…says they want to swallow Jonathan ahead of 2015

By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North

Former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Senator Jubril Aminu, yesterday, pleaded with the Presidency and patriotic Nigerians to restrain governors from ruining the country.

Aminu, who spoke in an exclusive interview with Sunday Vanguard, accused the governors of arrogating to themselves roles that were not in the Constitution thereby conferring illegal advantage on themselves to the detriment of majority of Nigerians.

The former minister pointed out that, apart from acting as a clog in the wheel of progress, governors had also constituted themselves into an army against the Nigerian people by destroying the local government system and their Houses of Assembly, which used to act as a check on the executive.

According to him, the governors now want to determine everything at the local, state and federal levels, thereby stripping the president of his statutory powers.

Describing the action of the governors as inimical to the progress of the nation, the professor of medicine asked well-meaning Nigerians to rise against “the malevolent attitude of the governors before they plunge the nation into avoidable chaos that could consume the country”.

Aminu said: “The governors are against all of us and the president. They have organised to stop the government from doing what is right for this country. You can see that they have organised to stop anything functioning in Nigeria without them. This is what is happening.
“Governors are the ones imposing things on the rest of us. The problem with the governors is that they meet regularly and have their way by threatening the president that they would not support him for second term. You can’t do that because it is wrong. They must realise and be told that as governors their first responsibility is to their states.


Jubril Aminu
“Many of the states are in a very parlous state and their governors are moving about in Abuja trying to fight Jonathan in a needless war. Number one, they have stopped the local government from functioning.

“They decide what amount to give to the local governments under their control. They decide what the LGA chairmen should spend up to the last kobo. It is a complete negation of the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution and they must be told so in clear terms to desist forthwith from such unholy practice in the interest of the country and its people. But they keep on doing it with impunity.

“Unfortunately, there is nobody to call the governors to order because they have already swallowed the House of Assembly that would have served as a check on them. Today nobody gets any job or appointment at the state level without the approval of the governors. Even election into the National Assembly is controlled by governors. So they have super powers and nothing gets to anybody except the governor approves same.

“Not satisfied with the powers they have already usurped, the governors now want to extend their power to the president. They want to dictate to him what he should and should not do when it is not their right to do so. This is not right and that is not what the Constitution envisaged. This is not the federal system we hope to get”.

Turning to the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in his state of Adamawa, Aminu blamed the development there on the inability of Governor Murtala Nyako to perform and meet the expectations of the people.

The PDP Board of Trustees member noted that the party made a mistake by facilitating the emergence of Nyako as governor in 2007.

He said, “It is also my fault that we put Nyako there as our governor. Nyako is not good enough. The state is not moving forward. We don’t know what he has been doing with our resources and not much has happened under him.

“Some of us believe he should go and he does not like that and almost all of us who were responsible for his emergence are uncomfortable with his style of leadership and the state is going backward.

“In fact, I may say that our state is the most backward in terms of development and even younger states have overtaken Adamawa in terms of progress. You can see what has happened in younger states like Taraba, Gombe and Yobe. So the people are asking us, what did you people send to us? And we have no answer to give. The man has failed woefully to change the state in any form. That is the problem.”

I think a Nigerian President is too powerful. Some of the powers and duties arrogated to itself are actually supposed to be for the federating states but in the case of Nigeria, we see presidents commissioning cities water systems, street roads etc.

My point here is not about projects but the politics behind all these. I think a better consensus can be built by our regional heads and a better presidential candidate may emerge as a result of it rather than a system where the outgoing presidents selects his/her successor to make the system continue to serve their selfish interests.

2sd: I think a Nigerian President is too powerful. Some of the powers and duties arrogated to itself are actually supposed to be for the federating states but in the case of Nigeria, we see presidents commissioning cities water systems, street roads etc.

My point here is not about projects but the politics behind all these. I think a better consensus can be built by our regional heads and a better presidential candidate may emerge as a result of it rather than a system where the outgoing presidents selects his/her successor to make the system continue to serve their selfish interests.

He is talking about Governors you are accusing Presidents.