₦airaland Forum

naptu2:
The first meeting of the southern governors in the 4th Republic was held in Lagos in October 2000. The Southern Governors Summit was used to coordinate the fight for resource control and more importantly, the fight against the onshore/offshore dichotomy. It was also used to demand for devolution of powers (state police, etc.).

Offshore/Onshore Dichotomy.

The 1999 constitution stated that a percentage of mineral revenue that was derived from a state should be given to that state. It also stated that the National Assembly should meet to determine what the percentage would be, but it must not be less than 13%.

The Federal Government led by President Olusegun Obasanjo paid the states 13% of the revenue derived from minerals in their states. This was because the National Assembly did not set any percentage, so the Federal Government simply used the percentage that was mentioned in the constitution.

However, there was a problem.

The Federal Government stated that any mineral (that is, crude oil) that was found in the ocean, off the continental shelf of a state, belonged to the Federal Government and it would not pay any derivation funds to any state for it.

The states argued that they must have a share of the revenue from such minerals, regardless of the fact that they are in the ocean.

The battle was waged in the National Assembly and in the courts. State governments sued the Federal Government. The state governors were meeting to coordinate their strategy, but then there was a division. A few northern state governments took the side of the Federal Government and so the Southern governors then decided to coordinate their strategy through the Southern Governors Forum.

Politics crept in ahead of the 2007 elections and the Southern Governors Forum did not meet between 2005 and 2017. Their wives continued to hold meetings, but the Southern Governors Forum did not meet.

Until recently, the host governor usually acted as chairman and spokesman of the forum.


List of Southern Governors Forum meetings

Southern Governors Forum meeting, Lagos, October 2000.
https://allafrica.com/stories/200010100252.html


Southern Governors Forum meeting, Enugu, January 2001.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200101150174.html

Conclave of Governors (report of the Southern Governors Summit in Enugu)
https://allafrica.com/stories/200101150096.html

Southern Governors Forum meeting, Benin, March 2001.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200103190380.html

Southern Governors Forum meeting, Ibadan, September 2001.
https://allafrica.com/stories/200109110026.html

Southern Governors Forum meeting, Owerri, November 2001.
https://allafrica.com/stories/200111140102.html

Southern Governors Forum meeting, Port Harcourt, March 2002
https://allafrica.com/stories/200203110194.html

7th Southern Governors Forum meeting, Akure, July 2002.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200207120292.html

Southern Governors Forum meeting, February 2004
http://allafrica.com/stories/200402060556.html

Southern Governors Forum meeting, Benin, December 2004
https://allafrica.com/stories/200412060193.html

Nigeria: Southern Govs. Summit: Igbinedion Carpets FG Over Anambra Crisis
https://allafrica.com/stories/200412060258.html

Nigeria: Deductions: Southern Govs Lash FG
https://allafrica.com/stories/200412060349.html

Southern Governors Forum meeting, Lagos, February 2005
https://allafrica.com/stories/200503010200.html

Udenwa makes case for southern governors forum. March 2005.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200503020368.html


Southern Governors Forum To Meet In Lagos 12 Years After Last Meeting (Lagos, 2017)
https://www.nairaland.com/4130625/southern-governors-forum-meet-lagos


Southern Governors Forum meeting, Asaba, May 2021
https://www.nairaland.com/6548268/insecurity-southern-governors-meet-asaba

Southern Governors Forum meeting, Lagos, July 2021
https://www.nairaland.com/6634966/southern-governors-meet-lagos-today

Nigeria: Lagos State Governor Justifies Meeting of Southern Governors

Panafrican News Agency (Dakar)
By Segun Adeyemi

10 OCTOBER 2000


Lagos, Nigeria — Host Lagos Governor Bola Tinubu has justified Tuesday's maiden meeting of governors of the 17 states in southern Nigeria, saying such a gathering was necessary to strengthen the country's fledgling democracy.

In an apparent reference to criticism of such gathering as sectional and divisive, he said it should actually be encouraged and supported.

Nigeria: The Inside Story Of Southern Governors Parley In Enugu


14 JANUARY 2001

OPINION
By Jide Ajani

Lagos — It is not everyday that the executive governor of a state sits by his phone, calls his colleagues and extracts a commitment from them. But to host the Southern Governors Forum, it is increasingly becoming a ritual that every prospective host governor would have to go through.

It is necessary, and it will become more so as development gets stormier in the country. It was on the telephony note that the last lap of the preparations for the second in the series of the Southern governors' parley kicked off.

Nigeria: Conclave Of Governors


15 JANUARY 2001

The News (Lagos)
By Uba Aham

Lagos — When Senator Bola Tinubu, Lagos State Governor, strolled out of the conference hall of the Nike Lake Resort Hotel after the second summit of the Southern Governors, 10 January, he expressed his approval of the resolutions reached at the summit. "I am elated about our resolution to establish state police," he told this magazine. "Security," he asserted, "is a right, not a privilege for the people". The Governor who is an advocate of state police argued that the present situation whereby security of the masses is solely entrusted to the federal police gives room for fraud, irregularity and abuse of power. The governors, according to Tinubu, would not allow the issue of state police to be sabotaged by any act of omission or commission. He said they were determined to pursue it to a logical conclusion.

The summit had in its nine-point communique endorsed by all the 17 Southern governors, resolved that a constitutional amendment empowering states to establish the state police be pursued.

Nigeria: Southern Governors Meet Again In Benin City On March 26


19 MARCH 2001
Vanguard (Lagos)
By Jide Ajani, Political Editor

Lagos — Governors of the 17 southern states will between March 26 and 28 storm Benin City, the Edo State capital, for the third Southern Governors' Forum, Vanguard can reveal.

According to information available to Vanguard, the governors would, at the meeting, decide on how to tackle the federal government on the issue of revenue allocation.

Nigeria: Owerri to Host Next Southern Governors' Summit


11 SEPTEMBER 2001
The Guardian (Lagos)
By Tolu Olarewaju And Kola Alade

Ibadan — OWERRI, the Imo State capital is to host the fifth Southern Governors summit. The date, however, is yet to be determined

The two-day summit in Oyo State came to an end yesterday. Traditional drummers were on hand to bid state chief executives fare-well as they emerged from the council chambers, venue of the meeting.

Nigeria: Resource Control Tops Agenda of Southern Governors Summit

11 MARCH 2002
This Day (Lagos)
By Oma Djebah

Port Harcourt — The sixth quarterly summit of the 17 southern governors kicked off yesterday in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital with resource control and True Federalism topping the agenda.

By 7pm yesterday, no fewer than 10 of the 17 governors had arrived, throwing the oil city of Port-Harcourt into a carnival mood.

naptu2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHrmhmb6Fws?si=eeysklTHN4qA8Ip-

Ogun State Government -OGSG @OGSG_Official



https://x.com/OGSG_Official/status/1993768522980172165?[/quote]It's a wasted effort. We of the South South also believe it is an exercise in futility. The Yorubas will betray the entire south again and again because she enjoys and prefere the prevent political structure where it eats from the left over from the parasitic drawback North.

The South West will ensure Lagos remains the only functional international port in Nigeria.

The South West will also make sure herdmen's threat looms and never challenges the Northern excesses.

The lost goes on .

DMerciful:
Why are they not serious about state police? What's the meaning of renewed advocacy for state police? Who are they advocating to? The president?

lezz:
It's a wasted effort. We of the South South also believe it is an exercise in futility. The Yorubas will betray the entire south again and again because she enjoys and prefere the prevent political structure where it eats from the left over from the parasitic drawback North.

The South West will ensure Lagos remains the only functional
international port in Nigeria.

The South West will also make sure herdmen's threat looms and never challenges the Northern excesses.

The lost goes on .

naptu2:
Prince Dr. Dapo Abiodun, CON @DapoAbiodunCON



https://x.com/DapoAbiodunCON/status/1993757638081835071?[/quote]So they just gathered there to KISS TINUBU'S ASS? Why offer condolences to BAT instead of the victims? Useless meeting by useless governors.

Bulldozer90:
Wearing asoebi in a national security emergency

Mrexcell:
It seems they went for jamboree nothing new in their resolutions we have been hearing this same thing for years.

Bulldozer90:
Wearing asoebi in a national security emergency

tophumble:
What we want is action and not mere talks

naptu2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHrmhmb6Fws?si=eeysklTHN4qA8Ip-

Ogun State Government -OGSG @OGSG_Official



https://x.com/OGSG_Official/status/1993768522980172165?[/quote]Like in a brutal movie, it's like Arewa is tying a rope on the necks of the southerners to remain in one Nigeria.
Arewa 12 states had since 1999 adopted unconstitutional Islamic sharia criminal justice system and literally drew the boundaries of Arewa Islamic sharia Republic, but still clutch tight to one Nigeria because of lucre in the south.