Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, yesterday kicked against plans by some of his colleagues to reconstitute the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) before May 29.
Reacting to a meeting convened by the Forum, Dickson said the NGF, still in crisis, should be allowed to remain as it is for now till after new governors assume office.
In a statement yesterday, the governor said: “Having gone through those period of the NGF crisis with my respected colleagues, most of whom are now ending their respective governorship tenures, I believe I owe it a duty to our nation and our fledgling democracy to alert the nation and caution my respected colleagues, especially the incoming governors that they should not allow the outgoing governors, most of whom created the NGF crisis to foist on our country and political system another NGF contraption that will in due course threaten the stability of our democracy and be a distraction to citizens and the leadership of our country, as the NGF crisis or tussle did between 2012 till date”.
He said that the crisis in the NGF was caused by his colleagues who felt the leadership of the forum was an avenue to higher political office and as such the NGF became a bargaining tool and a matter of life or death.
Dickson alleged that the idea of reconstituting the body in the dying days of his outgoing colleagues was meant to shortchange the new governors.
Continuing he said, “My view which I expressed during the days of the crisis which I still maintain was that the NGF shouldn’t function like a trade union or a parallel federal government, either of which will distort our system and make it a virtual implosion predictable or inevitable.
“From inception of the NGF till date, the leadership has always been surreptitiously put in place without the input of all members, especially the in-coming governors as new members, thus short-changing it.
“This is what the outgoing members who have destroyed the forum plan to do. I disagree with this. I believe that the outgoing members, most of whom allowed themselves to tear the NGF, should let things be and just go.
“Thereafter, a process of consultation should be put in place by the existing PDP Governors Forum and APC Progressive Governors Forum regarding the desirability and procedures for bringing about its leadership after May29, when the new governors would have taken office and therefore become members”.
In May 2013, 19 state governors voted for Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, while 16 voted for Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State.
The Jang-camp alleged rigging, a development that led to emergence of two factions of the Forum.
However, the presidency failed to accept the Amaechi led group because it did not favour it.
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