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| Bauchi State Governor, Isa Yuguda |
by: Muhammad Bello in Abuja and John Shiklam in Kaduna
The aftermath of the election of the Nigeria Governors’
Forum (NGF) continues to reverberate and is posing a serious threat to the
existence of the Northern States Governors' Forum (NSGF), an umbrella body for
the governors of the 19 northern states.
In protest over what some northern governors have described
as an act of betrayal by some of their colleagues who voted for the Rivers
State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi to retain his position as chairman of the NGF,
14 northern governors stayed away from the NSGF meeting, which took place in
Kaduna thursday.
Also opening up on why he had opted out of the NSGF, Bauchi
State Governor, Isa Yuguda, did not mince words thursday when he accused the
Niger State Governor and Chairman of the NSGF, Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, of
betrayal.
Prior to the NGF chairmanship election, the governors on the
platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had met and asked their
colleagues – Yuguda and the Katsina State Governor, Ibrahim Shema – who had
thrown their hats into the ring, to step down for the Plateau State Governor,
Jonah Jang, as the consensus candidate of the party.
However, during the election, five of the northern governors
turned around to vote for Amaechi, thus handing victory in the chairmanship
contest to the River State governor.
Owing to the crisis that has ensued since then and the
factionalisation of the NGF, only five of the governors attended the meeting of
the NSGF.
However, seven northern governors were represented by their
deputies, two by their Secretaries to the State Government (SSG), two were
absent but sent their apologies, while three stayed away.
The governors, who attended the meeting, included Aliyu, Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Tanko Almakura
(Nasarawa), Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo (Gombe) and the host governor, Alhaji
Mukhtar Yero of Kaduna State.
Those who were represented by their deputies included Kwara,
Kano, Kogi, Borno, Zamfara, Sokoto and Kebbi States, while Plateau and Benue
were represented by their SSGs.
Adamawa and Taraba States, according to the chairman of the
forum, sent their apologies, while the governors of Katsina, Yobe and Bauchi
States were absent.
But Aliyu while responding to reporters’ questions shortly
after reading the communiqué of the meeting insisted that sending deputies to
the meeting did not reduce the importance of any decision taken at the meeting.
He, however, admitted that there were problems with the NGF
election but promised they would be resolved.
“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. But
we seem to be developing a culture, even in our normal elections, such that as
you prepare to contest for elections, you should also prepare to contest it in
the court.
“I am speaking to you as the chairman of NSGF, so if you
want my view I will tell you we had an election, we have a problem, but we will
resolve it,” the governor said.
But he declined to state categorically who had emerged
winner of the NGF election. When asked, “Who won the election?” He responded:
“You.”
However, THISDAY also gathered that the decision by the
governors to present Jang as the consensus candidate for the NGF chairmanship
election was a plot to edge him out of the chairmanship of the NSGF.
According to sources close to the governors, the
chairmanship of the NSGF is passed on in an alphabetical order, on the basis of
the name of the states.
After Niger, Plateau should have produced the next chairman
of the NSGF but because some of his northern colleagues did not want Jang to
head the northern governors’ group, they decided to present him as a consensus
candidate for the NGF election.
Explaining why Jang was absent at the meeting, his aide, who
preferred to remain anonymous, told THISDAY that Aliyu had no moral right to
preside over any meeting of the northern governors, alleging that he had
betrayed his principal.
“It was the same Babangida Aliyu who as chairman of the NSGF
presented Jang as the consensus candidate of the forum and he was the same man
who stabbed Jang in the back. So how do you expect Jang to attend a meeting
presided by such a man?” he asked.
But the Plateau State SSG, Prof. Shedrack Best, who
represented Jang at the meeting, said Jang had no grudges against the NSGF.
In the meantime, for the first time since he parted ways
with the NSGF, Yuguda yesterday blamed the controversy still trailing the
leadership crisis in the NGF on Aliyu's betrayal.
Yuguda, who was at the State House, Abuja to see President
Goodluck Jonathan for an undisclosed issue, told State House correspondents
that prior to the controversial NGF election, all the 19 governors, who are
members of the NSGF had agreed in principle that Jang of Plateau State was
their consensus candidate for the post of the NGF leadership.
Observing that since Amaechi was a product of a consensus
arrangement, Yuguda therefore insisted that Jang remained the leader of the
NGF, against the backdrop of their adoption of the Plateau governor, saying the
crisis could have been averted if Aliyu had provided astute leadership and
direction.
“In the first place, we have never had elections in the NGF.
I was in Ilorin and I seconded the motion that made Amaechi the chairman of
NGF. There were only 13 of us in Ilorin, so if 19 governors presented a
candidate in a 35- member association, I think the game should have been over
that a consensus had been reached.
“In all things, my word should be my bond. If I had sat down
with 19 of my colleagues and we agreed on something, I should not see the
chairman of that forum not coming to protect the integrity of the Northern
Governors’ Forum and by extension, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and that is why
I say all the crisis and all the unfortunate comments made about the governors
today, the fault should be traced to the Northern Governors' Forum.
“We are the culprits and that is why I say on his honour,
let the chairman of the Northern Governors Forum come out and tell Nigerians
that either we in the forum did not agree on Jang or we did,” Yuguda stressed.
Explaining why he quit the NSGF, Yuguda said he did so
because he felt that leadership is about integrity and honour; and having taken
the path of dignity, it would be inconsistent with his status to continue to
pitch his tent with Aliyu as a person.
Instead, he said his deputy would seat on the NSGF on behalf
of his state, adding: “As for me as a person, I don't want to attend their
meetings, but my deputy 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.”
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