Govs against Amaechi are bad losers – ACN, CPC •Calm down, work with me, Jang tells Rivers gov
Chairman, Nigeria Governors' Forum, Rotimi Amaechi
Opposition
parties on Sunday took a swipe at the governors that rejected the
election of Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi as Chairman of the
Nigerian Governors’ Forum as bad losers.
They also criticised the Peoples
Democratic Party and President Goodluck Jonathan over the rejection,
accusing them of being desperate to win the 2015 election at all costs.
The Action Congress of Nigeria, the
Congress for Progressive Change and the All Nigeria Peoples Party said
the President and the PDP would not accept the result of the 2015
elections if they lost.
The Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, on Friday won the NGF chairmanship election.
But on Saturday, 17 governors faulted the election, saying the Plateau State Governor, Jonah Jang, won the election.
Apparently in the euphoria of his being
declared by a faction as the NGF chairman, Jonah Jang arrived in Jos,
his state capital on Sunday to tell journalists that he did not bargain
for the new post.
The following dialogue ensued between the governor and the journalists:
Question: Do you actually bargain for what you got now?
Answer: Well, I never bargained for it but that is the way God works. So this is God’s will.
Question: What is your impression of the election sir?
Answer: As far as I’m concerned I
have been given an assignment and by the grace of God I will do my best
to unite the forum and make sure the forum provides the right
leadership for the people of Nigeria because we are governors that are
governing our respective states.
So, we are bound together to work with
one another. The NGF election, or selection as you call it, should not
divide the governors; we have one purpose and were elected by the people
to work for them. We have worked with Governor Amaechi, the former
Chairman of NGF before and I’m appealing to him to calm down and also
work with me so that together we will continue to give Nigerians the
right leadership for electing us as their governors.
Question: Are you ready to work with him if he agrees to support you?
Answer: I mean I’m going to
really try to get him to work with me, I have once worked with him
before, he too should work with me so that we can be able to give this
country the right leadership that it is yearning for.
On Sunday, the ACN said that the outcome
of the election was an indication that Jonathan and his party would
lose the 2015 elections.
The Presidency had on Saturday said he had no candidate or interest in the NGF election.
The ACN, in a statement in Abuja by its
National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said that the
anti-Amaechi governors were undoubtedly acting the script written for
them by the presidency and the leadership of the PDP.
“The Presidency and the ruling party
have lost control of themselves. They are bound to also lose control of
the nation, democratically, in 2015. Make no mistake about it,” the
party said.
It said the message that the Presidency
was sending to the nation through the governors’ forum election was
that the outcome of the 2015 elections would only be valid if a certain
candidate emerged the winner.
It said, “If an election involving only
35 governors can generate so much controversy and threaten to overheat
the polity, what will happen when millions of Nigerians vote in 2015?
“Is this how President Goodluck
Jonathan, who is the godfather of the losing governors, has been
sanitising the electoral process as he has been enthusing?”
“The show of shame by the bad losers
supporting Governor Jonah Jang, of course at the behest of the
presidency, is an extension of the threat that has been issued by some
rabble-rousers that it is either Jonathan for 2015 or there will be no
Nigeria as we know it.
“This is the Gbagbo Option that plunged
Cote d’Ivoire into a crisis in which it has yet to fully emerge. This is
what the puppet governors are pushing for, hence they must be called to
order urgently!”
The ACN condemned the meddlesomeness of
the Presidency in the election. It criticised Jonathan for allegedly
expending so much goodwill he had on the NGF election.
The party also called for a probe of the
document being circulated by the losing governors to show they had
harvested the signatures of 18 governors pushing for a consensus
candidate just before the elections.
The party said the fact that the
signature of a governor, who neither attended the meeting of the PDP
chapter of the NGF nor sent a representative, was included in the
consensus list was an indication that the signatures were harvested long
before the meeting and the day of the election.
Also, CPC accused the President and the PDP of being bad losers.
The party’s National Publicity
Secretary, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, told one of our correspondents that the
desire of the President to win at all costs in 2015 had made him to be
fighting those he called imaginary enemies.
Jonathan had in a statement by his spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, on Saturday denied involvement in the NGF election.
Fashakin said, “The governors, elected
on the platform of the PDP, who the President thinks have shown aversion
to his desire for re-election, have been treated with utter
ruthlessness.
“A noxious desire to truncate Governor
Rotimi Amaechi’s Chairmanship of the Nigeria Governor’s Forum had seen
the birthing of new platforms for PDP governors.
“The bilious discontent arising from the
elections for the new chairman of the NGF bears the imprimatur of the
Presidency. The PDP and indeed the Presidency are bad losers.
“But Nigerians are watching. They are
not docile and will, when the time comes, give the Presidency and his
party the shocker of their lives.”
On its part, the ANPP said the confusion
after the NGF election was a reflection of the resolve of the
Presidency to create confusion where it fails to actualise its aims.
National Publicity Secretary of the
ANPP, Chief Emma Eneukwu, said this in response to a question on what
the NGF election and its outcome portends for 2015.
He said “The governor’s forum election
just mirrored the resolve of the presidency to create confusion and
anarchy wherever it fails to actualise its aims.
“It is a common knowledge that the
presidency brought out all jokers in its purse to stop Amaechi but
couldn’t and instead of submitting to the will of the majority, it
decided to destroy the forum by introducing factions.
“It shows Nigerians how the PDP government will try to introduce anarchy when they lose 2015 elections.”
The PDP has yet to react to the outcome of the NGF election.
When contacted, the National Publicity
Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisah Metuh, said the party’s National
Working Committee members were meeting on the outcome of the NGF
election.
But the Zonal Publicity Secretary, PDP,
South-West Zone, Waheed Lawal, said that the President did not interfere
in the election.
“What happened or what we are told that
happened at the venue of the election was politics. I say it is
democracy in action. I wish to also reject the insinuations of
meddlesomeness in the affairs of Governors Forum by President Goodluck
Jonathan. I totally disagree,” Lawal stated.
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