Anytime I hear about the minorities what come to mind is when I go to Abuja the entire Plateau is a minority, when I go to the Ministry of Health the politics of the Majority and Minority is not what you talk about on the Plateau. Their majority is Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa, because all languages on the Plateau are all minorities. So in which context are we a majority or a minority on the Plateau?For example, when you go to Mangu, what do you see as the Majority or Minority, the same Pankshin man that wants to oppress the Chip or Pai man, the Mupun man in Mangu becomes a minority. For me, when we start looking at ourselves as citizens of this great country and Plateau State, we will be able to develop.

 Does hunger know majority and minority? The daily needs of life does not know this either.When they send children out of school because of lack of funds, are they children of the Majority and Minority?

 So, the earlier we see ourselves as brothers and sisters and we are working towards obliterating hunger, it will help us better in Plateau. 

You cannot stop people from thinking towards that context because democracy is for the people and by the people, so if there are more people in one side they would like the majority allocation due to their numbers, some people might give development by the quantity of votes from one particular place. 

So imagine there was already a general hospital in Pankshin,so because they gave me a lot of votes, does not mean I should build another hospital there?It does not make any sense. 

So, we should develop according to the needs of the people not according to population.If they are plenty in number and they need five schools we give them five schools.If their is a smaller community which needs only two school's, we will give them two schools without wasting resources. Eventually we will come to the point where those sentiments are lowered.

The more we continue in democracy, the more we will begin to see less of that.If you go to the United States of America, there are Democrats and Republicans since independence and you find out that there are interracial but by the time the chips are down, you go according to the philosophy that's what they do in politics rather than where they are coming from and I pray that we will not see a Majority or minority as a deciding factor in identifying leaders, but we use it as a basis of development. If there is a majority let's see it in how you help your people, let's see how many vulnerable children you are able to assist because you are many, if you are able to do that we clap for you. We are still living in a sense that even though it is not mentioned, the Plateau mind will not live without ensuring that we send appointments round, the Government itself having seen it as an issue over time decided to handle a federal service committee and the purpose is to protect the buisness of everybody around, so we do not be in a position to only develop a particular place because the political leaders are there. Also, when we have positions, out of our own desire to have participatory democracy,we move the positions around. It has even become an issue in getting things from the federal.For example, the legislative arm, it is difficult for you to get chairmanship from a legislative community which has a lot of resources,if you are a first time legislator, if you are a 3rd or 4th time legislator you get a better chance of being made chairman of a committee that has a lot of resources that can be given to your people. But when you have a community where you cannot have one person do two terms in a particular position,it becomes disadvantageous. We are lucky that some of the members that went there from the State House of Assembly were considered as former legislators and given chairmanship of committees,so there are areas where that is becoming an issue that we need to tackle.

Nigeria Television Authority: My name is Felicia Dalyop, I represent the largest television network, which is the NTA, we've heard what you said, especially on leadership, its qualities and the yearnings and aspirations of having a good leader on the Plateau come 2023, to move the Plateau Project forward.For the sake of the records,I would like to know if this is some kind of avenue to declare your intentions for a particular position you intend to vie for? Secondly, in terms of the all inclusive governance, your leadership style which includes everybody, how does that get to grow or groom the younger ones within Plateau State? My understanding of an all inclusive governance is not just about having all indigenous people from the state but others outside the state and beyond.So what happens to the youths in the State and how do you intend to handle those ?

Dr. Patrick Dakum: The straight forward answer to the first question is Yes, I am praying about the issues regarding the governance of Plateau State, but when the timetable comes out,when active politicking starts and once the timetable is announced, we will be in the field and say what we are about doing. We want to first sensitize  ourselves and paint a picture that, this is where we want to go. Secondly, there are two sides to mentoring which are the sides of the mentor and the person being mentored. We that are older hold and release the hands of the younger ones to ensure they do better than us.It is also sometimes a lifelong process.On the side of the mentor, you must have open minded people who can accommodate the younger one's ideas. I teach in the Sunday school, which is the youth class from ages 16-22.  During the EndSars campaign, I decided we should talk about the EndSars campaign, how we could build on the gains of EndSars and how did we lose it for the fact that some bad elements came into the mix, and I also asked what the age limit is for the old? Some of them said 30 above is too old. They said they are the "Gen Z age" and they have never known a world without the internet.So this generation is not thinking the same with what most of us here are thinking.To me engaging this age group, you have to conform to what they were born into, but the most important thing as a leader and mentor, you need to be open minded. Personally I've been able to work with a lot of young people and a good number of them have risen up to certain positions. This young man wanted to be a miner but I said "you cannot continue like this", "you will work with me but you must make sure you finish your degree". He became my Personal Assistant, I worked with him for a number of years and I told him to come explore a new world with me. And now they have established thier own company, which has a turnover of almost a billion naira a year and he is an Executive Director for Logistics there.So I can beat my chest about him and others, but you must have the cooperation of the mentee.If I had said go there and he says "no", I couldn't have forced him.So for me, the youth should be as interested as much and latch onto the mentor and hem of the older ones garment and should not let go. 

I'll give another difficult one. There was a young man who sold shoes to me in my own village of Jiblik, he had been putting pressure that he wants to see me, so I asked what he wanted, he said I should look for a job for him. That, he had finished the degree and managing with making the shoes and therefore, I should help him, but I looked him in the eye and said I will not get a job for him because he was a potential employer with veey good skills. What should we do then? I said CBN is giving  loan for anyone starting a business, even those with an established buisness.So he said ,"I went there with only the name of the company and I didn't know to know how to register it", so I told him to go and register the name of the company and I will pay for the bills. After that he registered the company, I then asked the lady working there whether he has come, she said there will be a training, I met him and he said he thought they will give him the money immediately. He then went for the training and I assumed he had gotten the money, but then, three or four weeks ago I met up with him and he said, " Sir, I went to the bank and do you know what they told me? They said they would not give me the N4 million, that they will remove 70% of the money and buy equipments for me. To cut the long story short, he is about to get the money, apart from that,now they have sent 10 people as trainees and they are paying them up to 30,000 Naira in a span of Six or nine months. He is now an employer. I want you to know that mentoring is not easy, some of the youths say, they do not have mentors but things don't work that way, because it is a two way traffic, as a mentor I am not an idle person, I have a heavy burden on my head, I have to make sure that I should do the right thing and also lay the ground work for you.Assuming I have ten of that man, when will I have time to do my own work. In regards to young people, there are deliberate things the government could do to help.For example, why must everyone have to do a degree program?If a young man prefers to make ceilings, why can't we empower him with relevant technology?Why do we have to employ foreigners to do this work when we have people that can do it?

 There is this young Plateau girl I have met. I am praying if God gives me the opportunity to work with that lady, it will be really great, I want to tell her I want to train women learning mechanics. So imagine if we get this kind of multiplier effect.That means not everybody needs to get a degree.If someone wants to farm and do it better, the agricultural extension workers do not need degrees.They just need to be supervised with someone with a degree. But have the relevant technology needed. So if you do that, you will find alot of young people going into entrepreneurship. You will boost the economy and young people will get something to do. I am learning how to play golf and someone told me instead of trekking up and down while playing golf, it will give me enough exercise, so my brother pressured me and bought me the kits because he has been the President of the Lamingo Golf Club, so I go there and I meet this young man and he is a professional who went for a golf tournament and came back from the Nigerian Sports Festival that just concluded, so I said who was the champion of the State’s Sports Festival?I suddenly remembered once upon a time that in the long distance race in Africa after Kenya, the next person is a Plateau man.In Nigeria most long distance race winners come from Plateau State. As we can see engaging young people means alot, after all if I were to tell everyone aged 60 in this room to stand, there wouldn't be up to five in the US you are middle age as long as you're not up to age 70.

NewsGate Magazine: Which option will you prefer for the party primaries? Is it the delegate system ,or the option A4? Secondly, alot of people do not believe in the Covid 19 vaccine's, what's your call to them.

Dr. Patrick Dakum: Democracy is a Government of the people,by the people, and for the people. The more people that participate in a democratic process the better, so the democratic system that gives a better option for the people is better.So the option A4 is better. Every card carrying member of the party will be able to cue up and select who represents him in that party, so if you are in APC for instance, all APC members will go to the polling unit there, they will see the picture of Dakum and they will line up behind Dakum, and that is how participatory democracy is. Sometimes it is said that the cost of managing it is high and managing the party itself, because the party must send electoral officers for all the polling units and maybe sometimes because of that humongous cost,the party sometimes goes for the delegate system. 

What is the delegate system? It is when certain officials, some officers along with some past leaders,like some members from the National Assembly, Governors etc form a team from that local government from every ward, they will go to a stadium with close to 5000 people there and these 5000 people decide who the party nominee is. Plateau State had the delegate system but Lagos did an open elections,option A4 and they produced their preferred candidate.In the PDP, they also did the same thing.They have used both systems but for me democratically, you have better participation of people if we all the members contribute to who our flag bearer should be.

Regarding the Covid 19 vaccine, I have taken the vaccine and there are a number of questions people have raised. First of all vaccine's are not new, for those of us who are a little bit older we have scars over our shirt sleeves which is a vaccination mark.So if anyone wanted to control you using a vaccine,why didn't they do it a long time ago?For some of us who have been privileged to travel internationally, if you are travelling to South Africa,you must have a yellow card which is for yellow fever vaccination. Vaccines are not new, Covid 19 vaccines are not new either. Some people asked why the vaccines was produced in such a short time? I said instead, you should be thankful it was produced in a short while, the reason is very clear.The technology used in making these vaccines have evolved over a period of time. So developing vaccines is not just like this element that stimulate anibodies to fight the body but it is also how it is capsulated.What is going to be that carrier, those components for vaccine production have been a subject of intense research for a number of years and over a period of time it has been fine tuned.Even Ebola has a vaccine and all these technology applies this kind of backits either an atinuated virus meaning a virus that has been killed or it is a particle and part of the virus or it is an artificial protein part of the aspect of the gels that when injected into you,your body thinks it has gotten the virus and activates anti bodies to fight them off, but it is not a virus in itself,so cannot give disease.Small pox vaccinations started by injecting actual small pox viruses to people,some died then they discovered that people investing milk maize are not having the disease so apparently they found out there were aspects of it in milk that gives antibodies. Technologies has been evolving, it used to take 15 years, the second time shortened and we could produce it in 10 years, then in 3 years and then 2 years and now we can develop it in one year which is really good.If you follow it, that theory is debunked. Someone said they inject some DNA codes that will control you.There is absolutely no scientific part in this. I told some people that they watch too much videos, if there were no videos the vaccine will circulate. But you see a white man with his lab coat saying he was part and parcel of the development of the vaccines.Almost half of the elderly in the US have been vaccinated but do not have their minds controlled why is that?They said, the vaccines they send to Nigeria is being manufcatuered somewhere else  and they are putting in something inside but the same vaccines are produced at the same places. Most of these are not true. Vaccines meant for Covid are safe in terms of benefit and risk and that is how we rate them.If the benefits out weigh the risk,we say it is good to go. The flu vaccine was only 60 to 65% effective, yet people are cued up to get the vaccine in other developed countries. For my call, it is to avail yourself when the vaccine is shown. Azermeneca vaccine or maybe the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is said to have complications which becomes a rear blood clog, it is possible but the complications have not led to death. Secondly, some people reported some death but it has not been linked to this vaccine, now 30 blood clot issues in 30 million vaccines has not exceeded what the blood clot issues are in the general population, so we cannot conclude that this is the reason. In Nigeria, we are about a million in terms of people who have been vaccinated, so what I am saying is,wherever people are getting vaccines let's threaten the adverse effects reporting system so in the event we can get our own data and based on our data we will know what we have. I have taken the vaccine and their is no mind control over me and I am normal with the same thinking faculty.My complications are swelling in the area of entry, I got some aches for two days, I am fine and I got my last dose on the 4th of March,2021.

Let me thank all of you for coming, let us go and spread consolidation message.

NewsGate Magazine: I can see that there are close to 20-40 men here but a few women, how will the consolidation team carry women along? With the fact that women play a very vital role in National Development.

Dr. Patrick Dakum: I think it is not deliberate that makes it look like the representation is not equal, if you came here a few days ago, you'll see that it was jam-packed with women, with some even asking where the men were, and I told them majority of them will be coming for Consolidation Meeting, they were discussing and talking what will be unique to women, but I agree with you that when we have Consolidation,we will make it an equal basis. If you go to every election poll ,the majority are women. There is this man that speaks in the House of Representatives that I like so much, Hon Kazaure, he said " the women in the place are very very powerful, if I have three of them in my constituency, they will vote me out". He makes a lot of valueable points. Even though I don't agree completely to what he said, "Let's give the women power but not too much power". I believe it is impossible to have a balanced development that is not gender oriented, I also empower my colleagues that are women to also stand their ground. In Plateau there are no equal number of men and women who can achieve great things. My personal belief is that there isn't anything that has to do with development that a man and woman are not capable of.

On the second part let's move on to the Rescue Nission.We have Rescue Mission one and Rescue Misson two. Now the idea behind that is that if you are going to rescue the state,it is to rescue it from an imbalance of various things in order to make sure that the inclusiveness is promoted. I think if I am to talk about something, I really want to promote the issue related to the Peace Building Agency, because I took my time to talk to the DG,.I said,I need to know what you are doing, because I am interested in Plateau and if I am to step up for a leadership position in Plateau, I should know the issues. I can't assume what is happening?And we were able to bring the DG to a round table where he spoke to alot of people online, some of you that were in the meeting know that, where he explained the efforts they are taking in terms of meeting signals where potential signals will be and sending teams there to regulate them. There are many flash points that would have erupted into a major crisis.He gave me two or three instances where some one was killed and a group thought it was a different group that did it, immediately warming up for a reprisal attack but they sat and found out that it was the same person in the group that killed him.Within a short meeting, they put the facts in and everything calmed down and that was just one example. Now if you look at issues of the lack of payment of salaries in the past, I don't want to go into the reasons why, but I was also existing during the lack of salaries when I was the commissioner of Information.When I was the Commissioner,there was a backlog of salaries for about five months and at that time my friends were telling me to say the truth, how many civil servants are there that you carry the whole allocation and give it to them.So I go to church and discover a pattern because I am the Commissioner of Information and salaries have not been paid.The Pastor changes the sermon topic. I discovered that offerings, tithes and ongoing projects have reduced.So I called my team together to analyze.At that time,salaries were about N400 million, so I told one of the bankers to give me the run down of accounts of those people after the payment of salaries to see the remaining money after payment and it was zero.So after two weeks, there is nothing left after the payment of salaries in their accounts, but where did the money go? It went to the market woman, traders, churches, mosques and sank into the economy.I sat and evaluated,that payment of salaries is an important economic activity.It is a right, but also not a right as an economic activity. Don't pay civil servants for two months and see what will happen to the markets.It will eventually become like a ghost town,no payment of school fees.For transportation people will prefer trekking, if we should think, it should be about the aspect of promoting peace and also the alert mantra. Then we should look at the Legacy projects, some people disagree on the types of projects in their Local Governments, but there are in the 17 LGAs.I have gone round and been to 11 out of the 17 and I am still going round. I take my time to see what they are doing.They are setting standards for the schools,which look like that can make universities out of it , but it reminded me how schools used to be when I went to Government Secondary School Funtua in 1972 and I thought that it was like heaven, when I went to the university it was like being in London because there was breakfast, lunch and dinner. Infact we went on a strike because they changed the meal tickets from N10 naira to N50 naira and we said there is no inflation that we will accommodate.Ali Must Go.Ali was the Federal Minister for Education then. So these projects are excellent projects and they are projects I believe are good, so let's combine the Rescue Mission, the Redemption, the Re-engineering and the Emancipation, our baskets are now full with these aspects that have pasted, so how should we paint the picture for the next Government? Mix all that and Consolidate it to one developmental project and do not miss out on any of the good practices in the past, because if you miss out on the good practices of the past and bring modern innovation into it and the modern innovation is the ICT works.If we were doing innovations for education, it wouldn't be only renovating classrooms, we should start thinking of ensuring the school's are online,in case there is a pandemic,school should not stop.So you must modernize everything in the past and bring it to the future, having a wide scope of travels in terms of the work God has enabled me to do, gives me the idea of seeing and knowing the possibilities of development. The first time I saw Keke Napep, I had seen it 15 years earlier in Bangladesh. Now we are thinking that the Keke is slowly becoming like the motorcycle and we are wandering where to go next. if you have travelled, you will see that they have moved on and have an organized transportation system. Imagine getting a big long bus here and make it enabled by the internet. With internet service for people who enter the bus, do you think they will enter Keke? No. Even though you want to consolidate these items, innovations must be in it,so therefore, anytime you hear me talking about painting the picture of the Plateau Project, I am painting the picture in a context of developmental strategy that takes cognizance of the good practices that has been taking place in the past government. Let me conclude, one, we talked about my thinking about leadership and two, talking about every Governor that has ruled over Plateau State is not an angel, there is no one found on the planet that is an angel, so if you look for perfection you will never find it, which means if we take the practices, it does not mean that they do not have thier negatives. 

As good as the likes of J.D. Gomwalk, Solomon Lar, Fidelis Tapgun, Joshua Dariye,Jonah Jang and Simon Lalong were, they had their weaknesses. Only God is perfect.

 If we are to focus on what the other leaders did bad, then we miss the point. Every past leader made his contribution either large or small, but they did something good and we must take cognisance, if Plateau people should take note  of the good of the past leaders, we will paint a brighter picture,but if we keep looking at the negatives, we paint a picture of abysmal failure, frustration and giving up, but there is hope in Plateau State and a Plateau State that includes every resident of the State will be at peace and will pursue his or her businesses and commerce. Someone said, "If you concentrate on consolidating these innovations how will you lay it out?

The Boston Consulting Group was contracted by the Rescue Administration and came up with all the gains in the economic development of Plateau and laid out a five year development plan and said it had nothing to do with the agenda of the party which has  more to do with the developmental needs of the state. They took it sector by sector and laid out the potentials, opportunities and how we can progress. For me laying out this consolidated plan that has a lot of research, what is the conclusion of the economic direction of Plateau using this?You will remember using it by the ATM which is acronym to remember the economic development of the state as laid down by the five year plan and I believe any future Plateau State leader should build on that. 

The 'A' is Agriculture which is complete Agriculture not only farming but lifestock too, we are ensuring that the farmer farms and is safe to farm and safe to keep lifestock like it was once upon a time and the agricultural development is the bedrock of the State, I have never seen billions lying down and people walking past it. I read a story of a lady that came here that was trying to establish a tomato paste factory in Plateau,but it did not work out,she eventually opened it in Kaduna, so farming and lifestock is a rich mantra. In my village we have one Audu, who understands my Mupun language more than I do and I asked him what he wanted and he said if I can look for how he can go for Hajj, I told him I would rather fix his fractured leg that was not properly healed first. Secondly, I could remember when we used to drink free milk from his ruga, so I will reactivate the business and make sure the business starts and when you make money you thank God in Hajj.In my head,I thought if this guy will raise his cattle nobody will need to go and buy milk in my village again. I have one of my former workers that said she was interested in packaging, now she exports Acha from Plateau State. Using this the agricultural sector will be activated big time. I have a friend in Edo State and that friend of mine used to be the Commissioner for Agriculture, who is now an Adviser to the current Governor and after discussing with him he showed me some of the things they were able to do there, which is to revolutionize the rice paddies there, currently there are not less than 50 rice farmers that are doing extremely well there. 

The 'T' is for Tourism. Every person sees Plateau State as a Tourist Haven. I had some friends that moved out of here because it was not safe but they are back to Jos now. They all said they can't seem to run away from the most beautiful place in Nigeria, that this is the place everybody wants to retire. Almost all the folks I speak to from Abuja want a home in Plateau State. If you develop Plateau, the funds we are going to make here will be unlimited. I am aware this required a lot of money but I am also aware that if you have global connections you will be able to have a proper public private partnership that will enable you move on.

The 'M' is for Mining. We have been talking about a gem stone village, when I saw what was happening in Zamfara pertaining the gold they found and the State Government took control saying there is going to be a partnership in the issues of gold, I saw the CBN Governor getting a bar of gold from them. In my own village of jiblik there is Granite and all that has been happening since I was a kid was that,someone was given a license for years, but had never gone into production. There was a time I went there and saw a port cabin, where the Chinese stay mining gemstones, every LGA in Plateau is capable of making billions from gemstones, so if we lay our plans for the Plateau project in terms of development not in terms of politics only, I think we will be able to move forward.

Let me say something about my thoughts on leadership. I attended a leadership training somewhere in Hawaii in the year 2000, but I learnt something about true leadership and who a leader should be and it has never left me.It even helped me in my place of work now with over 900 staff in our institute spread over 23 States.300 of those staff are from Plateau, because when I was going into the organization,the condition I gave them was Plateau must benefit, because I was not jobless at that point and to leave my position as the Commissioner of Health at that point for a non governmental organization, the stakes must be high. And so we went ahead and the training gave me an idea that, one, anybody who is a leader must know the way, which means you must know where you are taking your people to in terms of the different definitions of development and we measure it by the Human Development Index which stands in a tripod which are Knowledge, longevity of life and purchasing power so it actually is your education, your health and your ability to buy and sell. If we say a community Is developed we must asked how many people have finished primary school or secondary school.Secondly, how old will you live, should you measure what you can do with age, No. 

My boss in the university in the US is 83 years of age, and he is still working full time, the Chairman of the Board for the Institur of Human Virology in Nigeria will be 94 this year,so if you are to measure development you must measure it in terms of longevity, people must be able to buy and sell in order to develop. So the leader must know the way but painting the picture of Plateau,we must also know that the leader not only knows the way but goes the way, I can't say I know the way by not practicing it. So if we should paint the picture of what we want tomorrow, we must look clearly in 2023, does this fellow know the way?

Secondly, to go the way. Let us go back to the anticidence of everyone, when he was a Primary School Teacher how many people did he affect? When he became a Medical Doctor how many people did he affect, when he was put in charge of this, who did he employ? In his community what has he done? Because if you know the way without going the way you are not a good leader, so you must answer those questions and Plateau people must ask those questions, because you want to paint a Plateau Project, but lastly, you must show the way.So who are your mentee's, how many people have you shown the direction that you want? So a leader knows the way, he goes the way and he shows the way and those are the things we must look out for when we are painting the Plateau project.

What are we looking for in a transition? We are looking for a person to paint a Plateau project. What is that Plateau project? It is a consolidation by my own definition of the gains of the past, using innovation to take Plateau State and move on to the next level and take it higher than what it is now. A place that is secure and inclusive for everyone and know that human development is more important than infrastructural development, then we also want to paint a picture whereby we want to tell the Plateau people where we are going to ,whomever will take us out of our problems but  not only shows the way, but goes the way. 

Welcome to consolidation.I hope and pray that you have an idea of consolidation, not only as a political slogan,but as a development slogan.