A day with Jang and the gang By Femi Adesina Let’s start with semantics. The word ‘gang’ in English language has two clear meanings. One is ‘a group of persons working together,’ while the second is ‘a group of persons working to unlawful or anti-social ends.’ The second definition is clearly pejorative, and that is not what I mean by the headline of this piece. When I talk of Jang and the gang, I simply mean the group of persons working with Gov Jonah Jang of Plateau State in the crisis currently rocking the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF). Well, I was with Jang and the gang for upward of three hours in Lagos last weekend, as the governors told their side of the story on the rumpus that attended the election of a new chairman to head the NGF two weeks ago. Last Friday, I had written a piece with the headline, ‘It is not just about Amaechi,’ in which I warned that injustice to one person is injustice to all. I added that if it happened to Gov Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, and we kept quiet because we were not Amaechi, one day, it may happen to us, and there may be nobody to speak for us then. When the other governors told their story last Saturday, it was only fair and proper, in line with the ethics of journalism, to listen, and equally give them accommodation. Which is what exactly I’m doing today, but at the end of it, I will raise some posers, which I will beg governors on both sides of the divide to please respond to. A quick recapitulation. On May 24, governors met to elect a new chairman for the NGF. Thirty-five of them were in attendance, and they cast their ballot. As announced by Director-General of the NGF (the video recording of which we’ve watched), Amaechi scored 19 votes, and Jang 16. This made Amaechi the winner. But the Jang gang screamed foul, and signed a resolution that Jang was their chairman. Nineteen of them appended their signatures to the document. The poser, however, is: why didn’t Jang then score 19 votes? Clearly, three governors were playing double game. Today, the NGF has two secretariats, with the governors divided right down the middle. We would not be wrong if we now say there is the Amaechi gang (which we saw to have won the election), and the Jang gang. But what is the story of the latter? Here we go, as told by Gov Jang himself, Gov Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State, Gov Liyel Imoke of Cross River, and Gov Peter Obi of Anambra State: “What has happened to the NGF is a shame, no governor should be proud of it,” began Gov Jang. “I had been abroad, came back on the day of the election, and I was told I was the consensus candidate of the Northern Governors. Isa Yuguda of Bauchi, and Ibrahim Shema of Katsina, who had been frontline candidates, had agreed to step down. That was how I got into the race. “We had advised Gov Amaechi not to run, as there had been a gentleman understanding that the position would go to the North. We have a draft constitution, which has not been ratified. That constitution stipulates one term for the chairman, which would be by consensus, not election. Gov Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State should have that draft. He should be challenged to bring it. “But Amaechi was actively encouraged by governors who had decided to make political capital out of the forum. We should confront this level of suffocating arrogance, since we are a committee of equals. “On election day, Amaechi gave his valedictory speech, then called for election. We said no, that he should step down first as chairman, since he could not preside over his own election. Even one of his supporters (name withheld) asked him to step down, but he refused.” Gov Mimiko took over the story: “He asked me if I resigned before I ran for second term in office last October 20. I told him I was not INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission), which determined the procedure. I was merely a candidate. But even in village meetings, town associations, the norm is that when you finish your tenure, you step down, and an interim chairman is appointed to conduct fresh election. “Before we knew it, Amaechi shouted; distribute the ballot papers! Distribute the ballot papers!! And the voodoo ballot papers appeared. No serial number, we didn’t know how many had been printed, and people were asked to vote. “One governor carried the ballot box, and almost broke it. We had to restrain him. We could have walked out, but scores of pressmen were outside. That would have been the end of the forum. Also, each governor had an ADC outside, and if we had started fighting, each ADC would have come in to defend his boss. They were all armed. You can imagine what would have happened. “A united governors forum was handed to Amaechi, now he has succeeded in breaking it. And to make matters worse, the aggressor is now looking like the victim. Amaechi is the aggressor, but because you pressmen like underdogs, you have queued behind him, when he is the real aggressor, now posing as the victim. “The ballot papers should have been thumb-printed, they were rather ticked. And these were ballot papers Amaechi printed himself. In further disregard for integrity, a governor was even secretly taping the proceedings. This shows that the mischief was pre-conceived. He claimed 19 votes, but the next day, 18 governors were with Jang at a meeting. They signed, and reaffirmed their support for him. “They nominated me as vice chairman, but I turned it down, because the election was not conducted properly. You can’t print your own ballot papers, and then preside over your own election. Please ask him for the source of the ballot papers. I doubt if some of these people even believe in democracy. I’m ready to fight democratic injustice anywhere, any day.” Gov Liyel Imoke first went down memory lane. He said none of the past chairmen of the forum was elected – Abdullahi Adamu, Victor Attah, Lucky Igbinedion, and Bukola Saraki: “At Saraki’s valedictory session, seven governors and six deputy governors were in attendance. It was there that Amaechi was announced as successor. It was not based on votes, but on the mandate we gave. “Saraki had set up a committee chaired by Namadi Sambo, the then Kaduna State governor, to come up with a constitution. A team went to the U.S, to study how they operate their governors forum, and they came back with a report that the vice chairman succeeds the chairman automatically. We then decided on one term, rotated between the North and the South. “If there was a new constitution, it should have been ratified, with the minutes of meeting presented. For the purpose of registration, Amaechi told us later that he had submitted a copy of the constitution to the Corporate Affairs Commission. Whether re-election was smuggled into that constitution, nobody knows. “Amaechi is my very close friend. I begged him, pleaded with him that running for second term as NGF chairman was not worth the trouble. He did not listen. Gov Jang arrived from abroad on the very morning of the election. He was picked as consensus candidate by northern governors. I appealed that we should not vote, and asked Amaechi and Jang to leave, so that we could reach an agreement. It did not happen. “A big shouting match ensued over the process. We asked Amaechi for the constitution, the ratification, the provisions that allowed him to run again. He did not use his powers in the interest of the forum, or of Nigeria.” Gov Peter Obi is today the oldest member of the NGF. He equally told his side of the story, recalling how he was cheated out of his electoral victory, and he went to court, and won. “Without me, Mimiko, Oshiomhole, and many others would not have gone to court, and become governors. That was why I was in Ondo and Edo states to campaign for their re-election. “In 2011, I’d been endorsed by South-east governors to be chairman of the NGF, since it was the turn of the region (He showed the letter of endorsement signed by Gov Ikedi Ohakim, then of Imo State, Sullivan Chime of Enugu, Martin Elechi of Ebonyi, and T. A. Orji of Abia). But when we got to Ilorin, I was dropped because I was not a member of PDP. Timipre Sylva, then of Bayelsa State, nominated Amaechi, who became the chairman. Gov Fashola of Lagos protested, saying we did not form a quorum. But there were seven governors and six deputy governors, and 12 was quorum. So, Amaechi became the chairman. I did not complain, though my brother governors in the South-east were very angry. T. A. Orji did not attend meetings of the forum for the next one year. I was the one who eventually brought him back. “Amaechi is my friend. He has done very well as a governor, and I will give that to him anyday. But on this issue, PDP governors have spoken. Northern governors have spoken. His brothers from the South-south have spoken. In a club of 36 people, if 16 say no to your leadership, then you can’t be leader. Amaechi is still our brother, he’s our friend, nobody is fighting him. But there is no provision for re-election in our constitution.” Then, a pointed question to the governors. What is the way forward? Obi said: “Make the term of NGF chairman one year, then let the zone whose turn it is, nominate the person.” Gov Jang: “Please ask Amaechi what the desperation is all about, when there’s a gentleman agreement. Now, he’s treating us like his houseboys. He’s not even the strongest physically. I’m the one that has been trained in violence. I’m a retired General, he is not.” Mimiko: “There were mistakes on all sides. I regret that we did not walk out from the election venue. Now, the real aggressors are posing as victims.” Imoke? “The entire process was a sham. Amaechi inherited a united Nigerian Governors Forum, he’s leaving behind a divided house.” Now, my own posers: If 35 governors could not elect a chairman amicably, what hope for free and fair elections in 2015? If our leaders cannot manage crisis, what type of leaders do we have then? Leaders should be trustworthy, and lead by example. Have the governors shown good example? Is this type of leadership ethical? If governors cannot evolve a framework to settle their own crisis, what if there is a national crisis, how would it be settled? What truly is the role of President Goodluck Jonathan in all this? How I wish one could believe his purported neutrality. What then is the way forward? It beats me hollow. But one thing is clear: our governors must sort themselves out, and fast too. Otherwise they will be laying a bad example for the younger generation. It was Olusegun Obasanjo who threatened to ordain his own pastors in 1999. If governors don’t put their house in order, maybe we then begin to appoint our own governors too.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Jun 2013 16:42:58 +0000
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