The leadership deficit
Friday evening
presented us with a clear indication of the leadership deficit that has plagued
Nigeria for decades and still continues to haunt the country without abatement
or respite, the trajectory to progress is not in the remotest sights, it is depressing.
As the day closed,
we all waited on social media for the results of the election of the new
chairman of the Nigeria
Governors’ Forum (NGF) which as a political block within the Council
of State, though not constitutionally relevant is significant in the power
brokerage that defines the distribution of power and privilege in our federal
republic.
Who they are
In some ways, it
determines whether the executive at the centre will have untrammelled lien or
negotiated settlements as regards federal and state distributions of the
largesse of oil money amongst many other issues that could pertain to the
ratification of federally promulgated laws at the state legislature – much of
the dynamic is unscripted but it is by no means to be pooh-poohed.
It claims to draw
its legality from Section 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria which loosely guarantees the freedom of association and assembly. [Chapter 4 of the Constitution]
A battle royal so despicable
The apparently outgoing
chairman of the forum is the governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi who
recently had somewhat fallen out with the President over matters unnecessary
for comment here apart from the fact that proxies of the Federal Government had
engaged in frustrating and embarrassing the man. [Grounding
of aircraft – Vanguard Nigeria]
The Nigerian House
of Assembly had only the previous day excoriated certain federal agencies for
overreach, lack of due process, bias and dissimulation, much of which should
have embarrassed all the parties involved, but embarrassment is an unknown emotion
in Nigeria - where in other countries there will be contrition, apology and
restitution, maybe resignations, one cannot expect the slightest regret of officialdom if they can
help it.
A vision unseen
Now, it would
appear that the NGF works from this basic premise as articulated in their vision
statement – to be, “An effective, proactive, inclusive, non-partisan forum which actively
fosters, promotes and sustains democratic values, good governance and
sustainable development in Nigeria.” [NGF
– Our Vision and Mission]
They acknowledge this
goal is idealistic but they believe that they have both the capacity and
determination to realise and project this vision and thereby achieve it.
The reading of
yesterday’s events shows that these gentlemen and that is a too effusive a
compliment for them but for the want of a collective term, failed to attain in
the slightest, the effectiveness, the proactiveness, the inclusiveness or
non-partisan aims so succinctly expressed in the NGF vision.
Rotten politics at play
As it transpired,
an election took place and Governor Rotimi Amaechi took 19 votes to Governor Jonah
Jang of Plateau State’s 16 votes and was duly elected the Chairman of the NGF.
However, it is the
intrigue and machinations behind the scenes before the election that needs some
scrutiny exacting excoriation in the starkest terms because it was tyrannous,
underhand and atrocious at best.
The ruling party (PDP)
has a majority of governors in Nigeria and so it is very likely that any vote
will produce a PDP chairman and as a sop to the other parties, the deputy
chairman might well land in their docket.
Really rotten politics at play
What really
happened was that the PDP governors, 23 of them met and of the lot 19
resolved to post the governor of Plateau State, Jonah Jang, as the Chairman of
the NGF with Governor Segun Mimiko of Ondo State from one of the minority
parties as the vice Chairman.
This is after
having persuaded other interested governors to withdraw their candidacy whilst
Jonah Jang filed his nomination papers well after the deadline necessary to
indicate interest in the chairmanship, something people have not yet touched
upon.
The mover of this
scheme was Governor Godswill or better still Devilswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom
State whose democratic antecedents is one of rigging, manipulation and
dishonesty having confessed in March 2013 that he manipulated the PDP senatorial
primaries in favour of his preferred candidate in 2007. [Akpabio Rigging - Punch][Video – Sahara Reporters]
Democracy is opportunity for all
One can easily say
the non-partisan aims of the NGF were seriously violated with this
factionalisation within the group along party lines but there is a more atrocious
issue in play.
The PDP governors numbering
23 constitute a majority within the NGF but the other 5 parties sharing just 13
states are not insignificant. The governors had gathered in Abuja to vote for
chairmanship of the NGF and the basic democratic principle will suggest that all of
them will be given the opportunity to exercise a voting privilege together in
the same place and at the same time.
For the PDP faction
of the NGF to have engineered a resolution that garnered 19 votes to install
Jonah Jang without the whole group constituting the NGF being present was wholly reprehensible apart from constituting themselves into a tyranny of the
majority overriding the wishes of the minority even if eventually the result
might go the way of the majority – that patently was not democracy at play, it
reeked of subterfuge and dishonest politicking to ulterior ends.
Winning the argument
It is the victory
of reason over corrupt enterprise that an election eventually took place
because it gave everyone of the governors a say in who to lead the NGF, though
one governor was absent; and if the resolution was really worth the paper it
was written on, after being tested by secret ballot of all the governors, it
should have stood – it fell.
Whereas 19
governors resolved to support Jonah Jang, by the time the votes of the secret
ballot were counted, 3 of those governors had dissolved to renew Rotimi Amaechi’s
tenure with 19 votes against 16 votes for Jonah Jang.
Secret ballots reveal truth
That in my view was
democracy expressed as best as it should, a secret ballot with a count to
determine who wins and it must for all intents and purposes if there is any
justice and fairness in this world carry the greatest validation and authority
over an open resolution that denied the full house of governors the opportunity
together to decide who to lead their forum.
Sadly, the Presidency
with its interference and weak leadership having been humbled and trounced by
the basic tenets of simple democracy in action has not found the strong voice to support
a clear democratic verdict that the spokespersons have vacillated and
prevaricated on a matter of clear and honest principle, epithets none of the
lot appear to possess to any discernable extent and I mean, honesty, character
or principle.
This must not stand
The government with
all its Machiavellian apparatus of state and calumny will do everything to undermine
a democratic verdict for political and pecuniary advantage without scruples –
this leaves Nigeria the much poorer where opportunity to show that progressive
change is possible it is aborted for selfish interest and megalomania.
A parallel NGF
organisation with allegiance to the President is now operating without a
democratic mandate having conducted a selection rather than an election,
claiming the election by secret ballot after the resolution was rigged, when it
was not. The gormless men could not present their ploy to the full house of NGF
governors and win the argument by persuasion where everyone had the opportunity
to vote without coercion and menace – the NGF vision has well and truly been
blinded and abrogated completely on the capriciousness of objectionable men.
We must stand with truth
I would hope that
Nigerians will see what is happening in this machination of the utmost evil in
high places and refuse to be conscripted into this rotten enterprise just for
the aggrandisement of the powerful – Rotimi Amaechi won that election fair and
square, the democratic principle should stand regardless of whether we like him
or not – it is a matter of the basic tenet of democracy, the man is simply necessary
to represent its purpose, somebody needs to be elected when people have voted
and the votes have been counted.
The other issue of
men who signed a resolution in the open not being able to stand with what they
signed when presented with a secret ballot is simply expressive of the absence
of good virtue in the men that lead Nigeria; it has been our eternal plague, I
am sad to say.
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