Governors' Forum Chairmanship Election, Presidency in a Messy Venture
Several governors from two of
Nigeria’s geo-political zones have told SaharaReporters how Governor
Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State reemerged as the chairman of the Nigerian
Governors Forum in a highly dramatic and widely watched election.
Mr.
Amaechi’s reelection has rattled President Goodluck Jonathan who, one
Presidency source disclosed, called Governors Godswill Akpabio, Peter
Obi, Segun Mimiko and Jonah Jang from Ethiopia and charged them to do
everything within their power to ensnare the outcome in controversy in
order to delegitimize the results.
The four pro-Jonathan governors subsequently released a document claiming that 19 governors voted for Mr. Jang.
The
document did not state when the so-called voting was conducted. At a
press conference called by Mr. Akpabio and attended by Governor Jang,
the latter did not utter a word about his purported victory. Instead,
Mr. Jang was glum and had a blank, vacant look.
The news of Governor Amaechi's victory was announced earlier.
A
Presidency source told SaharaReporters that, before traveling to
Ethiopia, President Jonathan had collected the signatures of 19
governors, including the governor of Yobe, with the aim of wresting the
Governors’ Forum post from Mr. Amaechi. But at today's meeting where the
election took place, Governor Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe was conspicuously
absent. One of the governors told SaharaReporters that the Yobe governor
decided not to attend the meeting because he detests Mr. Jang's
sectarian fanaticism.
Our sources, who detailed the coalition
that handed Mr. Amaechi a victory, told Saharareporters that 19
governors voted for the Rivers governor who has been locked in a major
political dispute with Mr. Jonathan. The pro-Amaechi governors were
those of Imo, Ekiti, Edo, Oyo, Ogun, Lagos, Adamawa, Borno, Osun,
Jigawa, Kano, Nasarawa, Niger, Kwara Kano, Sokoto, Zamfara and Sokoto.
Mr. Amaechi also voted for himself, securing reelection.
Our
sources disclosed that the governors of Bauchi, Benue, Gombe, Taraba,
Kogi, Plateau, Ondo, Kebbi, Katsina, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Kaduna and
four others voted for Mr. Jang, the president’s candidate.
Our
sources painted a portrait of some dramatic developments ahead of
today’s voting. SaharaReporters learned that the pro-Jonathan group
adopted Governor Jang as their consensus candidate following a decision
by a few Northern governors and some members of the PDP’s Governors
Forum to pick a flag bearer outside of Governors Ibrahim Shema of
Katsina and Isah Yuguda of Bauchi. The Jonathan group believed that Mr.
Jang would seem less contentious. They also tipped Governor Mimiko of
Ondo as Mr. Jang’s side kick in the hope of swaying some governors from
the South-West.
Two governors disclosed that the anti-Amaechi
group also suggested using “consensus” rather than an election to
determine the leader of the forum. “They hoped the ‘consensus’ method
would make it possible for them to swing the votes in their favor,” said
one governor, adding that most governors insisted on voting.
One
of the governors disclosed that Mr. Jonathan’s camp came to today’s
meeting confident that they would prevail, since the president had
obtained signatures from several governors in advance. But the
president’s gubernatorial opponents said they knew Mr. Jang would be
vanquished as the election, which was conducted by the secretariat of
the Governors’ Forum, began. The forum’s director-general, Ashishana
Okauru, was the presiding officer at the election with Governor Emmanuel
Uduaghan of Delta State serving as the returning officer. Pro-Amaechi
governors said they were certain of their candidate’s victory since the
election was conducted via a secret ballot. “It was free and fair, so we
knew that Chibuike [Amaechi] would win,” said one of the governors from
the south-west.
After the voting, Governor Uduaghan announced
the results, declaring Mr. Amaechi victorious. “All 35 governors present
cast their vote and the tally was 19-16 in favor of Governor Amaechi,”
one of the governors said. He dismissed Mr. Akpabio’s list of 19
governors for Mr. Jang, laughing that the Akpabio group even included
the name of the Yobe governor who was not present at today’s vote.
It
remained unclear whether the Presidency would succeed in pressuring Mr.
Uduaghan to back away from the results he collated and announced at the
governors’ parley.
One of the pro-Amaechi governors told
SaharaReporters that Mr. Jang’s candidacy was “technically flawed, but
we allowed him to run for the sake of peace.” According to him,
observance of the forum’s constitution would mean that the picking of
nomination forms ought to have ended by midnight on May 23, 2013. He
claimed that Governor Jang only sent in a letter indicating his interest
in the race around 3 p.m. on May 24, 2013. “It was a breach of our
constitution, but Governor Amaechi and some of us decided not to push
for Jang’s disqualification,” said the governor.
Another governor
told Saharareporters that he suspects Mr. Jonathan would now be hell
bent on destroying or dividing the Governors Forum. “He will see the
result of today’s election as a vote of no confidence on his
leadership,” said the governor, from one of the Northern states. He
added: “All I know is [the] majority of governors don’t want the
Presidency to be telling us what to do. We were elected just as Mr.
President was elected. Let him lead the nation with good leadership
effort and allow do the same in our state.”
The source added that
Mr. Jonathan and his political associates would likely interpret the
loss by Mr. Jang to Governor Amaechi as an indication that the president
may lose the PDP’s primary elections to be the party’s flag bearer.
“But it is his good governance that will make the party pick him again,
not whether he forces Governor Jang to be our chairman,” said the
source.
Several governors who spoke to us today said Governors
Akpabio of Akwa Ibom, Segun Mimiko of Ondo, Peter Obi of Anambra and
Jonah Jang of Plateau of were out to do the president’s bidding at all
cost. They accused the governors of seeking to polarize the Governors’
Forum in order to advance President Jonathan’s agenda of neutralizing
Governor Amaechi.
“These colleagues are key to President Goodluck
Jonathan’s plan to turn Nigeria into Ivory Coast if he does not win in
2015,” said one source.
