The recent crisis plaguing the NGF cannot be ignored as even till today despite all the attempts at reconciliation, the NGF still has two chairmen and two secretatriats. So it came as no surprise when the former NDDC Boss Pastor Power Ziakede Aginighan said Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) has outlived its usefulness and, therefore, should enter into voluntary liquidation.
Aginighan, in a statement at the weekend entitled, ‘One Governors Forum, Two Chairmen; The Needless Distraction’, said the confusion over the chairmanship election of the NGF had brought to the fore some of the aberrations in the Nigerian polity.
“Instead of being servants of the people for whom they should have some regard, governors in Nigeria have become very powerful that they conduct themselves as feudal lords over the commonwealth of Nigerians entrusted to them in their respective states, ”the immediate past Executive Director, Finance and Administration of the NDDC and a former governorship aspirant in Delta State said. He pointed out that the National Economic Council and council of state were enough constitutional bodies for the governors to engage the president if there is the need rather than resorting to bickering in the NGF.
“The lofty idea of having a Governors Forum reportedly copied from the United States of America as a forum for peer review has unfortunately metamorphosed into a platform for very intense influence politics amongst our governors with the attendant waste of resources direly needed to provide better living conditions for Nigerians. Instead of sitting down at the various state capitals to take strategic leadership decisions, our Governors now criss-cross the Nation with retinue of aides attending meeting of one Governors Forum or the other,”he added.
.Aginighan continued: “As long as men get elected into positions in Nigeria because of very deep pocket, ‘godfatherism’ or ‘power connection’ and not through the wish of the electorate expressed through the ballot, the spectre of very powerful elected officials who get away anything they do will remain with us. Ordinarily, one would have expected the various Houses of Assembly to call their Governors to order. But how can they do so when it is well known that most State legislators got elected at the behest of their Governors.’