NGF Election: President Mulls Cabinet Reshuffle
- New ministers to be appointed to check governors
- Ministers with governorship ambitions to quit
- Amaechi insists on victory as Jang promises to reunite colleagues
President Goodluck Jonathan may move forward plans to reshuffle his cabinet following the outcome of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) chairmanship election in which the incumbent and Rivers State Governor, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, won despite perceived opposition from the presidency, THISDAY has gathered.
The outcome of the NGF election has further deepened the crisis in the forum as Amaechi and the Plateau State Governor, Chief Jonah Jang, who was widely regarded as the candidate of the presidency, continued to lay claims to the position.
Their supporters also gave different accounts of how the chairmanship race was won and lost to justify the claims to victory of the two camps.
A source in the presidency Sunday confided in THISDAY that the presidency was disappointed with the outcome of the NGF chairmanship race as it had expected that the leadership of the forum would be decided by consensus that would have automatically barred Amaechi from getting a second term.
However, with Amaechi winning the election conducted by secret ballot, defeating Jang by 19 votes to 16, a source said the president was considering reshuffling his cabinet earlier than he had planned during which people regarded as influential politicians would be brought on board to serve as a check on governors considered powerful.
In addition, ministers known to be nursing governorship ambitions would be dropped because their continued presence in the cabinet would impair the implementation of the Jonathan’s transformation agenda.
The source said: “The outcome of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum election that saw the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) endorsed chairmanship candidate losing to the Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi, who is the incumbent chairman, was an indication that most of the governors that claimed that they were in control (of the situation) were rather lying to the president.
“The outcome of the election was a great embarrassment and a revelation to the presidency and therefore an opportunity to change tactics and review most of the strategies on ground. The election was like a dress rehearsal to the 2015 presidential election.
“It is like a team playing friendly matches ahead of the main election. The NGF election has shown that most of the governors claiming to be in control are not. It has also shown that there are moles within the system. If not, how come that after 19 governors had signed and endorsed Governor Jonah Jang and they went into the election with confidence, only for 19 to eventually become 16 and the next day, there were 18 governors coming out to claim that they are supporting Governor Jang. The NGF election is an eye opener and portrays that much work needed to be done.”
As a first measure, the source said there was the likelihood for an early cabinet reshuffle to ensure the injection of some politicians that could serve as a check on some governors suspected of romancing with the opposition.
“It happened during the era of President Shehu Shagari. The president appointed powerful ministers that were seen as counter to the governors. I think that the outcome of the NGF election has given indication to this. There would be a cabinet reshuffle that would be expected to check the overgrowing influence of the governors.
“You also see that the South-west was left open for the opposition governors to operate without any challenge. Five votes out of 35 alone came from the South-west. It is already our recommendation that the zone should not be left like an orphan. There would be a cabinet reshuffle that will make politicians come on board. This is one of the ways to address the perceived marginalisation of the zone.
“The NGF election is a wake-up call. We have lost and therefore, we are going back to the drawing board to address some of the issues,” he said.
On how the presidency would determine that a minister is nursing governorship ambition, the source explained: “There is already a security report and it would be evaluated and implemented.
“I think that the president will allow ministers with governorship ambitions to go so as to avoid distraction or using government money for politicking. But the style is to ask those with ministerial ambitions to go; but where they refuse to quit, then it is assumed that they have no such ambition and therefore may not be allowed to go, when they want to go.
“It is not like forcing them to go, but ask them to go, if they have governorship ambitions.”
[b]A northern governor who asked not to be quoted, gave insight into how the NGF election was conducted, saying that before the election, the Director General of the NGF, Assishana Bayo Okuaro, had displayed an empty ballot box from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and 36 ballot papers with the logo and name of the NGF.
He said: “At the election, there were 33 governors and two deputy governors making the number in attendance 35. Only the governor of Yobe State was absent. The director general of the forum distributed the ballot papers, each governor was called, and one by one they voted. After voting, the votes were counted, sorted out and results announced.“The governor of Delta State was the agent of Governor Jang and when Governor Amaechi was asked to nominate his agent, he said there was no need. So, how was the election rigged or manipulated?”
He also said a governor whom he refused to name recorded the outcome of the election in his telephone handset.
[/b]
Irrespective of the governor’s explanation to justify that the NGF election was free and fair, contrary to the position of the presidency camp, the two claimants to the position yesterday continued to carry on as if there was no controversy to their emergence.
Amaechi, at an interdenominational church service at Corpus Christi Cathedral in Port Harcourt to mark this year’s Children’s Day celebration, which also coincided with his (Amaechi) 48th birthday, insisted he won the NGF election.
According to him, contrary to what some people want to portray, he contested and won in a free and fair election.
He said: “Let me say to you, I am the Chairman of Nigerian Governors’ Forum. That we are not talking, it is because we have decided not to talk. They voted, we voted and we won. If they had won, I would have congratulated them.”
Amaechi also assured children of the state of his administration’s desire to provide good governance and quality education. He also said government was on track to provide adequate security all over the state.
Earlier, the officiating Priest and Catholic Bishop of Port Harcourt Diocese, Most Reverend Camillus Etukudoh, congratulated Amaechi on his election and assured him that the church would continue to pray for him and the state.
Also speaking at the St. Nicholas Anglican Church, Woji, Amaechi said he won the election because of the efficacy of prayers, adding that his opponent was not prepared for the election as he was drafted to contest at the last minute.
Jang, on his part, has pledged to use his new position to unite his colleagues.
Speaking yesterday on his arrival from Abuja after the NGF election, he said he never bargained for the chairmanship of NGF just as he pledged to give the forum his best.
He appealed to Amaechi to be ready to work with him as the NGF election should not divide the governors.
He said: "We worked with Amaechi when he was chairman of the forum , so he should be ready to work with me and support me."
However, Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has described the re-election of Amaechi as NGF chair as victory for democracy.
He told journalists at his Ishan-Ekiti country home that the decision of the forum to opt for election instead of consensus was because of democratic growth.
He however urged Nigerians to see the emergence of Amaechi as NGF’s chairman as strictly a demonstration of his colleagues’ confidence in his leadership of the forum and not a victory over the presidency.
According to him, “It is a contest between governors for the chairmanship position and it would be wrong for anyone to consider it a contest between President Goodluck Jonathan and Amaechi as the president was not a contestant.”
Fayemi, who described as “sad” comments by the anti-Amaechi governors that the NGF election was rigged, said it was sad and such a claim soiled the integrity of anyone purveying it.
He added that the election, which was recorded on tape, was one of the most credible he had witnessed.
Fayemi’s counterpart in Abia State, Chief Theodore Orji, however, gave a different account of what transpired among the governors.
He told journalists in Lagos that the emergence Amaechi and Jang had polarised the governors’ forum.
The election of Amaechi, according to Orji, could not stand the test of time.
He explained that given the controversy surrounding the election,
the forum would remain divided or may even be dead, adding that there was no law that said a governor must belong to the NGF.
But his Kwara State counterpart, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, called for reconciliation between the warring factions in order not to lose sight of the peer review for development.
Speaking to journalists in Ilorin at the weekend, Ahmed also called on his colleagues to shun divisive political tendencies and bury the hatchet.
He said they should focus on using the NGF as a platform for engendering development for the benefit of the people.
According to him, “If there are issues as regards the election of the forum's chairman, we should use the same platform to resolve them rather than fanning the embers of discord in the media. Our choking security challenges should not be compounded with political conundrum."
Meanwhile, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has urged security agencies to investigate an alleged forged document being circulated by some governors suggesting that they had signatures of 18 governors pushing for a consensus candidate just before the NGF election.
The party, while reacting to the feud generated by last Friday's NGF election, described the rejection of its result as a bad omen for the 2015 general election.
In a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the governors who rejected the NGF poll were undoubtedly acting the script written for them by the presidency and the leadership of the PDP.
It added: ''If an election involving only 35 governors can generate so much controversy and threaten to overheat the polity, what will happen when millions of Nigerians vote in 2015? Is this how President Goodluck Jonathan, who is the godfather of the losing governors, has been sanitising the electoral process as he has been enthusing?”
It explained that the fact that the signature of a governor, who neither attended the meeting of the PDP chapter of the NGF nor send a representative, was included on the consensus list showed that the signatures were harvested long before the election.
ACN advised Akwa Ibom State Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, who is leading the anti-Amaechi camp, and his group to accept the result of the NGF election instead of threatening to break the forum and overheating the polity.
ACN also condemned the meddlesomeness of the presidency in the election of chairman of what it said was not more than a social club.
The All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) also warned of the dangerous implication of the blossoming crisis within the NGF.
The party in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Emma Eneukwu, said the NGF election had just mirrored the resolve of the presidency to create confusion and anarchy wherever it failed to actualise its aims. Source: http://www.thisdayonline.com/ |
