In a split in loyalty within the governors of the 36 states of the Federation over the just concluded Nigerian Governors’ Forum election, where the incumbent chairman of the Forum; Rivers State Governor; Chibuike Amaechi was re-elected with 19 votes and Plateau State Governor; Jonah Jang who is claiming that the election was rigged as he had 16 votes, are both laying claims to the position of the Chairman of NGF, the Kwara State Governor, Dr Abdulfatah Ahmed has asked that a peaceful path of reconciliation be engaged so as not to lose sight of the peer review for development which motivated the forum’s emergence in the first place.
In a press statement released by the Chief Press Secretary to the State Governor, Governor Ahmed called on other State governors to shun divisive political tendencies and bury the hatchet while focussing on using the NGF as a platform for driving the intended development for the benefit of the people.
Governor Ahmed emphasized that a peaceful path should be taken to resolve any rancour within the State governors rather encourage discord amongst themselves.
“If there are issues as regards the election of the Forum’s chairman, we should use the same platform to resolve them rather than fanning the embers of discord in the media. Our choking security challenges should not be compounded with political conundrum,”
Governor Ahmed therefore called on the leadership of South-South Governor’s Forum, the Northern State Governors’ Forum, the South East Governors’ Forum and their colleagues from the South West to utilise their various platforms to strengthen the Forum and complement the leadership at the Federal level.
According to him, as a peer-review platform for good governance, the NGF should offer critical development advice to first term governors such as himself so that democracy can be made more meaningful for the people, stressing that deliberate efforts should be made to ensure that the system is not overheated.
