Jonathan gave N32b bribe to Governors so as to vote for Jang – Kwankwaso

Kano State governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso
yesterday alleged that President Goodluck
Jonathan gave the 16 governors who voted
for Plateau State governor Jonah Jang at last
year’s Nigeria Governors’ Forum election N2 billion each.
According to him, while the 16 pro-Jang
governors were financially gratified to do the
presidency’s bidding, the other 19 governors
who voted for Rivers State governor Rotimi
Amaechi were left with nothing at all.
Kwankwaso stated this at a meeting between
him and a team from the secretariat of the
NGF on peer review mechanism led by the
forum’s director-general, Mr Ashishana B.
Okauru, at Government House, Kano.
The governor said, “Each of the 16 governors
that voted Governor Jang has benefited from
N2 billion from our own money given to them
free of charge. All of us from Amaechi side
were given nothing. That is not being fair,
that is not even correct and it is illegal.”
Kwankwaso also accused the federal
government of deliberately causing disunity among the 36 governors of the federation
just to jeopardise the collective interest of Nigerians, adding that it is for this reason that the federal government is mischievously
recognising Jang who scored 16 votes
against Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi
who polled 19 votes in last year’s election of the NGF.
Kwankwaso observed that because federal
government had so much to benefit from the
rancour that causes disunity among the
governors, it is using hidden antics to
destabilise the Governors’ Forum.
“We are having difficulties in coming together
as one forum because the federal government
is not respecting democratic tenets. For rapid
progress to ensue, governors in the country must work as brothers,” he noted.
The director-general of the NGF, Okauru, who
had earlier noted that it was the desire of the
forum to see all the 36 governors as one
under one umbrella, said a lot of ground has
already been lost in polio eradication
because of the lingering insecurity in the
country, the teeming youth unemployment and the Excess Crude Account. Lamenting that comradeship among the governors had also waned, Okauru said that State Peer Review Mechanism (SPRM)
meeting with the state executive council
would pave a way for the stakeholders’
workshop, which formally commenced with
the implementation of SPRM process in the state.
He commended Kwankwaso for what he
described as the landmark achievements
recorded, including the creation of 24 women and youth development institutions,
sponsoring of over 2,000 indigenes, among
others, adding that the Sun Newspaper Man
of the Year Award for 2013 given to the governor was well deserved. Kwankwaso also urged the NGF secretariat to produce a best practice template in all
sectors of the economy for the governors.
According to the governor, such development
will ensure quick harvesting of best practices
from a particular state by others.
The governor, who assured that he would
continue to improve on his development
strides, added that such template would help
fast-track development in the country, if
shared among governors.
He said, “I need to learn one or two unique
practices from other states which I could replicate in Kano State. If you give us a template on why and how a state is succeeding, for instance in the
environment, it will be easier for us to copy.
“I would give such template to my commissioners to study for possible replication. If I have a literature or a template on what a state is doing in a particular
sector, I would not need to travel to such state to learn.’’ He, however, advised that such templates
should be made compact for easy comprehension.
According to the governor, the reason people
still make mistakes during invention is
because there is no fixed literature on invention.
He said that once there was a fixed literature
on invention or any other process, mistakes
would be minimal, if not completely
eliminated. There is a lot of best practices in
some states that could be replicated if
documented and presented to other states, he said.
Presidency keeps mum
But the presidency has kept mum over the
matter as efforts to get in touch with the
Special Adviser to the President on the Media
and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, to react to
the allegation proved abortive as phone calls
made to him could not go through. Also text
messages sent to him was not replied to at
press time .

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