NGF Defers to the President, Shifts Meeting

The Rotimi Amaechi-led faction of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Wednesday shifted its meeting so that the group could attend the dinner hosted by President Jonathan.

Initial reports had said the Amaechi-led NGF faction had insisted on going ahead with their meeting believing that the timing of the president’s dinner was aimed at scuttling the NGF meeting.

Although about 15 of the governors loyal to the Amaechi  faction had arrived for the scheduled meeting, they, however,  resolved to attend the dinner and probably continue the meeting if they close early from the dinner.

The early arrivals for the meeting include  governors of Lagos, Ogun, kano, Rivers, deputy governor of Osun, Niger, Sokoto, Adamawa, Nasarawa, Jigawa, Ekiti, Zamfara, Edo, deputy governor of Borno, and Imo State governor.

The quorum for the NGF meeting, according to their constitution, is 13. The decision to attend the dinner, according to a source, was to prove that the NGF headed by the Rivers State governor has no personal issues with President Jonathan. The NGF meeting and the President’s dinner had been fixed for 8 p.m. last night.

Explaining the deferment, Governor Amaechi said: "there was no meeting, we decided to defer to the President. We agreed that as governors of different states, we must honour and respect the president and having invited us to a dinner, we decided to go for the dinner."
On when the meeting would be re-convened, the NGF chairman said, "the next meeting will be at the next National Economic Council, NEC meeting."

Another source said, “Since we are in the majority, if we go ahead with the NGF meeting, we will be ridiculing the Office of the President. We are not at war with Jonathan, we want to prove to him that the NGF battle is not personal, it is about the sanctity of the ballot and democracy.”

The source said the NGF  also want to show that neither Amaechi nor any of the 19 governors backing him is on a do-or-die battle.
However, almost five weeks after the NGF election, the ripples from the exercise are far from settling as the governors have continued to sustain the debate over the controversial election.

Earlier in the day, Governor Amaechi declared in Abuja that all the governors including the Plateau State Governor, Jonah Jang, voted at the election in which he emerged winner of the NGF.

He declared that those supporting Jang as the chairman of the NGF were undemocratic. Although he did not openly mention President Jonathan's name, the president had openly expressed support for Jang's faction.

Amaechi, who spoke at a symposium on Review of the 1999 Constitution and its impact on the much needed judicial reforms organised by the 'Rule of Law Foundation', said all the governors, who attended the meeting where he was elected as Chairman of NGF agreed to participate in the election.

In attendance at the symposium were two former Chief Justices of Nigeria (CJN), Mohammadu Uwais and Dahiru Musdapher, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, Justice Sylvester Nguta of the Supreme Court and the Attorney General of Ekiti State, Mr. Wale Fapohunda.

Amaechi said even Jang voted in the election and wondered why he chose to vote if he had been endorsed as claimed by him.

"I want to say it and I want to be put on record, anyone who supports the Jang faction is undemocratic. We chose who should be the returning officer. We appointed our director general to be the returning officer for the election. And we voted. Everybody voted including Jang. In fact, Jang was among the first persons to vote. And when I won, they were there.

"We were to commence voting for the vice-chairmanship when my brother and colleague from Akwa Ibom got up and said there was a document I had where 19 governors had signed for us. What Jang is leading is another faction of PDP Governors’ Forum and not the NGF, because there are no two governors’ forum.

"Therefore, anyone, NBA or government that supports Jang's faction is undemocratic. "Let us put it on record that the way things are going, in 2015 we have to be careful so it does not end in this manner where people will win democratic election and those in power will not accept the result of a free and fair election. My Lords, be prepared because we shall soon be coming to your court."

Continuing, Amaechi stated that: "We have started again with tyranny and oppression. We must be prepared as a people to defend our rights. We must be prepared as a people to hold government accountable.

"We must be prepared to demand accountability we must resist a situation where public officers without statutory authority would call the Inspector General of Police to change commissioner of police, we must resist it."

Speaking in the same vein at a different occasion, the Niger State Governor, Dr Mua'zu Babangida Aliyu, has stated that no member of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) betrayed anyone stressing  that Amaechi was duly elected and remains the authentic NGF Chairman.

According to Aliyu, who spoke at the turbanning ceremony of his Deputy, Honourable Ahmed Ibeto, as Wali Raya Kasar Nupe by the Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, in Bida yesterday, stated that 'nobody betrayed anybody'.

“We were united and elected a chairman, if other people recognised another person as the chairman of the forum, we will solve our problem, we must recognise Amaechi as NGF  chairman because he won the election,” he added.

Speaking for the first time after the NGF election, Aliyu, however, accepted that Jang emerged as a candidate from the north, after the NSGF discovered that there were issues between Bauchi State Governor, Isa Yuguda and his Kastina State counterpart, Ibrahim Shema, as both refused to step down to arrive at a consensus candidate.

"We waded in and it was agreed that Jonah Jang should contest and let the two people drop their ambition. Even at that I told them that we must go and insist on consensus but where an election took place the wish of the people prevailed,” he said.

But the Delta State Governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, has lamented  the failure of the 36 governors to properly  settle their differences relating to the chairmanship of the NGF, describing the lingering leadership crisis rocking the forum as unfortunate.

Speaking in a live audience participatory radio and television in Warri, the governor said the crisis in the NGF might have grievously shaken the people's faith and their expectation that the governors would speak with one voice and without partisan consideration on certain national issues.

"I think we (governors) owe Nigerians apologies for the turn of events in the forum," Uduaghan lamented, saying: "We have no excuse for what has happened in the governors’ forum because the people expects so much from us."

Ekweremadu, who is also the Chairman, Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, said the constitution review would not be submitted to referendum.

He said: "With a morally upright and well-reformed judiciary that applies the letters of the law fairly and timely, the systems manipulation, overheating of our polity, reign of impunity in high and low places, the blatant disrespect for the law, and the rape of public treasury would abate considerably."

He said the proposal for judicial reform submitted by Musdapher was being considered, noting that the Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution had presented a Bill and Report on proposed amendment to the Senate for consideration.

Nevertheless, he pointed out that not all the challenges facing the judiciary required constitutional amendment but rather a change in mentality and attitudes.
In a keynote address, Justice Musdapher said there was no denying the fact that the judiciary had problems and needed to be reformed.

He said the breakdown of law and order in north-eastern part of Nigeria might not be unconnected with the fact that people had lost faith in the nation's laws and the justice delivery system.

Both Musdapher and Ekweremadu commended the CJN, Justice Aloma Mukhtar, for her efforts at reforming the judiciary.
In his welcome address, the coordinator of the Rule of Law Development Foundation, Chief Joseph Daudu (SAN), said the level of impunity in the country was worrisome.