When Wrong Political Permutations and Combinations Change the Odds: Plateau State in View By Terfa Naswem

In Advanced or further mathematics, there is a topic called “Permutations and Combinations”. An arrangement where order is important is called permutation while an arrangement where order is not important is called combination.


In “applied Politics”, there are some arrangements where order is important and there are also some arrangements where order is not important.  Do politicians know where to apply “political permutations and combinations” when the odds are likely to change?

When the politics of ethnicity, religion and hatred blindfold politicians, they lose their common sense of political and compound their already existing problems.

When the Governor of Plateau State, Da Jonah David Jang made Sen. Gyang Nyam Shom Pwajok, aka “GNS” to win the PDP Gubernatorial primaries, I knew that so many things would go wrong in Plateau State PDP and that PDP was at the verge of losing it might in Plateau State.

I wrote a series of articles warning Jang and Plateau State PDP of the danger of allowing a Berom man to be the PDP gubernatorial candidate since Jang is Berom and have been the governor since 2007. But my warning fell on deaf ears.

Despite the fact that I am an ardent supporter of APC, I was still concerned by the politic of tribalism played by Governor Jang. I asked the following questions: Was GNS Pwajok truly the best PDP gubernatorial aspirant among other aspirants?  Has Jang treated other tribes in Plateau State fairly? What made Jang believe that GNS would win the gubernatorial election? Has Jang forgotten about the “Law of Retributive Justice? I abhor tribalism and injustice very much and anyone who promotes them moves in the opposite direction.

If Governor Jang had brought in someone from another tribe to emerge as the PDP gubernatorial candidate, and allowed Pwajok to be the running mate, PDP would have won not APC. When one is blindfolded by tribalism, injustice and hatred, so many things are likely to go wrong.


The emergence of Simon Lalong as the winner of the Plateau State 2015 gubernatorial election was as a result of the wrong “political permutations and combinations” by Governor Jang.

Most of those who voted against Pwajok and PDP did so because of the political miscalculations of Gov. Jang. There were some PDP supporters who voted for APC because of his miscalculations.

Gov. Jang should be blamed by his PDP members and supporters for selling PDP to APC by wrong “political permutations and combinations” which changed the odds against PDP and led to its defeat in Plateau State.

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