The Magic of Diket Plang

 

Senator Diket Plang. Source: Pang's Facebook Gallery

Plang has always beaten his chest saying he never had to worry much about writing applications with the intention of seeking a job –his only applications where to the people from whom he sought political mandates.

Very early from graduation, he opted to be in politics, becoming a counsellor representing one of those words from Pankshin South. He eventually rose to coordinate the National Poverty Alleviation Programme under Joshua Dariye, who was the Governor of Plateau State between 1999 and 2007. During the Jonah Jang administration as the Governor of Plateau State, Senator Plang became an adviser to the Governor on Inter-Governmental Matters. That was when I knew him, following an interview he granted me while I worked actively as a journalist at the time. During the second tenure of the Jang administration, he successfully contested for the state assembly and won. In the eight years of Simon Lalong, he went into hibernation. At the end of it, he bounced back, this time as a Senator.  He taught us that patience is a powerful weapon in political strategy.

Obviously, there is something magical about his political life, given that he comes from a marginal tribe in Pankshin, where the Ngas are the largest tribe –our political culture is largely driven by sympathy to people with whom we share a common ancestry or religion. We cannot forget too easily that we are in the era of the Muslim-Muslim tag.  

So, what is the secret blueprint he has used to stay relevant all these decades? It is obviously, his generosity. I was prompted to write this after listening to what he had done to people in his constituency by given out one thousand bags of rice to folks at the bottom of the economic hierarchy. Roughly, that amounts to about one hundred million naira, a largesse one can describe as staggering!

There was a time, early in Plang’s senatorial incumbency. It was when he was invited to inspect the Nigerian Institute of Mining and Geosciences in Jos with the intention of helping with a bill seeking to make the institute a university.  I went there and watched as he was been taken round the institute.  I thought it was a near-impossible task, but the man eventually delivered, a restatement of his laser-sharp political wit.   

This big-heartedness has been the recipe to his unvarying political victories. His detractors say that he has been succeeding by bribing the people with generosity. Anything wrong with that?  –politics is about irritability to the troubles of the people, helping the people to accomplish their individual and shared dreams.

Having became a Senator, there is just one rung atop the latter that he hasn’t attained. It is the position of a governor. Unfortunately, when he ends his tenure as a senator (assuming he winds the second tenure) it will be the turn of Northern Plateau to present the candidates. That is if we stick to the agreement which merely comes from our convictions that power should rotate. It is not a clause in the constitution and anything can happen. From his antecedents, it is dangerous to underestimate what the Senator is capable of actualizing.

The Yeshua Kingdom Foundation International

The Yeshua Kingdom Foundation International, Jos

The Yeshua Kingdom Foundation International is an open-air centre of religious gatherings. It was built in Jos by Jonah David Jang, a man who has been a governor in three of Nigeria’s thirty-six states.  It is located between Doi and Ladura villages in the Du District of Jos South. People have come to refer to the monument as the Ten Commandments because of the spectacle of a giant tablet on which the Ten Commandments of God are engraved. The monument, built from Jang’s personal funds, was commissioned by erstwhile President Goodluck Jonathan in December 2021. Jang had ended his time as governor in 2015 and as a senator in 2019.

In addition to President Goodluck Jonathan, who commissioned the monument, two former presidents of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo and Yakubu Gowon, have also walked the soil of the monument. Obasanjo and Gowon were special guests at the maiden edition of a three-day inter-denominational event, which concluded on December 1^st, 2024, following the request of Governor Caleb Mutfwang, the current Governor of Plateau State. The coming of Generals Gowon and Obasanjo accentuated the epic standing of the monument –the event enjoyed record attendance, only comparable to the attendance recorded when Reinhardt Bunke visited Jos in the mid-1990s. 

The Ten Commandments is set in a picturesque location of Du District. It is designed such that the colourful sitting positions form a bow pattern, which faces an elevated podium behind which the tablet stands. The tablet’s giant size compares to human sizes as Gulliver compared to Lilliputians. The arena also boasts of water pools designed for baptism and have been used for that purpose since the inauguration of the monument.

Sometimes in 2010, I visited Makurdi, the capital city of Benue State and noticed the roads were curiously wide and dichotomous. They were also flanked by giant gutters that lessen any possibility of flooding. When I observed that the construction pattern was identical to what Jonah Jang was building in Plateau State, my host confirmed that the roads were actually built by Jonah Jang while he was the military Governor of Benue State. It is this obsession for urban renaissance that has helped Jang to become so powerful that he decides who becomes the governor of Plateau State.

When Jang’s construction turbo took off on the Plateau in 2007, it was relentless and ubiquitous under the Plateau sun, compelling President Goodluck Jonathan to stay for three days, flying across the state and commissioning a stack of projects Jang had piled within a short period of becoming governor. The roads at the heart of the construction were aimed at spreading the physical developments to all corners of the state as much as possible. This was so achieved until the end of his second tenure in 2015. Building the monument with his private funds makes obvious his undying love for Plateau State. The record attendance of the religious event has proven that when constructions spread further away from the city centre, they spur developments in the countryside.  

Within the short period Caleb Mutfwang has been in the state as the Governor, he has been able to demonstrate that he is a protégé of Jonah Jang. The volume of his projects despite the litigations that slowed him in the first year proves this. Mutfwang, who understands the role such monuments play in stirring prosperity, moved around with a broad smile on his face, greeting everybody. It is said that governance is a process, not an event. Unfortunately for Plateau State, this is only true if the People's Democratic Party is in charge. Clearly, the Mutfwang approach is a continuation of what Jang stands for.

There is something iconic about Yeshua Kingdom Foundation International: the monument carries an ambience that is reminiscent of the happy days last seen in the mid-1980s. As far as this is concerned, everyone on the Plateau is upbeat

Staying away from power is like walking into the distance. The more you walk away, the less distinct you become. The more years Jang stayed away from the government house, the more indistinct he became in the minds of Plateau people. However, building the Yeshua Kingdom Foundation International from the leftovers in his pouch has brought him back to the notice of the people in a manner that is so distinct that time will find it difficult to erode.

The constant prayer in the minds of kind-hearted people in Plateau State is for Jang to live long. Clearly, God is answering this prayer.