 |
| Pauline Tallen. Source:https://dailypost.ng |
After my daughter was born, I would lift her, bounce her and
joke that she will achieve what Pauline Tallen could not achieve. That was my
wish for my daughter. Just about two weeks after my daughter was born, Tallen’s
name appeared again in the ministerial list submitted to the National Assembly
by President Mohammadu Buhari. I freaked; it seemed Tallen was not done lifting
the hurdle and, it may end up becoming too high for my daughter.
Pauline Tallen is unarguably the most politically prosperous
woman in the political past and present in Plateau State, where she hells from
and, perhaps, the whole of northern Nigeria, in recent times. She seems to be
the phoenix of Nigeria politics that will always rise from her ashes to start a
new life. Even among men, there are only a few with this political stamina in
contemporary Nigerian politics.
After an obscure political life at the grass-roots, Tallen became
a junior minister in the Ministry of Science and Technology, during the Obasanjo
Administration, lasting up till 2007, when Jonah Jang became the Governor of
Plateau State and made her his Deputy. It is one of a few such cases across the
length and breadth of the country. As
the end of the Jang’s first tenure neared, though, the duo fell apart, with
Jang accusing her of being dangerously ambitious. She moved to a rival
political party and contested against him in the 2011 Plateau State Gubernatorial
Elections. She lost. She, however, made a huge imprint by defeating her ex-boss
in Jos North, a locality where Plateau’s political energy is most spent.
Tallen spent the four years that followed in quietness, plausibly waiting for the right moment. With the onset of the Buhari Administration, she found that moment. She was often seen in the delegation of First Lady, Aisha Buhari.
While Nigerians waited for the promises of President Buhari
to mature, the younger, politically naïve First Lady shocked Nigerians by
openly criticizing her husband for failing to include, in his cabinet,
Nigerians who actually worked for his election. The President in his
frustration condemned his wife’s comment and claimed that, “she belonged in the
kitchen, the sitting room and the ‘other room’.” For Nigerians who see below
the surface, there was a strong feeling that political veterans like Tallen
actually pushed the First Lady to openly criticize her spouse and were actually
turning the administration’s door knob so they can get in.
It did not take long before President Buhari submitted Tallen’s
name to be screened for a diplomatic role in his government. It was ill-timed,
happening when her husband was hospitalized. She told newsmen that her only option was to
give up the role, since it required her to travel abroad. She made it clear
that, should her husband get well, she would take any position President Buhari
was willing to offer her, even if it were the position with the modesty of a street
cleaner. She ended up with a double heartbreak: missing the job and losing her
husband.
By the time she finished mourning her husband, her
metaphorical street-cleaner job came when she was made a member of the
governing board of Nigerian AIDS Control Agency, in addition to her membership
in the ruling party’s board of trustees.
During the 2019 General Elections, Tallen returned home,
contesting and losing the senatorial seat of Plateau-South constituency to
Ignatius Longjan, her successor as Deputy Governor. Unbowed, she went to Abuja
to meet with her powerful political friends, resulting in her name appearing in
the new ministerial list of the Buhari Administration.
Critics aren’t pleased. They criticised the administration
in Abuja for nepotism, preferring to give cabinet positions to friends rather
than resting its decision on merit. They claim she is part of the dirty history
of the last two decades of Nigeria’s political journey and that it is
indicative of the ineptitude and hypocrisy of the Buhari Administration, which
promises accelerated prosperity to Nigerians. President Buhari had, after being
sworn for his second tenure of four years, regretted working with people he had
“hardly known” during his first tenure. This is an indication that Tallen is
someone he had known and proof, critics say, of his government’s nepotism and
incompetence.
In part, the success of Tallen’s adaptation rests on her use
of political parties like bread wraps, often thrown away after the bread has
been eaten.
We congratulate Tallen on her new role and hope that, rather
than just sitting in the boat and enjoying the cruise, she will be seen
tirelessly carrying the oar and pushing the boat ahead.
