Mark Longyen is a professional journalist of nearly 25 years experience in the print, electronic, private, public and modern multimedia and currently the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Simon Lalong on Media and Publicity. In this interview with The Eagle Online’s Moses Gbande, Longyen bares his minds on Governor Lalong’s desire to rescue Plateau State. Excerpts:
Who are you?
My name is Mark Longyen, a professional journalist of nearly 25 years’ experience in the print, electronic, private, public and modern multimedia. I was born in a remote village called Ngwanzam, a rusty farming settlement in Shendam Local Government Area of Plateau State. I grew up in Ngwanzam, where I was condemned to be a farmer because there was no primary school there. But by the special grace of God, in 1976, the then military regime of General Olusegun Obasanjo established the first primary school there, the LEA primary school, in line with its Universal Primary Education programme. When I completed primary school in 1982, I gained admission to St. Joseph’s College, Vom, where I graduated in 1987 in flying colours, which warranted my proceeding straight to the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in 1988. I hold a 1992 BSc in International Relations from OAU and a 1999 PGD in Journalism from the International Institute of Journalism. I have traveled wide. I’m married and blessed with a beautiful daughter and a handsome son like me. I’m a football freak. My first journalism job experience was in Calabar, where I served as a Press Officer in the Governor’s office for my National Youth Service Corps from 1992 to 1993. I came back to Plateau State after the NYSC and took an appointment with The Citywatch news magazine in Jos, where I rose gradually to the post of News Editor before I left for Lagos in 1997 in search of greener pastures. While in Lagos, I worked in different private media organizations, both newspapers and magazines, before leaving for Abuja in 1999 to join The Heritage Group, publishers of Crystal International Magazine, owned by ex-President Babangida. In 2001, I incorporated Periscope International Magazine and became its Publisher and Editor-in-Chief for about 10 years before joining Africa’s foremost flagship media Octopus, the News Agency of Nigeria, where I have been working until the incumbent Executive Governor of Plateau State, Rt. Hon. Simon Lalong, found me worthy to engage my services as his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity barely a month ago.
Your appointment is coming at a time when Plateau State is facing various challenges in terms of huge debts inherited from the last administration as well the urgent need to resuscitate its own public media outfits. How do you think that this administration will cope?
Basically, one needs to understand the coming to power of His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Barrister Simon Lalong as Governor of Plateau State from the perspective of a divine intervention from heaven above to rescue the state from what was clearly an impending doom and a bleak future for the people, a situation that was deliberately orchestrated by the former Governor Jonah Jang administration. With the benefit of hindsight, I sincerely believe that God had specially prepared Governor Lalong to come and be a servant to the state and rescue it from the grip of impunity, nepotism and misrule that was the hallmark of the immediate past administration. It is an open secret that this administration inherited a completely paralyzed state in virtually every sector. The education sector, for instance, was completely dilapidated. You have a situation where government schools were closed for almost one year. Plateau pupils and students were emerging at the bottom in the nation’s Common Entrance examinations, JAMB, NECO, WAEC, etc performance chart.
The state’s tertiary institutions were worst off. “Open-and-close” became the norm instead of the exception and students and teachers were often in and out of school, just the way you and I open and close our eyes. The state university in Bokkos was left in a comatose, pitiable state without accreditation for eight years due to unnecessary government interventions and myriad wrongful decisions. Contracts were often whimsically awarded without consideration for the state’s ability to pay contractors, thereby, resulting in a suffocating huge debt burden of over N222 billion bequeathed to the present administration! Besides, nepotism became more or less a state policy. So, I believe, God Omnipotent, who sees all things, saw the urgent need to bring in someone who has the genuine fear of God and enough patriotism flowing in his blood to rescue this state from nose-diving into imminent doom, despair and oblivion. Right now, all these seemingly intimidating challenges, among many others, that the governor inherited, are now being addressed. As it is, you have a situation presently whereby our humble, people-minded governor, within the period of barely over 100 days has completely shown that he is capable and committed to tackling the onerous task of turning around the hitherto arrested destiny of the state and save the ship of state from capsizing and sinking like the legendary Great Titanic. These efforts are clearly demonstrated through deliberate, pragmatic efforts such as the setting up of peace-building committees between communities that have been at each other’s jugular. The Governor has made education a top priority in his rescue agenda. The state university, for instance, has a new board in place, while six months out of eight months’ civil servants’ salary arrears inherited from the Jang administration have been paid, with the remaining two months about to be cleared any moment from now. Right now as I speak to you, the Chinese are also coming in to invest in the solid minerals sector, to enhance industrialization and provision of more employment for the teeming population of the state. The Hausa adage, which says: Idan Jummaa za tayi kyau, daga Laraba ake sani, goes a long way in describing this administration’s efforts thus far and it is an indication that the governor is getting it right, ab initio. Also, efforts have reached advanced stage, with the collaboration of anti-graft agencies to recover billions of naira belonging to the state, stolen by officials of the immediate past administration in order to channel same into the state’s coffers for the purpose of developmental projects.
Some say that Lalong emerged as an accidental governor, who lacks the experience to govern the state. What is your take on this motion?
It is sheer balderdash and mere mischief for anybody to say that Governor Lalong lacks experience to govern this state. What is the basis of this school of thought? When I first heard this during the campaign, I laughed it off and pooh-poohed it with a wave of the hand. How would anyone in his senses describe someone who was the speaker of Plateau State House of Assembly for about seven years and the number three citizen of the state and a lawyer who also holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Law, as inexperienced to be governor? These are empty criticisms which do not hold any water. Mind you, he was also the Chairman of Conference of Speakers in this country. His antecedents are littered with sincere and effective leadership. The truth is that, you see, the governor, like few chosen people, was born a leader, naturally. It is on record that he has never contested and lost any election in his lifetime. Those who started this nonsensical talk did so as a smear campaign to score cheap political campaign points, but like the 2005 recall attempt against him, it boomeranged against his political traducers like a devastating tsunami!
What is the governor’s stance on the war against corruption?
I know without any iota of reservation that the governor is the best man capable of fighting corruption in this state. Take a look at the Tyoden Committee report and you will be convinced that Governor Lalong is a man of strong conviction to fight corruption in this state and get things right. As I mentioned earlier, and the Governor also disclosed during the 100 days media parley, you were there, he said he had already written to the anti-graft agencies and very soon the authorities will start picking up treasury looters. Remember, he equally noted that the fight against corruption should continue even after he leaves office. These are clearly indicative of government’s commitment to the fight against corruption and clearing the Augean stable and ensuring that looters enjoy no sacred cow status and have no hiding place.
The issue of lopsided appointments was one of the issues for which many criticized the immediate past government. What difference has Governor Lalong made in this regard?
I think I will answer it this way: the man has just started his appointments. We need to give this administration more time as he desires to put the best hands on deck in the interest of the general wellbeing of the people of our dear state.
What is the policy thrust of the Lalong administration?
The administration has a five-point policy thrust, which include peace and security; human capital development; infrastructural development; education, health and tourism; agriculture and rural development. Implementation of the policy thrust is fully on course. That explains why, on assumption of office, the governor constituted the peace-building committee, which I mentioned elsewhere. He is also focused on human development, with the vigorous reinvigorating of the state civil service in which nepotism is banished and seniority takes centre stage. The payment of the backlog of salaries of civil servants and correcting the anomalies in the appointments of Permanent Secretaries by the governor will go a long way in boosting morale and bolster the state’s human capital base. The government is also focused on education and this particular policy thrust is predicated on the premise that education is the bedrock of every nation, as evident in the deliberate efforts being put in place to revolutionize the hitherto rotten education sector I mentioned elsewhere. Considering the fact that Plateau State is, by and large, agrarian in nature, over 600 trucks of fertilizer have been purchased for farmers this farming season, with a view to bolstering the agriculture. Uncompleted projects inherited from the past administration are continuously being given the desired attention, as abandoned rural infrastructural facilities like roads are being attended to.
Don’t you think that these adjustments and reversals will generate bad blood?
Why should it generate bad feelings? Haba, people should fear God now! The governor decided to do the right thing by correcting the glaring anomalies in the appointment/promotion of some of those people who, as it were, had underlining nepotism/favouritism as its basic yardstick, and so many of them did not deserve or were not qualified to occupy their respective positions.
After the expiration of Lalong’s tenure, when his scorecard is read, what would be your expectations?
Great expectations! Even the body language of our amiable governor speaks of the desired development of the entire state. His Excellency is fully committed to the uniform and comprehensive development and progress of the state. He speaks it, he eats and drinks with it, he sleeps, dreams and wakes up with it in his mind. Again, as i earlier stated, this administration is a product of divine intervention so as to unite the over 53 different ethnic groups on the Plateau which were divided by Jang’s maladministration. Thus, given the benefit of foresight, by the grace of God, without any doubt, the Lalong administration will turn out to be the best in the history of the state because everything approved by God succeeds.
As the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media and Publicity, what is your blueprint as far as government media relations is concerned?
First and foremost, my major blueprint is to reach out to journalists in the state and encourage them to focus more on developmental Journalism. This entails deliberately laying emphasis on reportage that throws more light on developmental issues and de-emphasize reportage on destructive issues. You see, the essence of journalism practice is to enhance peace and development. I will also advice Journalists to always clarify issues before going to press. Even the governor acknowledged the need for constructive criticism during our media parley. Once we get this right, a good working relationship and excellent rapport devoid of friction and suspicion, will be established between both sides. I can assure you that all journalists will be carried along by this administration and, mind you, I don’t believe in the so-called idea of opposition journalism. Anyone doing it is most likely a paid agent of the government’s opponents or he or she does not know properly what Journalism practice is all about because there will be a lot of positive stuff to write about. I’m also planning to embark on a familiarization tour of all media establishments in the state in October to meet with professional colleagues. Government also intends to hold quarterly media interactive sessions with the Executive Governor to constantly rub minds and share ideas on its policies and programmes. The next one will hold towards the end of the year, by December. This will continue till the end of the governor’s tenure in 2023. Also, as promised by the governor, the present administration will pay all unpaid claims of media organizations running into millions of naira left behind by the immediate past administration.