Governors on $1bn to fight Boko Haram: Fayose on his own, say ‘You can never spend too much on security’

Days after he denied knowledge of the decision to approve $1 billion to fight Boko Haram, Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has been taken to the cleaners by his colleagues.
The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) said his reaction to the approval of $1 billion by the National Economic Council (NEC), largely made up of governors, to fight the Boko Haram insurgency, was not credible enough.
Fayose had, after the NEC meeting, distanced himself from the approval and said it was a means by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to fund President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election in 2019.
Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, NGF Chairman and governor of Zamfara State, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, said Fayose “knows about the decision” even if he was not at the meeting.
He said once the majority had taken the decision at the meeting to withdraw $1 billion “for the security purpose it was meant for”, it was binding on Fayose as a member.
His words: “I am saying that that statement was an unfair cut against the Forum. When a decision is taken by the Forum in one’s absence, once there was a quorum at the meeting where the decision was taken, it becomes binding on all.
“I am sure Fayose was not making the statement to undermine the Forum. He was just doing his thing.
“This same lack of unity between governors and the Presidency had brought about poor governance in the past, throughout the country, and now that we are working together, no one should constitute a wedge in the process.
“You can never spend too much on security because the safety of lives and property are the most cardinal among all the principles of governance, in any democracy.
“If Governor Fayose was there at the meeting, he would have seen the wisdom in the decision.
“Yes, the administration is claiming to have decimated the insurgents out of Sambisa Forest but they are re-emerging in different flashpoints across the country.
“They need to be tackled wherever they are and the NGF decided to support the Presidency just as it (The Presidency) has been supporting states with their own problems.
“Governor Fayose is on his own. We have to protect our people and we have to do it with everything we have. Let me reemphasize one more thing: Mr. President is a responsible and honest leader who does not believe in money politics and he would never divert public resources into it.”