Tallen’s Ministerial Nomination Upsets Political Plots On The Plateau

Associates of Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State are celebrating President Muhammadu Buhari’s refusal to return Solomon Dalung to his second term cabinet as a victory for them over the controversial erstwhile sports minister.

There was no love lost between Dalung and Lalong for the three and half years the former minister held office in Buhari’s first term cabinet.

However, despite the relief for the governor and his associates, they are still restrained by the fact that the replacement, Mrs. Paullen Tallen is also no friend of the governor.

Attempts by the governor’s camp to push forward the claim that Tallen’s nomination was supported by the governor’s camp have not found traction given the distance that existed between Tallen, a former former deputy governor and minister with the governor in his first term.

Political stakeholders on the plateau are also suffused with whispers that Mrs. Tallen was not among the three persons reportedly projected by the governor’s camp.
The three reportedly canvassed by the Lalong Camp to replace Dalung were Dauda Gotreng, a retired controller in the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN; Arc. PD Gyang, a retired director in the Federal Civil Service who is known as a staunch foe of the immediate past governor, Senator Jonah Jang and Lalong’s chief of staff, John Dafan.

President Buhari went beyond the three to pick Tallen a known associate of his wife, Mrs. Aisha Buhari.

The general opinion is that Mrs. Tallen’s nomination was at the behest of the First Lady.

Remarkably, the nomination has continued to generate controversy on the plateau on the basis that Tallen and Lalong belong to the same Geonai ethnic stock in the Southern Plateau.

Mrs. Tallen had during Buhari’s first term quietly rejected an ambassadorial nomination on the claim that her husband was ill. However, it was also quietly said that the rejection was because of the overt dominance of the Southern Senatorial District in the appointments from Abuja.

At that time besides the governor, Dalung who was minister and the two ambassadorial nominations made by the president were all from the same Southern Senatorial District.

While the Lalong camp is having its silent celebration that Dalung did not return, other interests who had shown interest in the ministerial slot are quietly sulking.

Associates of the chairman of the state chapter of the party, Laptep Dabang who is from the Central Zone had anticipated that he would have been named for the slot.

The increasingly Hausa Community which has gained prominence under Lalong’s governorship had also been quietly canvased that the slot would have been given to the Northern Senatorial District in the belief that the stock would have gotten the position.

However, in the end, the First Lady’s influence overtly prevailed putting to question whether a new faceoff between the governor and the minister from the state will ensue.

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