Edwin Clark
A former Minister of Information, Edwin Clark has proposed that the Nigeria Governors Forum, which according to him is “a thorn in the flesh of the country”, be abolished.
The Ijaw leader who literally took the body to the cleaners, said it was necessary to tackle them because they not only pose “threat to Nigeria’s democracy”, but also were getting too powerful.
In a statement he read to newsmen on Thursday at his new residence at Plot 43, Haile Selassie Crescent, Asokoro in Abuja, the president’s confidant accused the Governors of breaching the Nigerian constitution with impunity.
“I wish to dwell on some of the offending activities of the Governors Forum which are driving the country to madness but which as members you do not care about, provided you achieve your purpose and the Forum’s over-bearing influence on the Peoples Democratic Party, the supremacy of which you have hijacked. “The Governors Forum is now acting as an opposition party to the Federal Government.
“It deliberately breaches 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. Most of the governors today, are more dictatorial than the then military governors. The President should ban them.
While speaking, he described the legislators as stooge of their respective states’ helmsmen.
“But it will be hard for the President to abolish the Forum since members of the National Assembly were nominated by their state governors
“Members of the assembly are loyal to the governors, who put them in the office.”
Comparing the NGF to the National Governors Association in the United States of America, Clark noted that their counterparts operate within the confines of American law.
“For instance, President Bill Clinton on his own as the Governor of a very small state, Arkansas, and as a chair of the [US Governors] Association, did not use it for his personal gains but rather worked assiduously under the platform and directive of the Democratic Party, to become one of the most successful Presidents of the United States of America,” he said.
Kommentare