May 22, 2015 : Niyi Odebode, Chukwudi Akasike, and Ade Adesomoju
Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose
A
member of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and Ekiti State Governor,
Ayodele Fayose, has faulted the emergence of his Zamfara State
counterpart, Abdulaziz Yari, as the NGF chairman.
This is just as the Jonah Jang-led faction, on Thursday, disowned the forum’s peace meeting that took place on Monday.
Fayose, in an interview with our
correspondent in Abuja, said the process of producing the new leader for
the forum was wrong as it excluded the governors-elect, who would
constitute the majority members of the group after their inauguration on
May 29.
The NGF, during a meeting in Abuja on Monday, elected Yari as its chairman.
It also resolved the crisis that had
plagued the forum since 2013 after the election of officials split the
body into two groups.
At the meeting on Monday, the forum
recognised the Rivers State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, as the winner
of the 2013 NGF election.
Amaechi had in 2013 defeated his Plateau State counterpart, Jang, by 19 to 16 votes.
But in the interview, Fayose likened the
decision among the incumbent governors, led by Amaechi to choose Yari
as the chairman, to a situation where outgoing senators would elect a
Senate President for the incoming members.
“It is more sensible to allow the
incoming governors to be inaugurated before such a decision can be
taken. It is like the outgoing senators choosing the Senate President
for the incoming senators,” the governor said.
He maintained that the decision did not
follow due process and he urged the All Progressives Congress not to be
afraid of losing the seat of the NGF chairman by taking the right step.
Fayose said, “The APC should not be afraid. They are the majority; so their candidate will still win.
“But for us to have a respectable
Nigerian Governors’ Forum that will stand together in nation-building,
that strategy cannot work. We, as governors, must lead by example.
“The election of the chairman of the new Nigerian Governors’ Forum did not follow due process.”
Responding to Fayose, Chief Tony Okocha, an aide to Amaechi, said the issue of who was the NGF chairman was not in doubt.
He added that only those who play
politics without ideology would oppose the fact that the Rivers State
governor remains the NGF chairman.
Okocha, who is the Chief of Staff,
Government House, Port Harcourt, said it was wrong for anybody to oppose
the recent acknowledgement that his boss was the NGF chairman.
He recalled that even the Akwa Ibom
State Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, conceded that Amaechi was the
head of the forum and maintained that there was no dissenting voice when
the governors arrived at such a conclusion.
Describing the dissenting voice as an
afterthought, Okocha said, “How can they be speaking from the two sides
of the mouth. Akpabio was in that meeting. It was not a secret meeting
and the person who presided over the meeting was Amaechi.
“If people are speaking against the
acknowledgement of Governor Rotimi Amaechi as the NGF chairman, then it
shows that some people still play politics without ideology. If you take
away ideology from politics, then it is no more politics,” he added.
On Fayose’s criticism, Okocha said,
“Nature abhors vacuum. The leadership of Amaechi expires May 29, 2015
and I did not see or hear any dissenting voice over the decisions taken
at that meeting.
“It was reported in the dailies. It is
an afterthought and ignorance is not an excuse in law. My emphasis is
that Nigerians must embrace the fact that politics should be played with
ideology and not a matter of interest.”
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