The Chairmanship Of The Nigerian Governor’s Forum Should Rotate Between North, South – Seriake Dickson

The Bayelsa State Governor and Chairman of the South-South Governors Forum, Seriake Dickson, has called on the 36 governors to adopt the principle of rotation of power to pick a new leader for the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.  

The governor said in a statement by his Special Adviser, Media Relations, Fidelis Soriwei, that the decision on who should be the next NGF chairman should be guided by the time-tested principle of rotation between the North and the South.

The governor said the next NGF chairman should come from the South after the end of the tenure of the incumbent, Abdulazeez Yari, who is also the governor of Zamfara State. Dickson added that the governors elected under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party would not contest the position in consonance with the precedence that the NGF chairman should be a ranking governor from the ruling political party.  

He stressed that the PDP governors would not make any move to endanger the time-honoured principle guiding the emergence of the NGF chairman. However, Dickson noted that the next NGF chairman should emerge preferably through consensus among the governors.

He said, “I am calling on the governors who would assemble today (Wednesday) to take a decision on the chairmanship of the NGF to be guided by the time-tested principle of rotation of power between the North and the South. Now that Alhaji Abdulazeez Yari, the governor of Zamfara State will be ending his tenure, we expect that the next chairman should come from the South.  

“The precedence is that the ruling party produces the chairman. The PDP governors have no desire to be disruptive and expect that a ranking governor from the All Progressives Congress, the party with the majority would be the next chairman.”

He congratulated his Zamfara counterpart on the successful completion of his tenure during which “he collaborated with the Federal Government  to address  issues such as the refund of the Paris Club loan and others affecting state finances.”