Jang Faction: NGF Crisis Cannot Threaten 2015 Elections

Governor Jonah Jang

By: Chuks Okocha in  Abuja

The rebel faction of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF)  yesterday allayed fears that the dispute over the chairmanship of the organisation  could endanger the 2015 elections.

The faction, led by Plateau State Governor, Chief Jonah Jang,  in a statement in Abuja, by the Director General of its secretariat, Mr. Osaro Onaiwu, faulted the statement credited to the  First Secretary, Embassy of The Netherlands, Ms Anique Claessen, that the internal crisis  rocking  the NGF  could  affect the process and outcome of the 2015 elections.

A  crisis broke out in the forum following disagreement over the outcome of the chairmanship election in which Rivers State Governor, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, trounced Jang by 19 votes to 16.

Jang, relying on his adoption by  some caucuses in the NGF, disputed the election results and together with his supporters, broke away from the NGF to form a faction.

However, reviewing the NGF crisis at a seminar jointly sponsored by the Dutch government and the Transition Monitoring Group,  to evaluate the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) roadmap for future elections, Claessen had said: “For example, the controversy surrounding the election of the NGF chairman seemed to me very ironical. If a small group of 36 cannot agree on and respect the outcome of a democratic election, what are the prospects for the election involving millions?”

The Jang faction criticised her submission, adding that it showed that she had a limited understanding of the issues involved.

“From the above submission, it is very clear that the Dutch envoy has a limited understanding of the contending issues of the polity, the politics and the people. For it is hard to conceive how a matter that is not a constitutional issue would affect 2015 elections. INEC, the body charged with conducting elections in Nigeria, has not alluded in the remotest term to such a threat as Ms Claessen has done.

“The NGF is a non-governmental organisation and has voluntary membership, which democratically elected Nigerian governors subscribed to by themselves, bonded with a common aspiration to use the platform for peer review purposes and to share best practices in governance.

  “The NGF may seem to outsiders to be divided, but like every NGO or civil organisation operating within the relevant ambit of free association as enshrined in articles of human relationships; it cannot be fully insulated from challenges common to a people drawn from different backgrounds shaped over time by experience, perspective and reality. There is therefore no gainsaying that there would be differences among them at some point.

“As it is, the NGF has shown time and again, an unbelievable capacity to resolve its own differences without recourse to outside help. This is where many analysts and commentators have missed it,” it said.

The Jang faction called on diplomatic missions to exercise restraint in their comments and avoid skewed postulations or prophecies about national institutions “as their words also carry the weight of their office.”

"Rather, they should try to understand all the dynamics at play in every junction of our democratic progress march and juxtapose them with other variables before airing their views,” it added.