Governor of Plateau State, Jonah Jang on Friday led the breakaway faction of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) under his chairmanship and comprising 14 state governors to a closed-door meet with President Goodluck Jonathan.
Speaking with newsmen after the meeting, Jang revealed he led the NGF governors to the villa to congratulate the president and consult with him on very serious national matters, ranging from security to governance, development and democratic stability.
“We consulted with the president on the security problem in the country and what we need to do in the coming two years to ensure that democracy stabilises and development continues in the country,” Jang said.
He used the opportunity to deny heading a faction of the forum, saying there’s only one forum and it’s the one he chairs.
“Well, let me tell you that there is no any faction of the NGF. The NGF is one and I am the chairman of the NGF,” he said.
Present at the meeting were Governors Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo), Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta), Peter Obi (Anambra), Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa), Theodore Orji (Abia), and Ramalan Yero (Kaduna State). Also Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe State), Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Idris Wada (Kogi State), Ibrahim Shema (Katsina State), and Isa Yuguda (Bauchi State), as well as Acting Governor of Taraba State, Garba Umar, and Deputy Governor of Benue, Steven Lawani.
Meanwhile, popular lawyer Barrister Bamidele Aturu has described as sacrilegious, the Jang faction’s questioning of the procedure of an election in which they participated, after the declaration of the result, if it has not been established that the procedure violated the Constitution of the association or of any known democratic norm.
“It is therefore extremely childish, and irrationally so, that some people who claim to be governors can openly identify with the irrational rejection of the result of the NGF election,” he said.
“What we are seeing indicates that some leaders don’t believe that the votes of some people should count. What happened in the NGF is a carryover of that attitude. It means if the votes of 36 governors will not count, then what will happen to the votes of Nigerians generally? It is actually a sign of disdain for our democracy.”
But he expressed little sympathy for Governor Rotimi Amaechi, winner of the election, or ifor maintenance of the body’s stability and sanctity.
“The NGF itself is not a serious organisation,” he said. “It was the NGF that advised the Federal government to withdraw subsidy on petrol. Again, the way and manner they went about it is also was not democratic. It is another avenue for waste. Nigerians must be ready to make it clear to those who are governing us that undemocratic acts will not be tolerated.
He asserted that the Constitution clearly has no place for the composition of a governors’ forum but added that the governors cannot be stripped of their constitutional right to freedom of association.
