The leadership of the Northern Governors Forum should be held responsible for the crisis rocking the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State has said.
Speaking with State House correspondents on Thursday, the governor insisted that governors should be men of honour and integrity.
According to him, the Chairman of the northern governors, Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, ought to be bold enough to speak out since the 19 governors from the North had earlier endorsed Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State as a consensus candidate for the chairmanship of the NGF.
Yuguda said he would continue to boycott the meeting of the Northern Governors Forum for as long as the leadership is not demonstrating integrity by defending their common position.
His words: “If 19 governors presented a candidate in a 35-member association, the game is over and it has been consensus candidates all the way.
“We your governors should be men of high integrity.
“We should be role models and we should not play evil politics because most people associate politics with evil.
“My words should be my bond.
“If I had sat down with 19 of my colleagues and we agreed on something, I should not see the chairman of that forum not coming to protect the integrity of the Northern Governors Forum and by extension the Nigerian Governors Forum.
“And that is why I say all the crisis and all the unfortunate comments made about the governors today, the fault should be traced to the Northern Governors Forum because we are the culprits.
“And that is why I say on his honour, let the chairman of the Northern Governors Forum come out and tell Nigerians that either we in the forum did not come out with Jang as our consensus candidate or we, 19 governors, picked Jang as our consensus candidate.
“If that has been done, all these things will not happen and that is why I say if I will sit with my colleagues and we take a decision and you go and do a different thing, I am not part of that.
“Me as a person, I don’t want to attend their meeting but my deputy can attend on behalf of the people and government of Bauchi State.
“But as a person, I will not.
“That has always been my position.
