Governor Aliyu to colleagues: Let’s swallow our pride and reconcile

Worried by the cost of the continued bickering among members of the Nigerian Governors Forum, Governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State has declared that he has lost a lot of grounds due to the crisis rocking the body and called for urgent reconciliation.
Aliyu, who is the chairman of the Northern State Governors’ Forum, spoke during the opening ceremony of the Third Biennial conference of pro-chancellors of state-owned universities, which took place in Minna, the state capital.
With compulsory malice against one another, members cannot relate freely with one another as before simply due to pride, he said.
Due to the developments, some governors find it necessary to keep malice with one another, Aliyu added.
Aliyu saidthis is not health for the NGF, Nigerians and the country in general.
Aliyu was reacting to a remark made by the Chairman of the committee of pro-chancellors, retired Justice Karibi Whyte, who had lamented constraints faced by pro-chancellors of universities in reaching out to governors to discuss some of the challenges they are facing.
Karibi Whyte had expressed the dilemma the pro-chancellors face in making head-way into voicing their frustrations in trying to meet the Nigerian Governors’ Forum in order to prevail on them to stop politicking to save governance and in the payment of fees in universities.
Governor Aliyu, turning to his Benue State counterpart, Governor Gabriel Suswam, seated besides him, said: “Well, from what the learned former Supreme Court judge is saying, it is clear that they are confused on which of the factions to meet.
“Is it the faction led by Rivers Gtate Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, or is it that of Jonah Jang of Plateau State-led group will they meet with?
“You can see what continued bickering and keeping unwarranted malice is causing and this is how it is frustrating virtually everything we are doing.
“The fight amongst the Nigerian Governor’s Forum has left a lot of gap in the body politics of Nigeria, causing more harm than good and therefore we must sheath our swords and reunite for the good of the electorates and the country in general.
“We have lost a lot of ground, we should swallow our pride and do what is right by coming back together. What the NGF are fighting for has nothing to do with the electorates, but the masses or the electorates are the ones suffering the consequences of the crisis.”
The current crisis of confidence rocking the NGF, according to Governor Aliyu “has literally turned state governors into beggars, surviving at the mercy of the central government, which corners more than 50 per cent of the federal allocations”.
He added: “States are now looking more like beggars because of the centralization imposed on us by the long years of military rule.
“The crisis of the NGF has not helped in anyway than further compounding the situation.”
Aliyu also criticized the scrapping of the Grade 11 teaching certificates, a development he attributed to the high number of unqualified teachers in most northern states, adding: “The situation in the North is frightening because over 40 per cent of teachers in most northern states are unqualified.”
Aliyu said it is because of the acute shortfall in teaching staff that his administration had decided to establish the Niger State University of Education based on a formula of 49 per cent state ownership and 51 per cent equity to be sold to interested northern states.
Furthermore, Governor Aliyu during the event took a swipe at governors who have the penchant of sending students to foreign countries to study courses that abound in Nigerian universities.
He urged them to reconsider such moves.
Governor Aliyu expressed regrets that such governors fail to improve their state universities by equipping and engaging the services of qualified lecturers, including expatriates, as a way of saving cost yet quality of learning still guaranteed.
The governor said there is no wisdom spending huge sums of money for few students to be trained abroad when such amount can be utilized to equip existing state universities and employing capable hands to man such citadels in Nigeria.
He said: “We have governors today sending students abroad for training on fields that are not necessarily different from what is obtainable here in Nigeria, not minding the cost effectiveness.
“If you convert the amount in exchange rate, the cost of sending one student abroad can train 10 or more in same courses locally.”