The Bauchi Governor blamed his northern
colleagues for the NGF crisis.
The Bauchi State Governor, Isa Yuguda, on
Thursday in Abuja said the Northern
States’ Governors Forum and its leadership
should be blamed for the crisis rocking
the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF).
Mr. Yuguda made this assertion during an
interview with State House correspondents
shortly after he held a meeting with
President Goodluck Jonathan at the
Presidential Villa.
“The blame for all the crises and all the
unfortunate comments made about the
governors today should be traced to the
Northern States’ Governors Forum (NSGF)
because we the members are the culprits.
“That is why I say, on his honour, let the
Chairman of the NSGF come out and tell
Nigerians the truth.
“It is either of the two that we the 19
northern states governors did not come out
with Jonah Jang (the Plateau Governor) as
the consensus candidate, or we decided and
picked Jang as our consensus candidate.
“So, if that has been done all these
things that we have seen wouldn’t have
happened,’’ he said.
The governor however said he was going to
take a different approach henceforth to
ensure there would not be a recurrence of
such.
“That is why I now say, as far as I am
concerned, that if I will sit with my
colleagues and we will take a decision and
some people will then go and do a
different thing, I will not be part of
those kind of things.
“I, as a person, will not attend such a
meeting again. But my Deputy Governor can
attend on behalf of the people and
government of Bauchi state. But, as a
person, I will not. That has always been
my position,’’ he said.
Mr. Yuguda, speaking further on the NGF
crisis, explained that it was the turn of
the North to produce the chairman of the
forum.
“It was based on this that the NSGF
endorsed the Plateau Governor as a
consensus candidate,’’ he said.
The Bauchi State Governor said it was
unfortunate that the Niger Governor and
NSGF Chairman could not come out openly to
defend the position.
“If today we 19 governors can sit down in
Abuja and decide that one of us who is
supposed to be rightfully the Chairman of
the NGF, because the slot is for the
North, is elected, there is nothing wrong
with that.
“We were 19 out of the 35 governors, who
were present, and we had decided and we
went with that decision. Normally when we
take a decision, our chairman will speak
to announce it.
“By affirmation, all of us decided on one
person and that is Jonah Jang, the
governor of Plateau.
“So, on our own honour, we went to the PDP
Governors’ Forum and the chairman of the
NSGF, who is the Talba of Minna and
governor of Niger, presented Jang as our
consensus candidate.
“And there was a standing ovation. We were
congratulated and appreciated by our
colleagues, that we (I and Gov. Ibrahim
Shema of Katsina State) stepped down for
Jang,’’ he said.
Mr. Yuguda said that there had never been
a time the chairman of the NGF had emerged
by any election but only by a consensus.
“In the first place, we have never had any
election in the NGF. I was in Ilorin and I
was the one who seconded the motion that
made Gov. Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers the
chairman of NGF.
“Only 13 of us were in Ilorin and if 19
governors presented a candidate in a 35-
member association, I think the game is
over and it has been a consensus.
“There must be integrity in governance,
because we the governors should be people
of integrity. We should be role models and
we should not play evil politics as far as
I am concerned, because most people
associate politics to evil.
“If you don’t know how to tell lies, if
you don’t know how to betray, if you don’t
know how to have double face, you are not
a good politician.
“But I am not carved out for that. I am a
professional chartered banker. I was the
Managing Director of two banks and I
served this country as cabinet minister
twice and governor twice.
“My word should be my bond, and if I sat
down with 18 of my colleagues and we have
agreed on something, I should not see the
chairman of that forum reneging on the
integrity of the NSGF and by extension the
NGF,’’ he said.
The Bauchi State Governor also underscored
the need to put in place a Code of Conduct
which would be guiding the activities of
the NG“If there is no such code of conduct and
ethics guiding the office of a governor,
very soon nobody will want to be a
governor. We should all go and sleep and
think over that and we will all confirm
that I am right. There is honour in
leadership and God sanctions leadership.
“If God has sanctioned leadership in our
books of faith, I can’t see evil
associated with leadership,’’ he said.F.
No comments:
Post a Comment