It is a common saying that “ There is no smoke without fire”, so it came to majority of Nigerians as a shock when Jang’s faction claimed to have won the election as a result of a “gentleman’s agreement” or a consensus as against relaying on the outcome of the NGF election, here Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State tried to explain the origin of the crises as he says that the Peoples Democratic Party is behind the succession crisis rocking the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.
Obi, who spoke with journalists in Abuja on Friday, criticised the leadership of the party for not allowing other political parties produce the chairman of the forum.
Other governors who were present when Obi spoke at the Governor Jonah Jang’s-led faction of the forum’s secretariat in Abuja were Jang, Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo State) and Liyel Imoke (Cross River).
He said the initial plan was to allow the vice -chairman of the forum succeed the chairman when his tenure expired.
He, however, said some hawks within the leadership of the party did not allow him succeed the then chairman of the forum, Senator Bukola Saraki.
He said the PDP rejected him because he belongs to All Progressive Grand Alliance and not the ruling party.
Obi said, “In 2009, when there was a little problem with the leadership of NGF, a committee was set up to look into our constitution.
“That was the draft constitution, which was modelled after the American Governors’ Forum Constitution, which states that a chairman and a vice-chairman will emerge by consensus of all the governors, because it is a voluntary organisation.
“After two years, the chairman leaves and a vice-chairman, automatically takes over, while a new vice-chairman is again chosen by consensus. Up to that 2009 May, we never had a vice-chairman, there was nothing called vice-chairman.
“The debate that night was whether we would make it two years or one year, because some people thought two years was too long. That was how I emerged as vice-chairman of the NGF.
“Two of us were named, but the majority of the governors said, let Peter be (the vice-chairman). “In May 2011, when it was time for me to take over, while the vice-chairman would come from the North, I came back from United Kingdom one morning and they told me that the PDP was worried that they had 26 governors and how could they allow me from one party, to be chairman? I was the only one from my party then.
“What did they do? PDP called the four PDP governors from the South-East and said, ‘We don’t want it to leave the South-East. However, it has to be a PDP governor.’
“The four PDP governors then, Theodore Orji of Abia State, Martins Elechi of Ebonyi, Sullivan Chime of Enugu and Ikedi Ohakim of Imo signed this letter, [displaying the letter to journalists ] to Governor Saraki, nominating me for the position.
“But again, PDP said no, that the NGF chair must remain in PDP. Vice-President Namadi Sambo invited me and told me about the worries of the PDP. I now told him, ‘Well, no problem.’
“Then Saraki told me he was going to have his last meeting in Kwara and of course, we all decided to go to Kwara. When I arrived Kwara, it was Governor Imoke who called me and said, ‘We have decided to deal with the issue of chairmanship and we have nominated somebody.’”
Obi said the leadership of the party called the then PDP governors from the South-East and asked them to nominate another governor from the zone as Saraki’s successor.
He said the governors rejected the request. Obi read a letter written to Saraki by the four governors to buttress his point.
The letter, dated May 19, 2005 read, “We, the governors of the South-East states of Nigeria wish to respectively nominate Mr. Peter Obi, Governor of Anambra State of Nigeria as a candidate for the position of chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum.
“Our action in this regard is unanimous as a zone and is borne out of our firm conviction that he will discharge the functions of this office with credibility, dedication and due diligence.
“Kindly accept the assurances of our highest regards.”
The letter was signed by Orji, Elechi, Chime and Ikedi.
Saraki however said there was no trade off, adding that the convention was that, the party with the majority governors should provide the forum’s chairman.
Saraki said, “At the meeting in Ilorin, when the PDP governors insisted that the office of chairman of the NGF must go to the party with the majority, no South-East PDP governor wanted to be chairman.
“We first offered the seat to Ebonyi governor and he rejected it. Later, the meeting reluctantly asked the South-South governors to produce the chairman.
“Governors Amaechi, Imoke and Timi Sylva were asked to choose the chairman among them. They entered a room and later came out with the choice of Amaechi. So, there was no manipulation. It was the conventional rule of the majority party.”