Governor Seriake Dickson has come out publicly to condemn the moves by the outgoing governors to convene a meeting of the Nigerian Governor’s Forum alongside governors-elect with just two weeks left in their tenures.
According to the Sun Newspaper, Dickson, on Saturday,May 16, 2015, faulted the use of the body for partisan purposes in the past, and warned that this was in danger of happening again.
He condemned the summoning of an NGF meeting for Monday, May 18,2015, saying that those responsible for the crisis which engulfed the NGF should not be allowed to foist another NGF contraption, which could threaten the stability of the nation’s democracy.
“Having gone through those period of the NGF crisis with my respected colleagues, most of whom are now ending their respective governorship tenures, I believe I owe it a duty to our nation and our fledgling democracy to alert the nation and caution my respected colleagues especially the incoming governors that they should not allow the outgoing governors, most of whom created the NGF crisis to foist on our country and political system another NGF contraption that will in due course threaten the stability of our democracy and be a distraction to citizens and the leadership of our country, as the NGF crisis or tussle did between 2012 till date,” he said in a statement
He said that the crisis in the NGF was caused by his colleagues who felt the leadership of the forum was an avenue to higher political office and as such the NGF became a bargaining tool and a matter of life or death.
Dickson, who claimed that he had always believed the NGF should not function as a trade union, said the idea of reconstituting the body in the dying days of his outgoing colleagues was meant to shortchange the new governors.
“From inception of the NGF till date, the leadership has always been surreptitiously put in place without the input of all members, especially the in-coming governors as new members, thus short-changing it.
“This is what the outgoing members who have destroyed the forum plan to do. I disagree with this. I believe that the outgoing members, most of whom allowed themselves to tear the NGF, should let things be and just go.
“Thereafter, a process of consultation should be put in place by the existing PDP Governors Forum and APC Progressive Governors Forum regarding the desirability and procedures for bringing about its leadership after May 29, when the new governors would have taken office and therefore become members”.
The governor queried the hurry in summoning the divided leadership of the forum.
Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, will, from May 29, 2015, become one of the 2nd term governors in the country (in terms of number of years in office). He will be rounding up his first term in office as Bayelsa governorship election comes up in 2016.
