Fresh crisis may have hit the troubled Northern Governors’ Forum as more of its members, particularly those believed to be sympathetic to the Jonah Jang faction of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum may be on their ways out of the group.
Already, a formidable member of the forum and Bauchi State Governor Isa Yuguda had on Sunday pulled out of the group and there are strong indications that many others will follow suit in few days time.
Yuguda, one of the two contestants for the Nigeria Governors’ Forum election who stepped down for Jang had cited the breach of an agreement by his colleagues to support the Plateau State governor.
“I don’t see any reason why I should attend the Northern Governors meeting again. If that is what we will do, I am not going to be part of it. For the remaining two years of my tenure, I will not be part of the Northern Governors’ Forum,” he told an Abuja-based newspaper.
Yuguda challenged other northern governors who allegedly betrayed the understanding to support Jang as a consensus candidate after asking Yuguda and Shema to step down to own up and face him.
Those that had decided to toe Yugudu’s line were particularly miffed by the role played by Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu during the May 24 election that produced Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers as the NGF Chairman.
“If the Niger State Governor, Babangida Aliyu, remains the chairman, pro-Jang governors in the North would leave the forum,”the source said.
An aide to one of the governors in the North Central defended Yuguda’s action, saying he simply listened to his conscience. “The man simply listened to his conscience and stepped aside on principle. There was a meeting where the agreement to support Jang was reached. For some members of the same group to betray this agreement is heartbreaking. My governor thinks through decisions before taking them.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, has however advised Northerners not to lose sleep over the crisis. “Politics is a game of numbers, if anybody has any illusions about becoming the President by circumventing the democratic process, good luck to him. Such a person will not only have local but international opinion weighing down on him.”
According to him, neither Shema nor Yuguda will be in a position to deliver their states during the 2015 elections.
He said, “Both of them are second term governors, they stand no chance of installing their own men as successors in their states let alone the Presidency. They and others like them cannot stop the North from getting what it wants to get, that I can assure you.”
But the Middle Belt Youth Leaders’ Forum called on Gov. Aliyu to resign as chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum.
Its National Secretary, Philip Agbese, told journalists in Abuja that “the planned removal of Governor Aliyu as Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum or expiration of his tenure is a development that must be applauded because posterity will not forgive the very actors who have decided to play politics with the unity of the North, which used to be our political bargaining power.”
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