NGF: I Won’t Surrender My Mandate –Amaechi

Governor Chibuike  Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, has said that he will not succumb to pressure to relinquish the chairmanship of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum to his Plateau State counterpart, Governor Jonah Jang.

The Nigeria Governors’Forum chairman, who was recently re-elected, was at the NGF secretariat in Abuja yesterday to reassure the staff that the crisis would not affect the regular payment of their salaries.

Amaechi said: “I think that as a secretariat you should forget the internal dynamics of the politics of NGF.“We are colleagues.

When we talk among ourselves, you will understand that there are underlining factors that are making them to behave the way they are behaving that you cannot take away.

“It is usually things that happen sometime.

“It is beyond the control of the chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum.

“But either way, be rest assured of your salaries.”

Amaechi called on members of Governor Jang’s faction to return to the fold, insisting that there can never be two secretariats of the NGF.

Asked if he would surrender the second term mandate, Governor Amaechi retorted: “No, no, no.

“That is a mandate that was freely given and I will stick to that mandate.

“The election has come and gone.

“Like I said after the election….

“It was a test for democracy and democracy won at the end of the day.

“All we can do as democrats that were elected by the people is to uphold democracy and stand by democracy.

“I honestly do not know why the disagreement.

“I don’t know why.

“I believe that my brothers and colleagues will see reason why we should stop distracting the country and get the country united to focus on development because at the end of the day, it is about legacy, it is about what we will leave behind for the people.”

Amaechi also warned politicians to be careful so that the ongoing crisis does not affect the 2015 election, insisting that Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State voted during the controversial election.

Noting that Nigeria should be able to manage its democracy and election process, he warned that care should be taken to ensure that what was happening now did not affect the stand of Nigerians towards the 2015 general election.

He said, “Again, tell my brother, Mimiko, that he voted.

“If he still says he did not vote, I am willing to go with him to his church, Redeemed Church, we kneel on the alter and say it before God.”

Amechi also said: “I want to urge Jang, because he said he is Christian, to know that God watches over everybody and whatever you say, say it according to God because beyond NGF, you and I know that there is heaven and you can’t go to heaven if you don’t tell the truth and stand by the truth.

“I am not saying he is not saying the truth, I am not saying he is not standing by the truth, I am just saying that nobody can go to heaven when he is not saying the truth.

“There is no special benefit that the Nigeria Governors’ Forum chairman is getting.

“I don’t see why there is this disagreement.

“When I read them saying I am desperate, desperate for what?

“I am only proving a point that Nigerians are allowed to run for any post they want to run.

“And when they do and they are elected, they should stick to their mandates.

“That is the only point.

“My brothers, who are complaining now about the election, should come back and let’s work together.

“They must be willing, just as we are willing, to accept.

“It is not really a battle.

“It is about God.

“I usually tell people, don’t win the battle and lose the war.

“I think all of us should come together and work for the interest of the nation and for the interest of the poor masses.

“We should not allow our personal interest to override that of the nation.

“It is important we consider the interest of the nation.”

While restating his respect for President Goodluck Jonathan, the NGF chairman, however, insisted that only the governors that gave him the mandate could ask him to step aside.

He said, “when we say President, it is because he is the President of the country and all of us must be loyal to him.

“But my employers are the governors.

“If they wake up tomorrow and say chairman, you have to go, then I will go.

“But they must wake up and say so.

Meanwhile, the National Chairman, Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), Alhaji Balarabe Musa, has decried the idea of a consensus candidate for the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF).

“The important thing is that Nigerian governors had an election and the results of the election were announced, the election was voluntary and conducted in a free, fair and cordial atmosphere.

“Every reasonable person should abide by the outcome; for the sake of democracy, they should let the result be.”

He said that the leadership should not have allowed the crisis in the NGF to happen, to make the forum relevant in the political development of the country.

“With this development, there will be two governors’ fora, one led by Gov. Jonah Jang, the other by Gov. Chibuike Amaechi; this tends to make NGF irrelevant.”

He urged PDP stakeholders to allow justice to take its rightful place in the course of finding lasting solution to the crisis.

L-R:General Manager, Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt, Mr Joseph Rennie, Director and Head of Department, Rivers State Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Mrs Asianah Divinwil, state Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Mr Chuma Chinye and Assistant General Manger, Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt, Mr Rex Yakpogoro, at the inauguration of 5th Floor of the hotel in Port Harcourt, yesterday.