Pro-Jonathan govs finally split NGF

Posted by admin General Politics, Governors, Latest Politics Sunday, May 26th, 2013

By HENRY UMORU, SONI DANIEL & JIMITOTA ONOYUME

Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) may have finally broken up after a segment believed to be loyal to President Goodluck Jonathan set up a parallel body to the one led by Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State.

Amaechi emerged as the NGF chairman for the second tenure in the Forum’s controversial election on Friday.

He defeated Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State, said to be the candidate of President Goodluck Jonathan by 19-16 votes.

Jonathan and Amaechi had been locked in a feud allegedly related to the 2015 presidential poll and the Rivers governor’s running of the NGF which, in recent past, opposed some of the actions of the Federal Government.

Although the Presidency, last night, said it was not involved in the NGF election, indications emerged that it was unhappy that governors in its camp bungled the move to stop Amaechi’s return into the NGF leadership.

The opposition parties asked Jonathan to accept the outcome of the NGF election in good faith.

In the meantime, the Amaechi camp maintained a ‘wait-and-see’ attitude.

The Jang group, made up of 18 governors, mostly from the PDP, yesterday, distanced themselves from the Rivers governor’s re-election as the NGF leader, saying he ceased to be their leader on Friday when his first tenure ended.

The splinter NGF, led by Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State and Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, presented Jang as the new Chairman of the NGF.

It announced the plan to set up a different secretariat for their meetings so as to disconnect from the Rivers State Governor’s Lodge, which had served as their meeting point in the past two years.

The 18 governors converged on the Benue State Governor’s Lodge in Asokoro, Abuja and tried to discredit the electoral process that threw up Amaechi.

They are: Akpabio, Jang, Idris Wada of Kogi, Gabriel Suswam of Benue, Sullivan Chime of Enugu, Martin Elechi of Ebonyi, Theodore Orji of Abia, Peter Obi of Anambra and Isa Yuguda of Bauchi.

Others are: Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo, Ibrahim Shema of Katsina, Mukhtar Yero of Kaduna, Garba Umar of Taraba, Ahmed Abdulfatah of Kwara, Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta, Liyel Imoke of Cross River, Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa and Gombe Deputy Governor, Thaanod Rubainu.

The governors, who met behind closed doors for about two hours, later issued a communique, saying they stood by the endorsement of 19 governors, who had earlier pledged their support for the candidature of a consensus candidate (Jang) and not Amaechi.

Mimiko, who described himself as the Vice Chairman of the Jang-led NGF, read the six-paragraph communique issued and jointly endorsed by the faction.

The communique read: “The Nigeria Governors’ Forum, under the new leadership of Governor Jonah Jang, as Chairman and Governor Olusegun Mimiko as the Vice Chairman, at the inaugural meeting held today, Saturday, May 25, 2013, resolved as follows:

”The new Chairman of the NGF thanks Northern Governors’ Forum, the PDP Governors’ Forum and all the governors for the support and confidence reposed in him and vowed to work for the interest of the Forum and country.

”The Chairman of the NGF, Governor Jonah Jang, vows to unite members of the Forum, work for the interest of the Forum and the country.

”The Forum re-states its commitment to continue being a platform for peer review, productive and collaborative engagement with all levels of government.

”The Forum also resolves to continue to encourage and collaborate with Mr. President to restore peace and security in the country”.

The meeting of the splinter group, Sunday Vanguard learnt, was called apparently to discredit the victory of Amaechi and stop him from resuming as the NGF leader.

A governor, who was at the meeting, lamented the loss of the seat to the Rivers governor by the pro-Jonathan camp, blaming the defeat on the inability of the group’s strategists to be decisive.

According to him, even though he was drafted by top politicians to identify with the splinter NGF, some aggrieved governors gave protest votes to Amaechi to register their displeasure with the inability of the pro-Jonathan camp to produce a single candidate for the post at the right time.

”We lost not because people don’t like the president but because of continuously shifting our candidate till the last minute. I am sure the president’s camp would have carried the day if Yuguda or Shema had stood against Amaechi,” the source said.

The Amaechi camp remained unperturbed by the attempt to discredit his victory. Although the Rivers governor could not be reached for comments, a source close to him said the NGF had chosen its leader and there was nothing anybody could do about it.

”In this life, whenever some persons try to play the role of God, they will always be put to shame so that nobody takes the place of God”, the source added.

”Amaechi was elected by people who are still alive and whatever anybody is trying to do after the election is medicine after death”.

Presidency angry; Sambo, Anenih shocked

Indications emerged, last night, that the Presidency was unhappy with the outcome of the NGF election.

Sunday Vanguard learnt that Jonathan, attending the summit of the African Union in Addis Ababa, was disappointed with the way the election was handled by those who had assured him that his candidate would take the day.

The president, it was learnt, was particularly displeased with the bungling of the process that gave Amaechi easy ride over his candidate.

Under the arrangement agreed with the Presidency, the PDP Governors Forum, PDP-GF, headed by Akpabio, was to merely present the list of its 19 members who had signed a secret document since April and pledged to back any candidate put forward by the Villa at the venue of the NGF poll.

They were said to be under instruction to impress upon the NGF the need to simply read out the names of those who endorsed the document.

But convinced that it had more members on its side than the Amaechi’s camp, the PDP-GF reportedly accepted to go into voting when the poll was called.

Unknown to the president’s loyalists that many of those who had earlier endorsed the paper before him were not still with him, they were said to have simply voted according to their conscience once they were issued with ballot papers.

The analysis of the voting pattern clearly showed that no fewer than six PDP governors voted in protest against Jang.

Although the PDP-GF-led, yesterday, presented Jang as their factional leader of the NGF, the action, it was learnt, did not impress the Presidency and the party hierarchy.

Akpabio, the PDP-GF leader, also presented Jang to the Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, BoT, Chief Tony Anenih, in his residence in Asokoro, who was also said not to be impressed with the method adopted for the poll.

After labouring for about an hour to explain to the BoT Chair what he and his colleagues did to ensure that the Plateau governor was elected, Anenih reportedly felt that some fundamental errors had been made when the governors accepted the NGF to go into election instead of reading the names of those in support of Jang.

Not satisfied with the reaction of Anenih, the PDP-GF moved out from the BoT Chairman’s compound at about 4pm and headed to the Presidential Villa to brief Vice President Namadi Sambo on what led to the emergence of Amaechi.

But, before then, the pro-Jonathan governors had inspected a building donated to them by a South-South governor, to be used as its factional NGF secretariat in line with their resolve not to have anything to do with the Rivers Governor’s Lodge.

The Amaechi’s camp, yesterday, kept mute over the attempt to discredit the election.

The Rivers governor was said to have left Abuja for Port Harcourt to continue with the duties of his state after winning the election on Friday night.

Suswam, Shema, Yuguda, Mimiko, Obi affirm parallel group’s position

Meanwhile, the Deputy Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Suswam of Benue State, says the Forum endorsed the emergence of Jang as the Chairman of the NGF. He said a meeting of the Forum, presided over by Dr Babangida Aliyu, the Chairman, unanimously adopted the Plateau governor as consensus Chairman of NGF, and they stood by that decision.

Fielding questions from newsmen, Suswam described as fraudulent the process that purportedly produced Amaechi and said even in a village council election, an out-going Chairman cannot preside over his own election.

The Benue governor said it was in acceptance of the leadership of the Plateau chief helmsman that 18 governors turned up for their faction’s NGF inaugural meeting despite the less than 12 hours notice and expressed optimism that the next meeting would bring more governors to the fold.

Confirming the position, the governor of Katsina State, Shema, said in the overall interest of the nation, he and his Bauchi State counterpart, Yuguda, had to step down their ambition to lead the Forum when the northern governors endorsed Jang as the consensus candidate.

Jang thanked governors ‘’for the confidence’’ reposed in him to serve them as the Chairman of NGF and pledged to work for the interest of the NGF..

The Plateau governor spoke while addressing journalists, yesterday, after his NGF splinter group’s meeting.

The Chairman of the South-East Governors’ Forum, Mr Peter Obi, and the Chairman of the South-South Governors’ Forum, Imoke, also yesterday, announced the decision of the governors in their zones to support the leadership of Jang.

In attendance at the meeting were the governors of Plateau, Kogi, Benue, Enugu, Ebonyi, Bauchi, Abia and Ondo. Others were the governors of Katsina, Kaduna, Delta, Anambra, Taraba,Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Gombe and Kwara states.

‘President Jonathan not involved in NGF election’

But the Presidency said, yesterday, Jonathan had nothing to do with the NGF poll.

A statement by the president’s spokesman, Dr Reuben Abati, said it” noted with regret the mischievous effort by sections of the mass media to portray President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan as an interested party and the main loser in yesterday’s election of the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF)”.

The statement continued: “Contrary to the impression of Presidential partisanship and interference in the affairs of the Governors Forum erroneously conveyed by some headlines in the media today, President Jonathan who is currently leading Nigeria’s delegation to the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa had no preferred candidate in the NGF elections and could therefore not have been “floored” by any other candidate as some newspapers sensationally reported.

“President Jonathan has the greatest possible respect for the Nigerian Governors Forum as an independent body of mature, responsible, and knowledgeable elected political leaders who have a critical role to play in strengthening democratic governance in the country, and who are quite capable of running their own affairs without being tele-guided, as some media reports misleadingly implied.

“The President has always shown a willingness to work harmoniously with any leadership freely and independently chosen by the Governors Forum for the collective progress and development of all sections of the country and will continue to do so.

“He has not in the present instance or ever before, interfered in elections to leadership positions in the Governors Forum. Reports in the media which convey that impression are totally off the mark and the handiwork of mischievous individuals and groups with the intention of sowing the seeds of discord and disunity in the polity.

“President Jonathan trusts that as true democrats and respected national political leaders, members of the Governors Forum will quickly resolve the issues and differences amongst them which emerged yesterday and continue to contribute effectively to national development as a strong, and progressive body”.

Accept Amaechi’s victory in good faith – CNPP

Also, yesterday, the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP, advised Jonathan to accept the outcome of the NGF election.

The CNPP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, counselled the president not to pander to the whims and caprices of bad losers, asking him to consider the collective interest of the country.

The umbrella body of registered political parties admitted, however, that the victory of Amaechi as the NGF chairman was a good omen for Nigeria’s democracy and harbinger of good fortunes in the 2015 general elections.

According to the CNPP, “Gov Amaechi’s victory is All Progressive Congress, APC’s merger at work; the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the first time has been beaten in their own game. Mr Fix-It and his men failed.”

The PDP in Amaechi ‘s home state of Rivers, yesterday, congratulated Jang as “winner of the NGF election”. At a press briefing in Port Harcourt, the publicity secretary of the party, Mr Nwanosike Samuel, said the Rivers PDP aligned with the position of Akpabio that Jang won the election.

-Vanguard

wp_posts

Related Posts

• Crisis: Wike Gives Condition To Forgive Fubara
• I can’t take orders from Rivers Sole Administrator, ex-Magistrate justifies resignation
• I wanted Fubara removed, Tinubu saved him with state of emergency – Wike (Why? Because You are God?)
• U.S. Court orders FBI, DEA to release Tinubu’s confidential investigation records
• Adesina Berates FG’s ‘₦10,000 Youth Empowerment Scheme

Short URL: https://newnigerianpolitics.com/?p=30383