Yuguda: Kwankwaso's Deception of Jang is a Tragedy for Nigeria

Bauchi State Governor, Mallam Isa Yuguda, has responded with a salvo at his Kano State counterpart, Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso, for having deliberately set up Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang for failure at the contest for the chairmanship of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), describing the action as a tragedy for Nigeria.

Yuguda, in an exclusive interview with THISDAY Board of Editors in Abuja  Tuesday, questioned the morality of deliberately urging a colleague to enter a contest where a person occupying a highly exalted office as that of governor sets up his fellow governor to be ridiculed.

Kwankwaso on Monday had admitted that he personally nominated Jang to contest for the chairmanship of the NGF and urged the Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam to support him only to satisfy the yearnings of some governors for a compromise candidate to run against Rivers State Governor Chibuike Amaechi who was also contesting in the election.

“It was a game and we were trying to prove to them that nobody can shave our heads in our absence. We proved to them that they are still at the elementary level of politics,” Kwankwaso, who is pro-Amaechi, was quoted as saying.
Yuguda questioned the calibre of leadership being provided by the likes of Kwankwaso.

“Kwankwaso has spoken his mind and he has confirmed that his idea behind nominating Jang was to go and disgrace him. If you read the piece, that is a tragedy for Nigeria.

“So for you to say that you did this thing so that you will go and disgrace him, I don’t know where we are going and if that is the calibre of leadership we want to give to Nigerians, then we have a problem,” he said.

“If I as a leader, as a governor, will look at my colleague and sit and I take a decision ostensibly to go and disgrace him, then it is a tragedy. Where is our morality, where is Islam and Christainity in this country for goodness sake.

“I would never do that, I would rather look at Jang in the face and tell him that I am not going to go with you, I am going with this gentleman," he added.
“Being the chairman of the forum is not supposed to be a do-or-die affair the way some of our governors have taken it to be. It is not supposed to be an elective issue, because since 1999, the first set of governors of the present democracy, who started it, never had elections.

“Even when he, Amaechi, became chairman, we never had election. I was in Ilorin when Danjuma Goje proposed him as the consensus candidate, I seconded and he took over from (Bukola) Saraki.

“We were 13 in number and we all agreed that election cannot be held because it will divide us even if we were all in one party,” Yuguda revealed.
Commenting on Kwankwaso’s remarks that his (Yuguda) decision alongside that of Suswam to withdraw from the Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF) is the biggest mistake of their careers, Yuguda said he could not be part of a group where the members are dishonest with one another.

He explained that the 19 governors of the NSGF had already agreed to present Jang as their consensus candidate after he was nominated by Kwankwaso, a motion seconded by Suswam.

The decision, he added, was presented to the Peoples Democratic Party Governors' Forum (PDP-GF) making 23 people backing the candidacy of Jang.
He added, however, that Bauchi State remains a member of the NSGF and the deputy governor would attend meetings.

Speaking further in the interview, the Bauchi governor dispelled insinuations that Jang’s candidacy was pushed forward by the presidency to stop Amaechi from serving a second term as chairman of the NGF.

“What would the president gain by sponsoring a chairman for the NGF?” he queried, adding that Jang had no intention of contesting and even walked into the meeting late before he was proposed as the consensus candidate.

“If the president wanted to stop Amaechi, then it meant that everybody except Amaechi was the president’s man. The president has to be insulated from all this.
“In fact, we are always trivialising the office of the president and I don’t know why because the public has always seen the president as maybe something else. But God asked us to respect our leaders and we should not ridicule the president by saying that he is interfering in the situation,” he added. 

He expressed ignorance over the decision or recommendation for the resignation of the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, adding that the meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC), which will hold tomorrow in Abuja is meant to address the worries of the party on the challenges posed by a court action filed against a majority of members of the National Working Committee (NWC).

He added: “We are approaching Anambra State election very soon and need a secretary to sign along with the national chairman and we cannot do that. That is why the leadership of the party said that something has to be done and which is why the NEC meeting will be holding.

“We are expecting decisions to be taken to reverse the ugly trend and put everything on the right course so that we can have elected members of the NWC who can take us into the election.

“We believe that will further solidify the party. But to say that the chairman of the party will be changed, I have never heard of it. That is why we are going to meet at NEC, because a convention has to be held, so we can have a secretary to sign.”
Suswam also said his decision to back out of the NSGF was not a mistake, in response to Kwankwaso’s statement.

Suswam, in a statement issued by his office  Tuesday, said Kwankwaso's statement was misleading as it was intended to undermine his integrity by portraying him as a leader who was against the interest of his people and political interests of the north.

“This is certainly untrue and a total misinterpretation of the decision of Governor Suswam on the subject matter under discourse. Governor Suswam wishes to state in very clear terms that on the contrary, he is a leader that takes decisions carefully and weighs the implications on his people.

“His decision to withdraw from meetings of the Northern Governors Forum was also well thought out and taken in the overall interest of the people of Benue State whom he represents, as well as the people of the old Northern Region of which Benue people are a proud part,” it read.

In a related development, the Sokoto State Governor, Aliyu Wamakko, Tuesday said he had been vindicated following the lifting of the suspension order slammed on him by the NWC of the PDP two weeks ago.

He also called on the national leadership of the party to recall Amaechi who was also suspended about a month ago.

Speaking in an interview with the Voice of America (VOA) Hausa Service monitored in Sokoto yesterday, Wamakko maintained that the lifting of his suspension by the NWC was an indication that truth had prevailed in the end, as he had done nothing wrong to warrant the suspension.

He noted that since the beginning of history, truth had always triumphed over evil and falsehood and expressed gratitude to God that truth had prevailed in the end, as he had done nothing wrong.

“Truth always triumphs over falsehood no matter what time it takes. I am not fighting anybody and I am not afraid to speak my mind because I believe truth will always prevail. We are talking about fairness and equity to all, so we are fighting injustice in the party.

“I am a Muslim, a northerner and a Nigerian. Thus, even if I am not the governor, these three things will always remain with me. I know that power is transient, so I am not scared of anything because I know that you can only be afraid of something if you are doing wrong,” he said.

Wamakko insisted that his call for the sack of the PDP national chairman was in response to the yearnings of the party supporters in the state and also people with like minds in the PDP.

He observed that before Tukur’s election as PDP national chairman, the PDP had always resolved its problems and disagreements within and in a secret manner without exposing such issues to the public, lamenting that these were no longer the case in the party.

“In the past, before Tukur’s election as PDP national chairman, if we had any problem or disagreement in the party, we convened a meeting where all issues and problems were ironed out. We used to disagree and exchange words with one another during such meetings, but at the end of the day, we resolved the problem.

“In fact, such problems were kept secret without the knowledge of the public. But today, it is no longer so, you hear everything about PDP and its problems on the pages of newspapers and nothing is kept secret which is very sad.

“So the president (Goodluck Jonathan) as the leader of our party should rise up to the occasion and do the right thing to save the PDP from being destroyed,” Wamakko said.

The governor appealed to the national leadership of the party to lift the suspension slammed on his Rivers State counterpart, stressing that doing so would enhance the unity of the party and ensure that all members are being treated on the basis of equity and mutual respect.

Wamakko thanked representatives of the state in the National Assembly and Sokoto State House of Assembly as well as party members in the state for their loyalty and support.