NGF: Money reunites our govs again

The country’s governors who had for the past two years been divided over their political allegiances, reunited last Monday. Just as before their quarrel, they have picked up a common cause in their agitation for more money from the common pool.

BY Bolaji Olawale

It was just few days to the date two years ago when Nigerian governors in collaboration with outside stakeholders brought democracy to a shame with their inconclusive election of a new chairman.

As they gathered for their first unified meeting in two years last Monday, the ambience of power which flows with governors was all pervading. One South-South governor who had championed the division of the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF and had not sat face to face with the NGF chairman, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi asked to be seated next to Mr. Amaechi. It was one of many surprises that culminated in the wholesome reconciliation of the governors who had for 24 months walked at cross purposes.

It was on May 13, 2013, at the expiration of the term of Mr. Amaehci as chairman of the NGF that a last minute challenge to his second term bid came from Mr. Jonah Jang, the governor of Plateau State.

The challenge as almost everyone knew, however, was inspired by Amaechi’s political traducers from outside the forum. For one reason or the other, Mr. Amaechi had fallen on the wrong side of the First Family in Aso Rock and the word was that he must not be allowed a second term to pollute the other governors who were key to President Goodluck Jonathan’s own aspiration for a second term that was due in two years time.

The message was subtly and overtly passed on to Amaechi, but the Rivers State governor refused to heed.

File photo: Governors’ forum

Mutual associates between the president and the governor sought a neutral ground one of which was to allow Amaechi run for re-election following which he would resign after one year. A number of other options were reportedly proffered and the president was said to be inclining himself towards a truce when one influential South-South governor affirmed that the president’s supporters had the capacity to outvote Amaechi in any election.

It was perhaps based on that promise that the presidency dragged in Governor Jang who reportedly had not been keen on challenging Amaechi. Jang of course had his reasons to be distrustful of many of his fellow governors. It was easy for the governor to recall that he had since 2009 been due to take up the chairmanship of the Northern States Governors Forum, NGSF, which was his state’s due after the two year stint of Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State.

The rotation of the chairmanship of the forum which flows in alphabetical order was, however, derailed at the turn of Plateau supposedly on account of the multifaceted crisis in the state. A number of the Northern governors, mostly the Hausa-Fulani and Muslim governors, were said to have picked offence at what they felt was Jang’s pro-Christian bias against Muslims in the state.

It was largely on that account that Governor Jang was denied the chairmanship of the NSGF, a development that forced him to begin a boycott of meetings of the northern governors.

Before Jang, Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State had allegedly been one of those penned down for the onslaught against Amaechi but for some reasons, he was factored out. One reason some gave was that a Christian from the north be picked for the challenge against Amaechi in order not to give suggestions that Jonathan, a Christian was marshalling a war against a fellow Christian.

Ahead of the decisive election for the next chairman on May 24, 2013 pressures were brought from within and without the forum on the governors to kowtow to the plans against Amaechi. Presidency minders were known to have called a number of governors seeking their cooperation.

Just before that decisive date, there were allegations that a very top Nigerian in the presidency had repeatedly been coercing governors to sign a document pledging support for Governor Jang’s emergence as the next chairman of the body.

Governors were summoned to the villa and given the document to sign the document which read thus:

We the undersigned governors of the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF, having taken congisance of the state of the nation and the perception of the Nigerian people, do hereby resolve as follows:

• That we thank the out-going chairman, His Excellency Chief Rotimi Amaechi, governor of Rivers State for his leadership and achievements.
• That we strongly agree for a change of leadership of the Forum from April 2013 to April •We hereby, therefore elect His Excellency,Jonah Jang as the new chairman of the Forum.

It eventually emerged that a number of the governors stubbornly refused to sign the endorsement paper. One of those who allegedly refused to sign was the governor of Borno State, Alhaji Kassim Shetimma. Those in the know say that his insistence on trudging along with Amaechi was perhaps one of the reasons he became a pariah in the presidential villa, a development that probably fuelled the presidency’s late response to the kidnap of the Chibok girls.

While the presidency henchmen led by Governor Akpabio prepared for the election acting in the confidence that the 19 signatures they had collected would see them through, the pro-Amaechi camp was itself not sleeping.

One decisive step taken by the pro-Amaechi camp according to some sources was to insist that the election be conducted as with the normal meetings of the forum in the Abuja official residence of Governor Amaechi. The pro-presidency group had kicked against it, but in the end, they could not prevail.

Holding the election in Amaechi’s territory reportedly put the Rivers State governor at an advantage. Even more, there were reports that mobile phones at the venue were blocked, a development that cut communication between the Jonathan governors and their foot soldiers in the Rivers State lodge.

FILE PHOTO: From Left: Governors Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State; Sule Lamido of Jigawa; Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers; Babangida Aliyu of Niger, and Murtala Nyako of Adamawa, during the Northern governors’ visit to Gov. Amaechi in Port Harcourt. Photo: NAN.

At the end of the election where the NGF’s director-general, Dr. Asishana Okaru acted as polling officer, Amaechi was returned with 19 votes while Jang obtained 16 votes. The pro-presidency governors were stunned and virtually hurried out of the Rivers Lodge to a separate meeting. After recovering themselves, the G16 governors declared Jang as winner. Their evidence was the list of endorsements that Jang had reportedly received ahead of the election.

The governors had since that walkout, trudged separate paths with the Jang faction forming its own secretariat.

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP was quick in its response to the issue, as the party few days after the humiliation of the presidency suspended Amaechi from the PDP. A week later, Governor Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State was also suspended from the party purportedly for not picking the phone call of the national chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.

On August 31, on the 15th anniversary of the PDP, the cleavage was firmed when five governors in the party walked out of the special national convention to form the New PDP, nPDP which later merged with the All Progressives Congress, APC to deal the deadly blow that wrought the first presidential election defeat on the PDP.

The reconciliation effected on Monday night inevitably brought the governors again to their joint interest in projecting the finances of their states.

At the end of that evening the governors put aside their differences, and as before, took on a common enemy, Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who they charged to now declare the estimated $20 billion they claimed would have accrued to the Excess Crude Account during their quarrel.

In their resolution, they said:

“We are hereby reconciled and reunited as a single umbrella association of the 36 State Governors of Nigeria regardless of party or region.

“Forum Congratulates the President- elect, Muhammadu Buhari on his victory in the recent presidential election which held on March 28, 2015 and President Goodluck Jonathan for his statesmanship in accepting the outcome of the elections.

“In light of the fact that Funds in the Excess Crude were disbursed in May 2013, there is need for the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi- Iweala to provide explanation fir accruals to this account from June 2013 to April 2015 which is estimated at over$ 20 billion.”