When we were growing up there was this popular riddle of the chicken and the egg – Which comes first? We will rack our brains and to the consternation of everyone, all of us on both the opposing and proposing sides end up being both right and wrong. A times a discourse that started in good faith ends up in arguments and counter arguments, wranglings and counter wranglings and even degenerates into name calling and throwing of banters.
That is the dilemma that governments that have come and gone and even present governments find themselves in. They try to reply pundits cum pessimists what they should not.
The commissioning of projects has a trajectory from military era. That performance is measured by how many projects have been commissioned even when such projects are poorly executed.
The brouhaha finds fertility and fests in the soil of the opposition especially in civilian regimes.
The question that begs for answers is which one takes preeminence? Is it the commissioning of a project or the provision of the project in the first place? Is there any law that prohibits the consumption of a service, the usage of a structure until it has been commissioned? The answer is an emphatic NO!
Let me go memory lane. The General and Trauma hospital in Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State which has been completed and equipped by the ably led Simon Bako Lalong Rescue Administration has been put to use without commissioning but we still hear in the social and conventional media that the administration has not commissioned any project! What the heck! So many roads have equally been completed, built and put to use without having been commissioned.
Therefore, who cares whether a project is commissioned or not? I will prefer that you give me the project and hold back the commissioning. Commissionings are mere fanfares which if care is not taken, turn into Jamborees.
It is in the light of the forgone therefore, that I hold the opinion that the opposition should spear us the mudslinging in the name of commissioning. The administration of Rt. Hon. (Dr.) Simon Bako Lalong, KSGG believes first and foremost in building legacies then commissioning can come in as a secondary matter.
Fact remains that there are services that are intangible but have direct bearing to the lives of the citizenry that you cannot even commission! In those instances what will the protagonists and apostles of commissioning say?
You can see clearly that commissioning or not, topmost is the provision of services and infrastructure which the Simon Bako Lalong led Rescue Administration has on its front burner encapsulated in its three point policy trust of peace security and good governance; infrastructural development; and sustainable economic rebirth. Give us the projects and services, withhold the commissioning. Some projects that were poorly executed and commissioned by past administrations need to be recommissioned having been re-awarded! How does that sound? What is commissioning by the way? If I may ask?
Dan Manjang, anipr is the Commissioner of Information and Communication, Plateau State
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