Plot by some governors to remove their
colleague in Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi as the Chairman of the Nigeria
Governors Forum failed in Abuja on Wednesday night.
Findings by our correspondent showed the
governors’ allegedly supporting President Goodluck Jonathan had hatched
a plan for Amaechi’s removal before Wednesday’s meeting, which took
place at Rivers State Governors’ Lodge.
However, unknown to the pro-Jonathan
group, Amaechi and his allies, said to be in the majority in the forum,
had plotted their strategy to neutralise the plan.
Amaechi, it was gathered, therefore,
directed the Director-General of the Forum, Mr. Asishana Okuaru, to
include change of leadership in the agenda of the meeting.
Our correspondent gathered that as soon
as the meeting started, Amaechi asked the entire forum’s secretariat
staff, including Okauru to excuse the governors “for a brief
discussion.”
One of the governors at the meeting, who
spoke on condition of anonymity said, “As soon as the administrative
staff left the hall, Amaechi threw the bombshell, stating they would
discuss the leadership of the forum as there are uncomplimentary
comments that he was dictatorial.
“He then asked that any of us interested
in taking over as the chairman of the forum to indicate his interest,
saying he was ready to step down.”
However, no governor raised his hand.
Amaechi became the forum’s Chairman in
June 2011 following the completion of tenure of former Kwara State
Governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki.
Further investigations showed that a
governor from North-West and another from the South-South (names
withheld) were behind the failed plot to remove Amaechi.
However, two of Amaechi supporters, Dr.
Musa Kwankwanso (Kano State); and Sule Lamido (Jigawa State), said the
forum was satisfied with the River State governor’s style of leadership.
The majority of the 33 governors and
deputies, who attended the meeting, it was gathered, supported
Kwankwanso and Lamido’s contributions.
When his traducers sensed the warning sign, they decided not to push the matter further.
The opposition governors, who were said
to have counselled against changing what they called “a winning team”,
further supported Amaechi.
Besides, they allegedly advised their colleagues not to allow interference of any sort in the forum.
When the plot failed, one of the change
proponents, and a governor from the North-West, immediately left the
meeting in annoyance.
He was the only governor that did not stay till the end of the meeting.
There was a similar attempt during Saraki’s tenure to remove him as the chairman of the forum.
A faction then named the former Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, as Saraki’s replacement.
Earlier, this year, the forum had passed a vote of confidence in Amaechi.
Amaechi’s problem with some of his
colleagues, allegedly supported by the Presidency, might not be
unconnected with his reported ambition to run on the same ticket with
Lamido for the President in 2015.
Both governors have however denied the allegation.
Recently, Amaechi, and the Niger Delta
Minister, Godsday Orubebe, engaged in media war over the poor state of
the East–West Road.
On January 24, an elder statesman and a
former Minister of Information, Chief Edwin Clark, said the forum was a
threat to the nation’s democracy.
Clark, a confidant of the President,
added that members of the forum were breaching the nation’s constitution
with impunity as well as behaving like an opposition party to the
Federal Government.
Meanwhile, the governors after their meeting called for a concerted effort to eradicate polio in the country.
Amaechi, who read a statement on behalf
of his colleagues, also said, “Members exhaustively discussed the
administration of the forum and resolved that all its organs be made
functional at the next meeting.’’
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