Governors meet on Constitution amendment

•PDP governors to meet Jonathan on Adamawa crisis Governors will meet today in Abuja to begin the consideration of knotty issues in the report of their 10-man panel on constitution amendment.
The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) will also hold talks on other national matters, including the controversy trailing the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which is assuming a North-South problem, and the new Revenue Allocation Formula.
Besides, the governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will hold a crucial session on the crisis rocking the Adamawa State Chapter of the party.
The PDP governors are angry with the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, on his handling of the crisis in Adamawa.
It was gathered that the PDP governors had protested to President Goodluck Jonathan on how Tukur was allegedly contemptuous of them by going ahead to allow the conduct of congresses at the ward, local government and state levels.
According to sources, the 36 governors will start discussion on knotty issues in the Amaechi Committee’s report and matters arising in the ongoing constitution amendment.
The panel, headed by Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, submitted the report last year but the forum was unable to discuss the recommendations.
Some of the issues in the template are single tenure of five, six or seven years; state police; true federalism; rotation of the presidency between the North and the South; creation of one new state from each of the nation’s six geopolitical zones; inclusion of the six geopolitical zones in the constitution, tenure for local government chairmen, 50 per cent control of resources by states; and abolition of State Joint Local Government Account and State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC).
A source, who spoke in confidence, said: “If we form quorum, we hope to use the session to start considering the report and draw conclusion on knotty issues. We had set aside this document to avoid anything that could cause a crack in the Forum.
“It is not a day exercise, but we want to start early in the year so that at the appropriate time, we will submit a memorandum to the Constitution Review Committee of the National Assembly.
“While we are considering our own report, we will also pay attention to the ongoing review by the National Assembly to fine-tune our position paper or memorandum to the Constitution Review Committee.”
Asked if the governors have any timeframe to complete the consideration of the Amaechi Committee’s report, the source said: “We have not fixed any deadline but we will work in such a way that we will make our own input at the right or strategic time.”
PDP governors are said to be angry with Tukur and the National Working Committee (NWC) for allegedly ignoring their advice not to conduct congresses in Adamawa State .
President Goodluck Jonathan has accepted to meet with the governors, Tukur and a few party officials tomorrow.
A member of the PDP Governors Forum said: “When we noticed that there was crisis in Adamawa, we raised a committee, headed by Governor Sule Lamido, to look into the problems.
“The committee recommended that the status quo should be maintained, pending the time the President and other leaders of the PDP would find an amicable solution to the crisis.
“We passed this resolution to the party leadership but the National Chairman of the party went ahead to approve the conduct of congresses.
“All the governors are members of the National Executive Committee (NEC). By ignoring our advice, Tukur believes we are unimportant.
“The challenge at stake is not about Governor Murtala Nyako but it borders on the deliberate slight of the PDP Governors Forum.
“Were it not for the intervention of the President, we also know what to do because governors are certainly in charge of party structure. The PDP Chairman and his team have been violating PDP Constitution. They have not called NEC meeting regularly as enshrined in the party’s constitution.
“We are certainly taking our anger against the PDP National chairman to Mr. President. We want the kangaroo congress nullified.”
Asked what was really at stake in Adamawa, the source added: “It is about power struggle to hijack the PDP structure in the state ahead of 2015 poll.
“This is the type of the problem which led to the sudden exit of a former National Chairman of the party, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo.”
A party leader in Adamawa said: “We are happy that the President is intervening because he would be able to have a first hand knowledge of how Governor Nyako has hijacked the PDP structure.
“The main issue is that the governor does not believe in a transparent and democratic process. The National Secretariat of the PDP stood by the truth and due process. The conduct of the congresses was not a personal agenda of the National Chairman.
The acting Chief Judge of Adamawa State, Justice Nathan Musa, had on January 2, stopped the conduct of the state congresses.
Justice Musa restrained the PDP Caretaker Committee, following complaints against the conduct of the ward congresses of December 27, last year.
But the Caretaker Committee went ahead with the ward and local government congresses.
It was learnt that PDP stakeholders defied the court order because it was alleged that the governor hurriedly appointed the acting CJ to stop the congresses.
A leader of the party in Adamawa State, Dr. Umar Ardo, said the appointment of Justice Musa as an acting Chief Judge was a violation of Section 271 Subsection 1 of the Nigerian constitution
He said “such an appointment is not only unconstitutional but a direct disregard to the recommendation of the Chief Justice of the Federation Maryam Alooma Mukthar.
“The Chief Justice of the Federation, wrote a letter to the state governor which specifically requested the governor to forward the name of Justice Bathimawus Popo Lawi being the most senior justice of Adamawa State for appointment as substantive Chief Justice of the state and to forward to her office the date of his confirmation and swearing in. But the governor refused to do so.”