Pauline Tallen Confirms Row With Jang
JOS, August 16, (THEWILL) - The much concealed political rivalry between the Plateau State Governor, Jonah David Jang and his deputy; Mrs. Pauline Tallen has finally been blown in the open.
Mrs. Tallen without any pretences told a bewildered audience in Abuja last Saturday during an event to raise funds for victims of Jos and Haiti disasters that the governor does not hand over the running of the affairs of the state to her whenever he travels.
The deputy governor was explaining why there was nobody from the state to represent Plateau at the fund raising.
Both Jang and Tallen had managed to keep their rift out of the spotlight since they fell out over a year ago.
The governor had travelled to India for over two weeks and had not sent a representative to the occasion even though the fund raising was to partly assist the people of his state.
Governor Jang was conspicuously absent at the Red Cross event organized even when the wife of the president, Dame Patience Jonathan was heavily involved in the project to see to the alleviation of the plight of the people of Jos who had lost much due to the crises that bedeviled the state.
As the occasion progressed, it was noticed that neither the state governor nor any of his official was present, neither was any apology sent.
Sources said the organizers who were embarrassed that such an event would be organized in sympathy with the state and no one from the state would be present made some enquiries and discovered that the state governor who was invited to the occasion had travelled out of the country and had not bothered to send a representative.
Efforts were then made to contact the Deputy Governor, Pauline Tallen, who said she has no knowledge of the event as nobody had told her about it. She eventually attended the fund raising because she was in Abuja on that day.
She however told the audience when it was her turn to speak that she did not know about the programme until she was called that morning.
The Deputy Governor to the chagrin of many made it clear that she was at the occasion in her personal capacity and not representing the state government as nobody had given her the mandate to do so.
She expressed her disappointment at how the event turned out insisting that whatever she was going to do or say would not be on behalf of the state government.
A Source told THEWILL that because the wife of the president, Dame Patience Jonathan was at the occasion, it immediately got the president’s attention that Jang had once again demonstrated how insensitive he is to the plight of his people.
Jang eventually cut short his oversea journey the next day when he heard about the development. He told newsmen that he travelled for a medical checkup.
The development has however revealed the deep rift between the state governor and his deputy.
It is a well known fact in Jos that the apparatus of government is handed over to a Permanent Secretary who belongs to the same ethnic group as the governor any time the Jang jets out of the country.