There was a mild drama yesterday at the National Economic Council, NEC, meeting as the two factional chairmen of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF, Rivers State Rotimi Amaechi and Plateau State Jonah Jang, were made to sit side-by-side in the new sitting arrangement for attendees.
The meeting was presided over by Vice-President Namadi Sambo.
Before the NGF crisis, the sitting arrangement at the meeting was such that the seat of the NGF chairman was the first to the left after the seat of the Vice- President.
Yesterday’s sitting arrangement was, however, in alphabetical order and according to states with Abia State governor’s seat coming first to the left side of the Vice-President.
Amaechi and Jang sat side-by-side on the right side of the Vice-President.
The Rivers State governor arrived at the venue of the meeting before Jang and took his seat, which was placed near that of Jang in alphabetical order.
Amaechi later stood up to exchange pleasantries with other governors, pumping hands and patting each other on the back.
When Jang later arrived at the meeting to take his seat near Amaechi, they exchanged pleasantries, shook hands and smiled at each other without any sign of animosity.
When Jang walked in and shook hands, he exchanged banters with his colleagues, including Amaechi.
Amaechi accepted his greetings, saying: “You are welcome, I am the authentic chairman.”
Jang didn’t say anything and they sat together without talking to each for several minutes.
Some governors including Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Adams Oshiomhole (Edo), Sule Lamido (Jigawa) and Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta) gathered around Amaechi and Jang to exchange greetings.
Amaechi and Jang were both laughing as they shook hands with other governors and exchanged banters.
Aliyu, who noticed the alphabetical order in which the seats were arranged said: “The sitting arrangement was deliberately changed”.
He later said to Amaechi: “So you are going to sit with Jang. This is very nice oh. Somebody is trying to be diplomatic here.”
Amaechi replied: “We are still together. So, I am going to sit with him. The real chairman and the… (laughter).”
At a point, Oshiomhole pulled Amaechi close to his side and held him by the shoulder while posing for a photograph saying, “this is my chairman; this is my chairman.”
Oshiomhole said: “Jang is the leader of PDP extended faction” and this drew laughter from everyone present in the Chambers.
Meanwhile, the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, has called on President Jonathan to probe the report that Amaechi was barred from paying his respects to the President at a dinner in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday.
There were reports yesterday that security aides of the President prevented the Rivers State governor from paying homage to him.
Reports had it that Amaechi had left his seat, moved towards where Presidents Jonathan, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia and Joyce Banda of Malawi were seated, but the presidential security aides blocked him from accessing the president.
Amaechi had shifted the NGF meeting he convened to attend the dinner.
After holding a 45-minute meeting, Amaechi and 15 other governors agreed to postpone the meeting to honour the President’s invitation.
He came to the Villa in company of some of the governors.
In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the President should ensure that whoever was behind such a condescending treatment of a state governor was properly sanctioned to serve as a deterrent.
“We are making this call because we do not believe that in spite of the reported frosty relations between the two, President Jonathan – as the father of the nation – will lend the weight of his high office to such a demeaning action as exhibited by the presidential security personnel.
‘’To believe that anyone occupying the esteemed office of the president of one of Africa’s most important nations will be a party to a situation in which any security aide will willfully fence a state chief executive from paying his respects to the President at such an open gathering will be to think the worst of the occupier of that office.
“That is why we have chosen not to believe that this indeed occurred, and why we are calling on Mr. President to tell Nigerians that ‘it ain’t so’
“We shudder to think of what efforts are being made – including the use of national institutions – to undermine Governor Amaechi if the treatment reportedly meted out to him at the dinner has the approval of the powers that be. We are even more worried at what will happen to a governor from the opposition who falls out of favour with the President, if a governor from the same party as the President can be so publicly humiliated,’’ it said
ACN said it is particularly incumbent on the President to clarify the report because Amaechi extended an olive branch to President Jonathan by attending the dinner along with the other governors who voted him into the NGF chairmanship, despite the fact that the President is publicly supporting the losing faction of the NGF, in what is being seen as a democratic faux pas.
The party said the President must learn to separate politics from governance by rising above petty partisanship as he steers the affairs of state.
The party urged all political office holders, irrespective of their party affiliation, to eschew the kind of pervasive and petty partisanship that led to the reported disrespect shown to an elected state governor by a security agent being paid with taxpayers’ money.
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