NGF crisis: I didn’t contest against Amaechi, I was adopted as chairman —Jang The controversy surrounding your emergence as NGF chairman is yet to simmer. What are your plans to calm frayed nerves and foster unity within the fold of the forum? We are trying to lay all this misunderstanding to rest, but let me say this: I did not know that NGF is so important in this country until this problem of who is chairman and who is not chairman came up. It was a meeting of friends. Even though we are from different political parties, if we met at NGF or Council of State or Economic Council or anywhere else, we relate well with each other, irrespective of political parties, because once you are elected a governor, you are a leader of the party. I have not built any road and say only PDP people will pass through it. I know areas where people did not vote for me, but they seem to be enjoying development. As you all know, I did not really want to be chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum and I never put in my name to be considered. Nigeria Governors’ Forum was based on United States of America’s constitution. Some of us travelled to the US to interact with the Governors’ Forum to see what the forum does and what we should learn from them and we learnt that they have a constitution and the constitution allows for a two-year tenure, after which the deputy takes over as chairman and then the vice chairman is selected by a consensus. There is nothing like election. I recall the time we selected my very good friend, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, in Ilorin, Kwara State, when Bukola Saraki called us for a valedictory meeting when he was leaving and he mentioned Amaechi. We said by the American constitution, we were supposed to hand the chairmanship over to the deputy but the deputy was not PDP. And when we asked the South-East to give us a name to take over from Saraki, they wrote a letter to the forum signed by four states, which are PDP, nominating Peter Obi, the governor of Anambra State. But, you know, Anambra is not PDP, but the PDP governors said we had to amend the constitution to suit our own local environment so that we rather have the chairman coming from the majority party that has more governors. That was why we could not accept Governor Obi and that was how Amaechi emerged. It was agreed upon and a committee was set up to give us a draft constitution. The committee was headed by Vice President Namadi Sambo when he was governor of Kaduna State. The draft was made, but it has never been brought to the Governors’ Forum for ratification. It maintained that the vice chairman will always emerge through consensus. There was nothing like election in the draft constitution. There was a time the then chairman of the forum, Amaechi, tried to introduce election; that he was interested in re-contesting and we said no, that wasn’t the agreement. Somebody stood up and said he had a copy of the constitution and it did not say the chairman can go for re-election. But he said he had already put in for re-election and had already registered the constitution with the Corporate Affairs Commission and we said who asked you, we did not agree on that? It is good for Nigerians to know this thing. What we have found out is that politics has entered into the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, which should not be. And it is on the strength of that constitution that he said he had registered that he kept saying he was going to re-contest and we said no. We have found out that those from the opposition are now trying to use the chairmanship thing to break the PDP - not all of them, of course, because my vice chairman is from Labour Party. They accused us of taking directives from the president. I was adopted by a consensus. The chairman of the Northern Governors Forum took me to a meeting of the PDP Governors Forum, which was held in the afternoon before the evening meeting of the Nigeria Governors Forum. The chairman of the Northern Governors Forum said the forum had reached a consensus, ‘the governor of Plateau State is our consensus candidate and we will just go and formalise it in the Nigeria Governors Forum and they stood up and applauded him, and the PDP Governors Forum adopted me. We went to the Nigeria Governors Forum, but Amaechi became like a dictator there. He wanted election and he would not vacate the seat. Even if you want election, is it not fair that you dissolve the executive and let a governor that is not contesting preside over the election. Amaechi insisted on chairing his own re-election. He produced the ballot papers. We never saw the ballot papers or whatever you want to call them, but he called them ballot papers; with no serial number. We didn’t want a situation where Nigerians would see governors as irresponsible, but that meeting was rowdy and was held for four hours. We saw somebody trying to do something with his camera and he was asked to stop. Throughout the meeting, I did not utter a word. But today, they are showing videos of somebody announcing the result of the election. We have challenged Amaechi and his team or supporters within the forum; let them show the video for four hours. If they actually recorded it, let Nigerians see what took place inside the whole four hours of our sitting. You cannot be a contestant and get to produce the ballot papers and the ballot box. We are not under Amaechi. Plateau State is not under River State; we are all equal. In reality, we are supporters of the president to run this nation, irrespective of our political parties. But I want to make it clear that when I was nominated by the Northern Governors Forum, the president was not in the county. I did not call him and he did not call me. Nobody told me that the president had called to say you are the one we are pushing forward. The decision was taken during a meeting of Northern governors. There was no consultation outside the room. So, why is this accusation about the President? They brought up a result of 19 votes to 16, but the following day, in less than 24 hours, I called a meeting of the forum as chairman and 18 governors attended. We know some that excused themselves; that they had to leave, because it was a Saturday. So, are we 37 states? I want this matter laid to rest. We have been talking to each other and I have spoken to quite a number of them and we have agreed that we should come together and move the forum forward. As far as we are concerned, we gave Amaechi all the support and love during his two-year tenure. He is expected to do the same. He worked for us and I intend to do the same. I did not contest with him; the people who contested with him were (Isa) Yuguda and (Ibrahim) Shema. I don’t know what quarrel Ameachi has with me. He should just come back so that we can work for the next two years and I will move this forum forward. Let’s not start something that people will look at and say that ‘this is what 2015 is going to be like’. The president has promised, and we are behind him, that 2011 election was adjudged a very fair election and we want to improve on 2015 election so that Nigeria can stand as a democracy in the world. For some time, now there has been relative peace in Plateau State, if the Special Task Force (STF) leaves today, do you think the current peace will be sustained? We have worked very hard to achieve this peace, but I have heard so many insulting comments in the media that Governor Jang was the architect of the problem. Jang didn’t start the problem in Plateau State, I inherited it. We have forgotten that the crisis of 2001 and 2004 were so bad that former President (Olusegun) Obasanjo had to declare a state of emergency and remove the government. In fairness to my predecessor, the problem even started during the military administration. If there is crisis, the governor must have the instruments to crush it. I was a military governor. There was an attempt to cause trouble in the old Gongola State in my days and I gave a command to the brigade commander in Yola. I said, ‘after the commissioner of police, report to me’ and the brigade commander moved in. Before I reported to President Ibrahim Babangida, I had already moved in the troops and within a few days, we brought the situation under control and the president congratulated me. He didn’t quarrel me that the military was not under you; why did you use it? But here, I cannot even command a fly as the elected governor and chief security officer of the state. That is why we have been talking about state police. But some people have their own understanding of what state police is. We are not saying we should do away with the federal police. There are some responsibilities that the federal police cannot handle, but the state police can. If you post an Igbo man as policeman to Shendam, when a Gomai speaks in his native language, they will sell him. But under state police, it will be citizens of that state who will be brought in and that is how we can say ‘police is your friend’. How can you be a friend to somebody you can’t even communicate with? However, we thank God that we have been able to work with the STF in the state. Some areas said they didn’t want STF and we talked to them and they understood and I can say confidently that the police and the STF have succeeded. As a retired military man, I know that you don’t solve a crisis by gun, yet, the gun can subdue, but peace has to be built. When we say there is peace in the state, we mean we have been able to subdue a lot of things, but when a robber stole a car, you see a news headline: ‘Crisis in Jos.’ Even if the car was stolen in Langtang North, it is, ‘crisis in Jos!’ Jos is the capital, not every part of Plateau State is called Jos. Again, you cannot stop criminals completely. Criminals have existed since the creation of the world. You cannot say you have completely stopped criminal activities in any part of the world and criminal activities should not always be interpreted as crisis. When I say peace has returned to the state, I mean it. If the STF should pull out today, the police should be in a position to maintain the peace, but we are not dictating to the Federal Government to pull the STF out. Six years into your administration, some parts of the state are still yearning for development. What is the assurance that these areas will enjoy dividends of democracy before the end of your tenure in 2015? Even if you give me another eight years, it will be impossible for me to develop every nook and cranny of Plateau State. Government is a continuous process and I pray that God will anoint the person who will take over from me and continue, not somebody that will start condemning what I did. That is not the kind of person we expect to take over. I believe that PDP will form the government in this state in the years to come. This is a state, where PDP was born and we cannot throw our child away. I don’t know who will take over from me, but I am praying God to anoint me to anoint the right person who will come and continue the projects. Even in the develop nations like America and Britain, there are slums, but we are trying to clear the slums and start development in our local government headquarters and other parts of the state. What are you doing to revive tourism in the state? Talking about the Pandam Games Reserve and Jos Wild Life Park, the animals are hardly fed. Yes, the animals hardly feed, not because the government does not give out money but because the money goes into human mouths instead of animals’ mouths. Honestly, the case makes me sad. It is a problem and that is why we are re-organising the civil service. We must kick corruption out of the system. What is the success rate of the biometric exercise for civil servants in the state? When I took over in 2007, I was paying salaries of over 22,000 civil servants, but the biometrics captured 17,000. We now set up an ICT team to verify the number. We decided that every government official must fill the form. Commissioners and special advisers were involved to make sure that these forms get to the right people. More than 17, 000 forms were printed, but a little more than 15, 000 were collected. So, from 22, 000 to 17, 000 and we now have 15, 000. So far, only 11,000 workers have been cleared, while about 4,000 had files. So, that put a big question mark on them. We have set up a committee to verify the situation. But at least, we have over 11, 000 that have been cleared. We have not finished the exercise and if we are not convinced by the explanation of some of the 4,000 people, they will not be cleared and they will be ghost workers. Very soon, we will have the final result from the ICT team. Then, we will be able to tell Plateau people ‘this is the number of workers we have’, but that is not the end of the story. Somebody has to tell me who has been paying salaries to these people. So, those people in the MDA who send names of workers for salaries every month have to come and tell us because the names are there and the payment vouchers and the accounts that such monies have been paid to. We will go to the banks and ask questions. Some of them are saying, ‘well, he will soon go’, but I will go back home to rest and maybe they will go to jail. These are criminal offences that I will not let go. We have started the exercise in the local governments too. Let no one think they can frustrate the exercise. Primary school pupils and unborn babies have names in the register for salary payment. The report is there, but one good thing is that we have collected all the files. No new file can be produced and at the end of the exercise, we are also going to do age verification and certificate verification. That is why when they were talking of the chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, I told them that I have a programme in my state that I want to complete before two years, but I will see how I can still cope with it. Your administration has witnessed several strikes by workers since you came on board in 2007. What are you doing to discourage this trend? The kind of opposition I am facing in this state, believe me, I have not seen anywhere else. Tertiary institution teachers went on strike the last time without notice. But how could you say the government should extend your age of retirement to 65? Is that a reason to go on strike? They just wake up one morning and tell you that they are on strike and then, you will find out that they are with top Plateau people, who are in the opposition, and they have been given money. I started this government by borrowing and in a few months, I paid all arrears of salaries and leave grants. I have started re-organising the civil service. After we paid the arrears, we started paying salaries on the 26th of every month, yet, they preferred strike. So, I invoked the law of ‘no work, no pay’ to reduce the strike. Once you stay at home, you don’t get salary and the money gets back to the government and will be channel to developmental projects.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Jun 2013 18:54:47 +0000
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