BREAKING: IT IS UNDEMOCRATIC FOR PLATEAU TO HAVE AN INCOMPLETE GOVERNMENT AND NO MINISTER BEFORE 12TH JUNE 2024--- PROF. PATRICK DAKUM

By: Amb. Valentine Adese (JP),

As the nation gets prepared to commemorate another Democracy-Day Anniversary slated for 12^th June 2024, the President, Sen. Bola A. Tinubu has been called upon to appoint a Minister to fill in the Plateau State slot in the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

Making the call in an interview recently, Professor Patrick Dakum, a front-line politician and the Governorship candidate for the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 Governorship election in Plateau State, lamented that the President's delay in appointing a new Minister to fill in the gap created by the exit of Sen. Simon Lalong, the then Minister of Labour, is a total disservice to Plateau and it calls for immediate remedy. 

PROF. DAKUM

Dakum said, “There is no genuine reason for Plateau to be without a Minister for this long because this act denies its participation in decision-making for good governance in the country. There are capable and eligible hands in the state that can handle any ministry, so why delay the appointment".

In the same vein, the Professor, who is also the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), of the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN), called on the Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Gabriel Dewan, to swear in the remaining Members-elect.

According to him, as the state joins others in the commemoration of this year's Democracy Day, it would be odd to note that the Government of Plateau State is incomplete.

Dakum said, “For democracy to thrive, Court orders must be obeyed, whether palatable or unpalatable”.

Adding that, "There is absolutely, no reason why the members-elect who are declared as winners by the Court of Appeal should not be in the House working. It does not make sense. I don't understand why and how because it is the same judiciary that said the Governor is PDP, and the House is APC, so, what's the rocket science in that?” 

Professor Dakum, who was also a former Commissioner of Health and Information submitted that “It is an abuse of democracy to procrastinate swearing in of the members-elect because it also amounts to denying their constituents the right to be represented in the House. The action also makes the Plateau State Government incomplete.

“Everyone should be carried along and no Constituency should be left behind in the interest of democracy, good governance, progress and justice”.