Rivers
State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who was on May 24 this year re-elected as
Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), said yesterday that
there was no factional chairman nor a parallel secretariat of the Forum of 36
governors.
He
made the declaration yesterday during his visit to the secretariat of the forum
under his leadership located at Asokoro, Abuja.
Amaechi,
who came in company with his Ekiti State counterpart, Dr. Kayode Fayemi,
was reacting to the inauguration of another NGF secretariat last week by the
faction of the forum led by Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang and his deputy,
the Ondo State governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko.
He
assured the staff at the secretariat not to be worried about the development in
the NGF in the past two weeks and “leave the politics of the NGF to the
governors.’’
Addressing
journalists, Amaechi vowed to stick to his mandate, which he noted was earned
after a keenly contested election. He also dismissed reports attributed to
Mimiko that there was no casting of ballots by the governors, penultimate
Friday.
“No,
I will not step down; that’s a mandate that is freely given and I will stick to
that mandate. There is no special benefit that the Chairman of Governors’
Forum gets… I am only proving a point that Nigerians are allowed to run
for any post, they want to run and when they do and they are elected, they should
stick to their mandate. That’s the only point.’’
Excerpts:
Mimiko
lied
Governor
Mimiko and I are Christians and I think he is a good Christian. One of the sins
against God is the sin of lying. I am not saying he is lying, but I am saying
that Mimiko voted. Even everybody was scared, you must have watched the
video. I was scared because at a point, seven governors refused to
vote. I think they suspected that they would win and Mimiko was one of those
who refused to vote, but when they whispered among themselves and they thought
they would win, they all cast their votes. When they were counting, if you had
watched, you would see that those governors who were pro-Amaechi voted first,
and those governors that were against Amaechi voted last. So, you saw during
the counting, “Governor Jang and those governors who initially refused to
vote and voted, their votes were counted last had the Governor
Jang, Governor Jang’’, eight times—- I was scared. If you watch the
video, you would hear me say, “No, no, count the ballot first’. That was my
response to that confidence that made them to go and vote. My response
was, what was the confidence that made these people to go and vote?
I was saying to myself, I hope that they haven’t rigged the election.
Again, I was saying to myself, we are 35, I want to sit with 35 ballots.
So,
the first counting was, there were 35 ballots and I said, ok, I am no 35, then
you can then count who had what number of ballots. So, if you hear Mimiko
protest, tell him I said, he voted. Mimiko voted, everybody there voted!
I
didn’t plant video- camera
Even
the issue of video, if you watch the video, you will hear me shouting, ‘stop,
it, don’t record it, stop it!’ Because some governors rushed to me and said,
Chairman, protect us, so and so governors were recording and the governors
said, why won’t I record? It was so open, it wasn’t as if somebody
planted cameras and was hiding, it was open.
“If
you listen, you will hear another governor saying, I am also recording and I
said, as a responsible citizen, you cannot do that here. But then, I was making
a mistake, because that video has turned out to be historical.
“So,
it wasn’t me. I was rather trying to protect my colleagues, who didn’t
want it recorded and the governor who was recording said, I will not stop and
thank God, he didn’t stop! If he had listened to me as Chairman and
stopped, maybe it would have been more controversial than it is now.
“But
again, tell my brother, Mimiko that he voted. If he insists that he didn’t
vote, I am willing to go with him to his church, The Redeemed Church, we lean
on the altar he should say it before God.
Mischief
behind Lamido/Amaechi posters
I
wished I knew where it is coming from. But for Gods sake, why can’t people at
the federal office tell us where the posters are coming from? I don’t
know where it is coming from and I don’t want to respond to those posters.
Cold
war with Presidency
I
have no comment on that. I just don’t know if there is any, or there is none.
Honestly, I don’t know.
Suspension
from PDP
I
believe in the judiciary of Nigeria. Anytime people cannot solve their
differences in court, then it becomes difficult. So, they have suspended me, I
have gone to court and I will stick to that. So, I will not discuss
that. My colleague, the Governor of Lagos State has also gone to
court to stop my friend and brother, Governor Jang from parading himself.
Jang
should search his conscience
I
want to urge him that as a Christian, and he is a good Christian, that he
should know that God watched over everybody and that whatever you say, say it
according to God, because beyond the NGF, I believe that there is heaven
and you cannot go to heaven, if you cannot tell the truth and stand by the
truth.
I am
not saying that he isn’t telling the truth; I am not saying he isn’t
standing by the truth, but I am just saying that nobody can go to heaven, if he
doesn’t stand by the truth. If I want to go to church to thank God, I
should be the person thanking God, because I got 19 votes. I should go to
church and say, God, take the glory and that was what happened, because after the
election I was a bit confused, because the enormous resistance was so much that
I thought, any way, it goes. Look, if they had won, there wouldn’t be any
break-up, we were ready to go along with them. The point I wanted to
prove was Nigerians have the right to contest anything you want to contest in
Nigeria. That’s the point I wanted to prove.
I
stand by my mandate
No, I
will not step down; that’s a mandate that is freely given and I will stick to
that mandate. There is no special benefit that the Chairman of Governors’
Forum gets. So, I don’t see why there is this disagreement. When I
heard them said I was jittery, jittery for what? I am only proving
a point that Nigerians are allowed to run for any post, they want
to run and when they do and they are elected, they should stick to their
mandate. That’s the only point.
Advice
for Jang
I
think my brothers who are complaining, not about the election should come back,
let us work together, for the interest of the poor masses in the country. We
shouldn’t allow our personal interest to override that of the nation. It is
important we consider that of the nation. I must also say to my brother on the
other side that Nigeria Governors’ Forum isn’t about platform, it isn’t a PDP
Governors’ Forum ,or Action Congress of Nigeria Governors’ Forum —- it is
called the Nigeria Governors’ Forum—- that’s why I have never visited any party
chairman, or any party leader, to go and complain or to go and seek support. I
needed four supports: God first, Nigerians second, President and the governors.
We
have a working constitution
There
was no fight over the constitution; it was when we finished voting. You see, it
is ridiculous, everybody who voted agreed with that article. Let me tell you,
the election was postponed three times and the reason for postponing the
election were all constitutional. The constitution says, you should give three
days notice. They said, I didn’t give three days notice. I said, fine I gave
the three days notice for the next meeting. When we were ready for the
second time, I gave the three days notice, they said, you
have given the 3 days notice but the constitution says you must be
in office till May 29; why are you asking us to vote; that you must be in
office and let the person who defeats you take over. And I said, ok, fine, let
us wait till May. That means the constitution was working and it was what
they were quoting. But now that we have emerged, that constitution isn’t
correct! But they were quoting the same constitution to subvert the election,
the strategy on our side wasn’t to be confrontational. When we say we are His
Excellency, it means that we must be excellent in behavior.
Source: Sun
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