The Rivers State governor and factional Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has called for an end to the crisis in the body of Nigeria governors.
This was contained in a welcome remark he made in Port Harcourt, the state capital yesterday during the 4th retreat of the Governors’ Forum held at the Banquet Hall, Government House, Port Harcourt.
He said: “I want us to reflect on the matter of the crack in the body of the NGF. Since it is our dream and aspiration to remain intact and grow together as one regardless of any disagreements, the time to bring everyone back is now. Our country and our people bear the biggest burnt of a fractured Forum.”
The NGF boss said as the 2015 general elections draw near, there was need for politicians to imbibe and internalise the democratic tenets, where freely given mandates are respected and upheld, and where the minority has a say.
Speaking on the 4th retreat with the theme: “Transitioning out-life after office: Perspectives and challenges,” Governor Amaechi expressed hope that lessons to be learnt and the ones learnt in the previous retreat would help in finding solutions to the challenges that plague the country.
Delivering a paper entitled: “Transitioning out: Life after office”, the former governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, commended those who drafted the Nigerian constitution for embedding term limit in it.
According to him, term limit creates room for fresh verve, energy and ideas, requirements and reinvigorate the wheel progress.
He said it was because of his strong belief in term limit that made him to be in vanguard of the opposition to tenure elongation by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
He said: “In a country of about 160 million people, or a state of very many good heads, there is no way one person can decide or determine that the wheel of progress will grind to a halt, if he is not the one in office.”
