When the news of the meeting was first broken in the media on Monday, many pundits had readily dismissed it with a wave of hand saying that no good thing can ever come from such “unholy gathering” since the forum had, in recent time, been polarized and rendered impotent as a result of centrifugal forces of internal bickering and power tussle.
For the forum which had run uninterruptedly under a Peoples’ Democratic Party-controlled federal government since 1999, the change of baton to the opposition party in 2015 was seen by many as a fatal blow to the supposed invincibility of the governors whose firm grip of the nation’s power base had reached a frightening dimension until the March 28 and April 11 general elections.
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Before the Monday meeting, the seed to the irreconcilable differences in the Governors Forum was first planted in May 2013 after five PDP governors defected to the APC following a botched PDP national convention that led to the formation of the “New PDP”.
The Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi , who was the arrowhead of the splinter group was re-elected as NGF chairman by simple majority of 19 to 16 members to beat his closest rival and the Plateau State governor, Jonah Jang.
But the 16 PDP governors queued behind Jang to form a parallel PDP Governors and enjoyed the backing of the presidency amid the nationwide condemnation of what many believed to be warped logic that “16 is greater than 19”.
Since then, the factionalised Nigeria Governors Forum had not called a meeting until the outgoing week when there are indications that the governors were on the path of reconciliation even as henchmen behind the two factions met for the first time since the divisive election that splintered the body in 2013.
The governors, who arrived at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel include some of the leading lights of the two factions: Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers); Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom); Adams Oshiomhole (Edo); Rauf Aregbesola (Osun); Babangida Aliyu (Niger); Ramallan Yero (Kaduna); Saidu Dakingari (Kebbi); Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta) and Kashim Shettima (Borno).
Also present were Isa Yuguda (Bauchi); Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo); Deputy Governor of Kogi State; Arc. Yomi Awoniyi; the Deputy Governor of Kano and Governor-elect Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.
The deputy governors of Nasarawa and Imo states and the governor-elect of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel, were also present. Signs that the meeting became evident as Jang, the factional chairman, was said to have sent an apology over his inability to attend the meeting, fuelling speculations that he would not object to decisions reached at the meeting.
Reflective of their new unity, the governors, by consensus, adopted Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State as the new chairman of the NGF to take over from Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who presided at the session.
Speaking after the meeting, the Niger State governor, Babangida Aliyu, said that the move to mediate and unite all the governors would help to rebuild the body for a better Nigeria.
He said: “The goal is to mediate and unite the Nigeria Governors’ Forum that has been fragmented for the past few years.” At the end of the brainstorming session, the governors put aside their differences but went for the jugular of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, who they asked to declare the estimated $ 20 billion they claimed would have accrued to the Excess Crude Account during their quarrel.
In their resolution, the governors remarked: “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 for accruals to this account from June 2013 to April 2015 which is estimated at over$ 20 billion.”
The new found “love” between the 36 state governors coming at the twilight of the outgoing administration has been generating mixed reactions from a cross section of Nigerian public even as many have suspected that the governors were united for obvious reason of repositioning themselves into relevance before the inauguration of a new government on May 29.
While Barrister Monday Ubani, former chairman of Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja Branch, opined that the formation of Governors Forum was initially set up as peer review group aimed at ensuring comparing notes among members for developmental purposes, he expressed misgivings at the undue politicisation of the group to suit selfish and personal aggrandisement.
The lawyer, in a radio programme, last Wednesday, however saw the new rapprochement among the governors as a welcome development. It would be recalled that the NGF has been under intense public opprobrium in recent time following their alleged abysmal low performance culminating in huge debt portfolio and default in paying workers salaries.
An Ijaw leader and PDP chieftain, Chief Edwin Clark, had earlier raised the alarm over what he called the “worrisome activities of dictatorial” Nigerian Governors’ Forum.
The former Minister of Information further warned that the PDP was sitting on a keg of gun powder which could explode at anytime. Commenting on the near absolute power foisted on the PDP governors, the elder statesman had accused the state chief executives of “bastardising” PDP slogan of “power to the people to-power to the governors”.
Said he: “The slogan of the party has been turned upside down. The PDP members at the grass roots no longer control the party and the power of the party no longer belongs to the people. The people have lost the power, reluctantly accepting the slogan -“Power to the governors”
He went on to say that; “The PDP governors who now regard themselves as leaders of the party are using their own structures to entrench corruption, lack of internal democracy, imposition of candidates within the structures of the party over the recognised structures as entrenched in the constitution of the party.”
He lamented a situation where “The overbearing influence of the NGF in the polity has become a matter of serious concern and calls for urgent correction as it is fast eroding the authority and supremacy of the party and posing a serious threat to our democracy having grown to become a powerful tool in the hands of the governors who now use it to promote their individual and collective interests with little or no regard to the letter and spirit of the party’s constitution.”
According to him, NGF deliberately breached with impunity the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the constitution of the PDP without any challenges.
“The forum has now become a threat to the peace and stability of Nigeria as most of the governors today, are more dictatorial than the then military governors,” he said.
Now that a new government will soon be inaugurated in about a week’s time, concerns have been raised about the fate of the governors under a Buhari’s government.
Will Buhari kow-tow the whims and caprices of the all powerful governors forum as was the case in the past regimes? Indications emerged however that the governors may have to live with the fact that it cannot be business as usual with the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari.
It would be recalled that APC governors had on May 5, paid a visit to President-elect with a view to giving him ministerial list from their states. Buhari was said to have rejected the governors’ move saying that he wasn’t mandated by the constitution to take such a list from them.
The retired army general was also unequivocal when he was told that the governors wanted to submit a ministerial list to him insisting that the constitution did not mandate him to collect such list from them.
Buhari said: “I do not think we can discuss that issue of ministerial list. “The constitution clearly does not mandate me to take a list from the governors. To me, the governors should concentrate on getting good hands to help them in discharging their duties in the states.”
He was also quoted to have bluntly refused to help governors who are owing their workers’ salaries. Buhari particularly singled out governors going for their second term in office saying they could not complain about the state of the economy having collected all their allocations to date from the Federal Government.
He thereby ruled out any financial bailout. President-elect and former military Head of State won the March 28 presidential election even as his victory was seen as a complete departure from the immediate two past leaders who were picked from the ranks of the Governors Forum.
Will Buhari dare the governors’ forum as he takes on the mantle of leadership next week? Nigerians can’t wait.
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