Ahead of the June election of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, the Presidency puts more pressure on northern governors to dump Governor Chibuike Amaechi as chairman of the forum
As most political pundits predicted, the Presidency is not resting on its laurels to oust Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State as the chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF. Since the first attempt to remove him failed on February 26, President Goodluck Jonathan’s foot soldiers are using the window of opportunity presented by the election rescheduled till June to lobby more of the governors on Amaechi’s side to join the plot to oust him.
The first attempt to oust Amaechi failed because governors working on the instructions of the Presidency could only garner 15 signatures, out of 36 governors and a simple majority is needed to elect the chairman of the NGF. However, the forum has never really chosen its leaders from competitive election; rather it has always been through consensus. The choice of the Presidency for the leadership of the forum is widely believed to be Ibrahim Shema, governor of Katsina State, where Muhammadu Buhari, All Progressives Congress’s strongman, comes from. Jonathan is courting the loyalty of the late Umaru Yar’Adua’s camp to help him overcome the Buhari threat in the North.
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