BY AHMED AKANBI
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity, Senator Diket Plang has said that President Bola Tinubu will secure a second term in 2027 on the strength of “bold, purposeful and inclusive” governance.
Plang, who represents Plateau Central, spoke on Sunday while visiting victims of the recent attack on Bin-Mper community in Kumbun District, Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State where over 24 people were reportedly killed.
The senator said the difficult decisions taken by the Tinubu administration have placed Nigeria on the right trajectory.
“I think President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will win his re-election for the reasons that his policies and his vision are very inclusive.
“He seems very determined, brave, articulate and purposeful to ensure that some very tough, critical, but also needed policies are implemented.
“It takes a brave heart to remove subsidy. It also takes another brave heart to say, let’s have state police. It takes another great heart for a country to create regional development centres.
“For me, such a person should be given a second term to consolidate on his dreams and visions,” he said.
Plang, who lost out in the recent APC Senate primary, acknowledged discontent within the party but expressed optimism it would be resolved.
“I hope and believe that the party will be able to handle some of the little discontent from the party’s primary election,” he said.
On the newly released Presidential Campaign Council list, he said: “I think the President has the right to drive his own re-election campaign. After all, it’s his own election.”
The senator also faulted the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, over proposals to reintroduce fuel subsidy and reopen land borders.
He described the ideas as rhetoric, warning that porous borders without adequate control would worsen insecurity.
Addressing residents of Bin-Mper, Plang described the attack as devastating.
“It is sad that in a small community like this, 24 people in one day will be killed. That’s just about 10 per cent of the total population of the land wiped out within a very short time, within a night,” he said.
He commended community leaders and residents for their resolve to remain on their ancestral land.
District Head of Kumbun, Gambo Tetmut, appealed for stronger security and support for local vigilantes.
“We want the government to assist us, especially to provide first defence. There are youths that are sacrificing their lives. Some of them don’t have anything to even defend themselves. If they had, we wouldn’t have had this number of casualties here,” he said.