dailyadvent.com
May 20, 2019 11:36 AM
Emerging reports show that ahead of the election for the seventh Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Governors belonging to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have endorsed Kayode Fayemi, the Governor of Ekiti State and have dumped Nasir El-Rufai, the Governor of Kaduna State.
The Nation reports that most of the Governors belonging to the opposition PDP were uncomfortable with El-Rufai becoming the chairman because of the way he treats the opposition and his religious hardline stance on matters of national importance.
Recall that there have been six (6) previous Chairmen of the forum since Nigeria’s Third Republic started in 1999. None of the previous six Chairmen have belonged to the South-West, North-East, and South-East regions.
According to the report, A PDP Governor who spoke on the condition of anonymity said, “We have decided not to support El-Rufai, as the next Chairman of the NGF, because his temperament is not good enough for this Office.
“He is a courageous, brilliant, and smart individual, but if he leads NGF, his caustic comments can create discontent among us. Also, he has a Headmaster instinct, which does not fit into a Forum where we are all colleagues. Since Fayemi has indicated interest, we prefer him as a Moderate.”
Another PDP Governor said: “The Kaduna Governor does not care a hoot about PDP, a party which provided him the opportunity to climb up leadership positions. He has derided us during the campaign; we will pay him back in his own coin. The outgoing NGF Chairman, Abdulaziz Yari, has set a template of dialoguing with the Presidency for interventions, including the latest N649.43 billion, and we need another Governor who can continue.
“We do not want any NGF Chairman who will use the Forum as a platform for the 2023 general elections. We respect El-Rufai, but we will not give him this opportunity.”
An outgoing APC Governor said: “We want to go into the NGF election united, unlike the case in 2011, when we had a split among ourselves. The APC Governors are already building consensus too around Fayemi. The ongoing talks may lead to the withdrawal of El-Rufai from the race, more so, a Governor from North-West has just ended his tenure as NGF Chairman. Equity demands that the Office should be conceded to another geopolitical zone. I think the candidature of Fayemi is more acceptable to both APC and PDP caucuses. He is also a ranking Governor in our midst.”
What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.
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