It seems as if the pact entered into by members of the Northern Governors Forum is beginning to see obvious cracks as it appears the house is unable to take a stand and stick by it, this became apparent as only five out of the 19 northern state governors showed up in Kaduna, on Thursday, for the meeting of the NSGF.
While declaring the meeting open at the General Hassan Usman Katsina House Kaduna, chairman of the forum, Dr Aliyu, said the governors of Adamawa and Taraba states had sent their apologies for their inability to attend the meeting.
Twelve other governors were also not in attendance.Apart from Aliyu, the host and Kaduna State governor, Mukhtar Ramalan Yero; Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwanbo, Gombe; Sule Lamido, Jigawa and Umaru Al-Makura of Nasarawa State attended the meeting.
Other states were represented at the meeting by their deputy governors, while Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State and his Plateau State counterpart, Jonah Jang, were represented by their Secretaries to the State Governments.
Governor Aliyu, while fielding questions from newsmen, said there was nothing wrong with the large number of deputy governors at the meeting, because decision taken with them would be binding on their principals.
On the pulling out of Yuguda from the NSGF, he said “he did not write to this meeting and it is a voluntary organisation and we have resolved as a group to follow this informally, you did not hear any one of us reply him back the way you heard him.”
Asked to comment on the controversial election of the NGF, he said it was long story, which time could not permit him to tell.
“If I’m to tell you what led to the problem in the NGF, we will stay here till tomorrow, so I have no intention of doing that. I will only tell you that in whatever process of election or whatever, there may be one person or the other that will be aggrieved. If you want my view, I will tell you we had an election, we have a problem, we will solve it.”
While fielding questions from newsmen at the venue of the NSGF meeting, the deputy national chairman, North-West of the PDP, Ambassador Ibrahim Kazaure, described the suspension of Governor Aliyu Wammako of Sokoto from the PDP as very unfortunate.
“I am not saying they are wrong, I am not saying what they have done is wrong, but all I am saying there should have been a wide consultation before the action should be taken,” he said.
Meanwhile, the PDP, on Thursday, shed light on its decision to suspend Wammako, saying that he was engaged in acts of insubordination to the national chairman of the party, Dr Bamanga Tukur.
A communique issued at the end of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party in Abuja, on Wednesday, had announced that the governor was suspended for anti-party activities.
But, in a statement issued on Thursday, the national publicity secretary of the party, Chief Olisa Metuh, said the suspension had nothing to do with the crisis in the NGF.
According to the statement, the governor showed disrespect to the chairman by ignoring efforts to communicate with him.
The statement explained the decision to suspend Wamakko came after consultations, in accordance with the provisions of the constitution of the PDP.
According to him, the national chairman of the party, sometime in April, placed several calls to draw the attention of the governor to the matters concerned.
“However, it was not possible for him to speak with the governor, despite several attempts. The national chairman thereafter, vide a letter dated April 12, 2013 requested an explanation to the NWC within seven days.
“Instead of replying the letter, Wamakko directed the state secretary of the party, Mallam Aminu Bello Sokoto, to reply the national chairman on behalf of the governor, in a letter dated April 14, 2013 and on the official letterhead of the Sokoto State Government House.
He said the conduct amounted to gross disrespect and act of insubordination.
Another invitation, according to him, was extended to Wamakko in a letter dated May 23, 2013, in which it requested him to appear before it on Wednesday, June 5, to clarify the issues, adding that Wamakko, instead, travelled out of the country on Tuesday, June 5, 2013 without informing the party
Although the actual cause of the disunity has not been fully established, but some words have started to fly that the failure of the chairman of the Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF) and governor of Niger State, Dr Mua’zu Babangida Aliyu, to stick to the agreement reached by the northern governors to present Governor Jonah Jang as the consensus candidate of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) is responsible for the crisis in the NGF.
Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State made the assertion in a chat with State House correspondents, after a meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan, on Thursday.
He challenged the Niger governor to come out and tell Nigerians whether or not there was an agreement by 19 northern governors to present Jang as their consensus candidate.
He affirmed that the 19 governors agreed on the consensus candidacy of Jang, since it was the turn of the North to produce the NGF chairman, but Governor Aliyu, who was supposed to present Jang to the larger NGF, failed to do so, even when he had previously presented the Plateau governor to the Peoples Democratic Party Governors’ Forum (PDPGF).
According to him, “that is why I said all the crises and all the unfortunate comments made about the governors today, the fault should be traced to the NSGF, because we are the culprits.
“And that is why I say on his honour, let the chairman of the NSGF come out and tell Nigerians that either of the two; we the 19 northern governors did not come out with Jang as the consensus candidate or we decided and picked Jang as our consensus candidate.
“So, if that has been done, all these things that we see wouldn’t have happened. That is why I say as far as I am concerned, if I will sit with my colleagues and we take a decision and you go and do a different thing, I m not part of those kind of things and me as a person will not attend the meeting (NSGF) but my deputy governor can attend on behalf of the people and government of Bauchi State. But as a person, I will not. That has always been my position.”
Yuguda noted that if he thought his integrity and the integrity of the people he represented was threatened, he would not be part of such a system, saying “that is why I left ANPP (All Nigeria People’s Party) and went back to PDP, the family that I rightfully belong.”
The Bauchi governor reiterated that there had never been an election to choose the chairman of NGF, as he had always emerged through consensus, recalling that he was the one who seconded the motion to make Governor Rotimi Amaechi the NGF chairman during a meeting attended by 13 state governors in Ilorin, Kwara State.
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