2023: Plateau governorship candidates share ideologies with NIPR at Townhall meeting

Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, NIPR, Plateau State chapter, has held a citizens engagement town hall meeting with political party candidates ahead of the 11th March 2023, governorship election in the state.

The NIPR election town hall meeting, which held Thursday in Jos at Crest Hotel provided an opportunity for Political Parties’ governorship candidates to leverage and shared their ideologies with Plateau people on what to do if elected.

Revealing the rationale behind the initiative, Mr.Thomas Bajeh, chairman of NIPR, Plateau state chapter said, the institute is muconcernedern about the dividends of democracy and good governance by holding leaders accountable for their actions.

According to Bajeh, “NIPR is seek to deepen democracy and governance in Plateau state by engaging the governorship candidates through opening conversations between the candidates and citizens of Plateau.

” In the build-up of the 2023 general elections, the NIPR both at the national and state levels organized a citizens summit where we opened a conversation on our nation to build trust and national cohesion irrespective of our units and culture.

“The institute in Plateau state has done so much to ensure that we have free and fair elections. And, we believed to do that is to engage the citizens and ensure the people get into the system.

” In a bit to ensure all eligible voters vote, the NIPR collaborated with INEC to move voters registration closer to the people where we successfully registered over 500 new eligible voters which has tremendously increased the number of registered voters on the Plateau.

“Today’s engagement is the opportunity for Plateau citizens to get listen from those who seek to lead them, and also make an inform decision on who to vote based on the assessment of the candidates and their manifestos or blueprint”, the NIPR boss stated.

However, our correspondent observed that amongst the 15 candidates jostling for the number one position of Plateau come the 11th March 2023 governor election, only the candidate of the Labour party, Dr. Patrick Dakum and Barr. Caleb Mutfwang of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) identify priority as other candidates were absent despite promising to be present.

It was gathered that the Labour Party standard bearer Dr. Dakum, who responded to questions from the participants via zoom conversation promised to stabilize peace and security, agriculture, education, human capital development, mining, industry, and another sector of the economy if elected.

Caleb Mutfwang of PDP who is not physically present at the town hall meeting sent a message through his media directorate, Yiljap Abraham thus, “Mutfwang looks forward to working with professionals like the NIPR.”

Meanwhile, other governorship candidates couldn’t attend the engagement