TWENTY-FIVE days after the election of the chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State has revealed why he and other governors voted for Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State to return as the head of the governors.
He said as responsible people, they were in a position to vote for the best candidate between Amaechi and the Plateau State governor, Jonah Jang.
Speaking in an Hausa programme in the Voice of America, he said: “Look, the truth is this. I voted for Governor Rotimi Amaechi. Governors of Kano, Niger, Kwara, Kebbi, Sokoto, Adamawa voted for him. This election was for the NGF, not a candidate for the PDP; there is nothing to it.”
“For one group to come and say ‘this is your leader, let’s present him to the nation’. Things are not done like that. People forget easily we are all reasonable people and the PDP was founded by reasonable people.”
On the suspension of Governor Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State which was lifted on Monday by the National Working Committee (NWC) of PDP, he said: “That was reckless. Any reasonable politician, who has foresight, knows that doing anything that will cause trouble for party members or bring confusion, must be avoided. The suspension of Wamakko was a mistake that shows a lack of leadership. Secondly, there was recklessness because what was his offence? The truth is that Bamanga Tukur was defeated in Bauchi (the congress that produced Tukur as national chairmanship candidate) or was he not defeated during the zonal elections in Bauchi? He was defeated, not so? “Myself, Wamakko, the governor of Kano and others came together and said what they (North East) did was wrong, so we will not agree; let us go for an election.
“The North East said its consensus candidate was Babayo. Bamanga Tukur was brought to us at the convention”.
