Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, yesterday deplored what he called moves by some outgoing governors to reconstitute the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) barely two weeks to the end of their tenure.
He also faulted alleged use of the body for partisan purposes in the past.
Dickson, reacting to the summoning of a meeting of the group for tomorrow, said that based on the roles these governors played in the crisis which engulfed the NGF, they should not be allowed to foist another NGF contraption, which could threaten the stability of the nation’s democracy.
“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 in a statement
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, who claimed that he had always believed the NGF should not function as a trade union, said the fresh idea of reconstituting the body in the dying days of his outgoing colleagues was meant to shortchange the new governors.
He added:”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”.
The governor queried the hurry in summoning the divided leadership of the forum.
The majority of the forum members are with their Chairman, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State and the minority members, including Dickson are backing Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State.
The crisis, believed to have been engineered by President Goodluck Jonathan, was partly responsible for the dumping of the PDP by five of its governor who ended up in the APC.
President Jonathan was opposed to the candidature of Amaechi, who enjoyed the support of 19 of his colleagues against the 16 backing Jang.
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