Rage over N15bn Plateau govt house

It came at a time when two other Government Houses were in existence, so the decision to build the new Government House in Little Rayfield raised much dust; not only because critics felt that the first operating Government House in Rayfield, Jos South, and a new one in Tudun Wada, Jos North, were considered sufficient […]

It came at a time when two other Government Houses were in existence, so the decision to build the new Government House in Little Rayfield raised much dust; not only because critics felt that the first operating Government House in Rayfield, Jos South, and a new one in Tudun Wada, Jos North, were considered sufficient as the offices and residence of Mr Governor and his staff but because the new one was to be built at a cost widely considered too high for a state barely able to pay its civil servants and execute the most necessary of development projects.
Erstwhile governor, Jonah David Jang, was not one to be easily swayed from his personal conviction, so he went ahead and built the Little Rayfield Government House, and at a time when he had no more than a couple of months to occupy it. The former Plateau State Commissioner for Information and Communication Alhaji Abubakar Badu said this much, “Governor Jang did not embark on this capital intensive project for selfish reason; he has almost served out his tenure before the completion of this project, but he had to do it for future generation of governors. If Jang had wanted it for himself, he would have started it since 2007 when he became governor. But he rather started it after his first term, suggesting he only wanted a befitting Government House for the state, so that the next governor will not suffer lack of office accommodation like he did during his tenure.”
Clearly, it is a place that Jang and members of his government thought very highly of.  Probably to lend credence to this, it became the very last project that Jang commissioned, and when he had barely three days in office as governor. At the commissioning ceremony when he cut the tape to formally throw the main gates of the expansive complex open on May 27, he and officials of his government who spoke, revealed what they felt about the ambitious project.
Jang’s permanent secretary in charge of protocol, Mr Sunday Digs said, “This gigantic project conceived and executed by this government is the icing on the cake, coming at the twilight of the administration. This is going to create a lasting memory in the minds of Plateau people.”
The former Commissioner of Urban Development, Arch Sylvanus Dongtoe whose ministry supervised the project implementation said, “This was a project conceived by this government in the desire of the governor to have a befitting government house. This is a pride of Plateau, located as it is in a serene environment with beautiful rock formations, trees and other natural features.”
Jang, holding the scissors to cut the tape that was to consummate the official opening of the new Government House, announced that it would be the first purpose-built Government House that the 48-year-old Plateau State would have. He said, “Plateau State has been having makeshift government houses. This complex is sitting on 53 hectares of land. After we conceived the idea, each time we considered the cost, we felt like giving up. We decided in the end to look for the money. The result is what we are commissioning today.”
The complex is a mix of facilities: the governor’s residence, his office block with sections for his support staff, a separate block as offices of other Government House staff, the First Lady’s office, a clinic, a 500-seat banquet hall, a 1000-capacity multi-purpose event centre, a helicopter landing pad (helipad), a fire station, and a gate house equipped with sophisticated security gadgets.
Secretary to the State Government under Jang, said, “Plateau State is the only state that operates from four government houses before acquiring the present Government House in Little Rayfield. One of it is Governor Jang’s personal residence in Du village of Jos South Local Government Area. Governor Jang had to convert his own personal residence to government house initially from where he conducted official functions. That was because the existing government House in Rayfield had to be renovated. So while the renovation was going on, Governor Jang relocated to the Presidential Lodge located beside the Government House. And because the Presidential Lodge could not accommodate the governor and his supporting staff fully, his personal residence was used to carry out certain government functions.
“Later on, within the first tenure of Governor Jang, the former Ministry for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in Jishe was reconstructed as government lodge to host the governor’s office and official residence. The location was used as government house alongside the one in Rayfield and Jang’s personal residence. So it was not unusual then to hear reports of government functions holding in Du, Jishe, Rayfield and presidential lodge in the media.”
Not all Plateau people are impressed, however, about the sophistication or even necessity of the new government house. Among those who have snubbed the facility is Jang’s successor, the man to actually “enjoy” the new opulence that the multi-structure offers, Governor Simon Lalong.
Before his election and since his election, Lalong who was speaker of Plateau State between 2000 and 2006 and has seen much opulence himself, said about the new Government House in an interview published by Daily Trust earlier this year, on February 2 when he was still only the APC governorship candidate: “Misplacement of priority is a major problem with the present government. You carry N15 billion to build a new Government House. That is a luxury for just two persons: the governor and his wife. That place is a luxury for me. I don’t need that to govern the state. I don’t want to stay there because I know that my people are living in abject poverty. They are not comfortable and it is not my comfort that will give them comfort.”
Such is the general opinion of people who see the Government House as something of a white elephant, especially in view of its handsome cost, close to N15 billion.
Ponfa Audu, a follower of the Governor Lalong said, “Everybody supports the governor in efforts to cut the excesses of the out gone administration. This project is a kind of misplacement of priority. I don’t think Plateau State needs this very project at this point in time considering that we have two government houses. These are structures that were well built, well furnished.
“I’m in total support of the governor not going there until issues are cleared: the funding, the cost, who handled the project.
“[Former] Governor Jang, from inception moved the Government House to Du district which happens to be his personal house – used the state funds to develop, furnish it. It’s almost equivalent to what we have in Rayfield. The Rayfield Government House had been there, everything put in place with standard.
“A lot of issues need to be tackled – the abandoned projects, the uncompleted roads within the metropolis not to talk about the local government projects. People in the city centre have challenge accessing their homes, their offices – in fact, movement in Jos now is as bad as movement from Abuja to Nyanya.”
Other critics point at available alternatives in the form of the older one a few minutes’ drive away within the same Rayfield neighbourhood, and the remodeled Government Lodge and Office in Jos North’s Tudun Wada.
While moving into the new Government House in Little Rayfield earlier in the year, Jang took a decision that immediately attracted condemnation from many. He decided that the Government House in Jirshe, Jang’s chosen name for Tudun Wada, should go to the Gbong Gwom Jos, Da Jacob Gyang Buba, as the paramount ruler’s palace, and announced that the old Gbong Gwom Palace in the heart of Jos would now be a museum.
The Jirshe facility is understandably rather small to stand on its own as a Government House, and in looking away from the old Rayfield Government House for the new controversial one, Jang had stressed that the old Government House was designed and built as a presidential lodge for visiting presidents.
All this is history, as the new Government House stands today in all reality, controversial or not. Will Lalong walk his talk and stay away from there and possibly turn it into a top flight hotel as he has been quoted to have suggested? Not even he appears confident with a definite answer for now. He said in that same February interview with Daily Trust that the decision would be made by Plateau people. He said in the concluding sentence of that interview, “The people will decide what will be done with it.”
And sounding more or less the same way, he said in the latest Daily Trust interview publication on him Thursday May 28 when he had long become governor-elect and was only some moments away from being pronounced governor, “The new government house is the property of Plateau people. Secondly, the house is not completed, so how do I start rushing to a place that has not been completed? Another thing is that the amount used in building that government house is very ridiculous and so we put it as a matter for consideration. I cannot go into that house until those issues are settled by Plateau people.”
Lalong also situated the cost of the project against the failure of the state government to pay workers’ salaries as they fall due, arguing, “The priority of the coming government is how to settle the plight of the civil servants. Civil servants were wallowing in lack of payment of salaries and all of a sudden I was told that close to N15 billion was used to construct a government house. We are not coming for luxury.”
The costs of the main structures of the project explained to Daily Trust last week by Arch Dongtoe stand at N7.1 billion. The structures include the building containing the office of the governor and support staff, a separate building in which there are the offices for other Government House staff, as well as the governor’s residence, the First Lady’s office, Government House Clinic, the Banquet Hall, and the multi-storey conference centre. N3.9 billion was spent to construct a helipad, the road network in and around the complex, car parking lots, the drainages, and the likes; while furnishing and accessories for the buildings cost a total of N1 billion. Dongtoe said N1.5 billion was expended on security facilities and gadgets, including the territorial fence and the gate house, security posts, and surveillance gadgets.
The costs in all come to N13.5 billion; and overall work is 85 to 90 percent completed, according to Dongtoe who said that most of the structures have been completed and furnished, apart from the governor’s residence, Banquet Hall and Conference Hall where completion rates are 98 percent, 95 and 90 percent, and State House Chapel which is still at excavation level, as stated by Dongtoe who explained that this was because the chapel was an afterthought on which work started pretty lately and which costs relatively little, at about N15 million.