State governors elected on
the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) want to
remove Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha as chairman of the Progressive
Governors Forum (PGF) and replace him with a second term governor from
the South West, a source very close to one of them told Daily Trust on
Sunday in Abuja at the weekend.
The two second term APC governors from
the South West are Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State and his Ogun
State counterpart, Ibikunle Amosun. One of them is being touted to
replace Okorocha though it is not certain which one of them the
governors will settle for.
According to the source, the APC
governors are not happy with Okorocha, who they said has failed to
provide a proper sense of direction to their forum. He said, “Rochas is
only interested in the ceremonial aspects of being APC governors’
chairman. At any public event, especially at the State House or where
the president or vice president is present, he is in a hurry to assert
himself as the PGF chairman and position himself close to the president
or vice president for a photo op. But that is as far as his chairmanship
goes. He is not interested in charting a clear program for the forum,
in harmonising the views of his colleagues or in making the forum an
important player in the scheme of things. Even the opposition PDP
Governors’ Forum has a higher profile and more political relevance than
the APC Governors Forum. It is for these and many other reasons that
they want to change him.”
He denied that the move is a ploy
by South West APC governors to snatch leadership from Okorocha, the only
APC governor in the South East. He also said it is not part of 2019
jockeying for power. He said, “At a time when our ruling party is facing
many leadership problems, such as the ineffectiveness of the national
leadership and the continuous tussle between the Presidency and the
APC-controlled Senate, APC governors could play an important role in
filling the vacuum and reuniting the party behind a common ideal.
However, they are unable to do so because their forum’s chairman is even
less effective than the national secretariat.”
The source could
not say when the APC governors are likely to make their move against
Okorocha, but he hinted that it could be soon. State governors in
Nigeria have many forums, including the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF),
the umbrella body for all of them. It is currently headed by Zamfara
State Governor Abdul-Aziz Yari Abubakar. In addition there is PGF headed
by Okorocha, PDP Governors Forum headed by Ekiti State Governor Ayo
Fayose, Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF) headed by Borno State
Governor Kashim Shettima, South West Governors Forum headed by Oyo State
Governor Abiola Ajimobi, South East Governors Forum headed by Ebonyi
State Governor Dave Umahi and South South Governors Forum, once headed
by former governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State.
Reacting, the
Chief Press Secretary to Imo State Governor, Sam Onwuemeodo, said the
governor was doing what he was supposed to do in the area of bringing
the PGF to relevance as demanded by the duties of the chairman.
He
said the chairman had always intervened alongside other governors to
resolve issues between the executive and the legislature.
He said
that since the federal government had set up a committee headed by the
Vice President to look into the issue with a view to finding an amicable
solution, there was no way the governor would bypass the Vice President
Dailytrust