Governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako, has said his Plateau State counterpart, Jonah Jang, cannot lead the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) because he’s President Goodluck Jonathan’s supporter and will not speak in the interest of the governors and Nigerians as a whole. Read more
Nyako, while fielding questions from State House correspondents, after a closed-door meeting with Jonathan, said the NGF had established criteria for leadership.
He listed the criteria to include someone who could be trusted by all, one who would not aggravate issues in the eyes of the President, who had some degree of chemistry with the president and one who is not a sycophant of the President.
On the meetings aimed at resolving the crisis in the PDP, the Adamawa governor said: “In a democracy, when you have an issue, you discuss. The election in the governors’ forum has become an issue. It shouldn’t be an issue. When you say 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, even someone who is in elementary school knows which is higher. If one group got 19 votes and the other one got 16, in democracy, even in the eyes of the people in elementary school, 19 is higher than 16. It should not be turned into controversy. What could be related to that is that it could not be the figure. We could all agree that whoever got the highest figure won the election, but maybe the figure.
“We have already, in the governors forum, established certain criteria for leadership within us. He must be somebody we trust. I would like to have a leader of the forum who, when he is with the president in the small room, talking about Adamawa State, can put in a word for Adamawa State. It should not be someone who will aggravate issues in the eyes of Mr. President. That element of trust must be there. If I vote for somebody, it must be somebody I could trust.
“We also said it should be somebody who has some degree of chemistry with the president, someone the president will be comfortable with. Now, if we find that the president is not comfortable with him, can we do a little bit of psychological work to get the two of them to have the same chemistry?
“The other one we feel, is that he should add some value to Mr. President. If you have a forum leader who is seen to be part of the president, that has become a ‘yes man’ of Mr. President, then the governors will say he is not representing their interests. If he is not representing the interest of the governors, he is not representing the interests of the ordinary Nigerians.
]These are areas we have sorted out. Obviously, if the chemistry is still not right, we should discuss it and find a way of adjusting the tempo, the countenance, the language of the subordinate.”
On the suggestion from certain quarters that Jang and Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State should step down to give peace a chance, Nyako said: “You are saying Jang should step down. Step down for what? Did he win the election?”
Asked if the issue of stepping down was discussed in the meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, he said: “It was part of it, but you should understand the rationale. What we are saying here is that if he is going to step down because he is second winner, then that is their business and it is not the business of others. He is number two. He got the second highest votes and that is the way forward. Step down for what? From number two to where? Number three or four?”
From JULIANA TAIWO-OBALONYE, Abuja
Culled from The Sun newspaper
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