Barely 24 hours after the Executive Governor of Rivers state, Nyesom Wike described the Nigeria Governors Forum as a ‘beggars forum’, the forum has reacted to Nyesom Wike’s comment.
Recall that the Rivers state Governor had blamed the Nigeria Governors Forum over the current travail of the Governor Obaseki who has been enmeshed in a long drawn battle with the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole.
The description of the NGF was contained in a statement released by the Commissioner for Information in Rivers State Paulinus Nsirim, Wike accused the forum of complacency, failing to intervene in the crisis and doing nothing during his rerun election in 2019 even after he was exposed to danger following the withdrawal of his security aides.
He said in a video shared on his Twitter page;
“I told them then that what they were doing was wrong. Now they have become a beggars Forum even when there are constitutional infractions.
“You can see that APC governors say that they are progressive. You can see how progressive they are when they keep quiet when a fellow sitting governor is disqualified from contesting elections.”
Reacting to Wike’s statement, the spokesperson of the NGF Abdulrazaque Bakindo accused Paulinus Nsirim of misinforming the Governor.
He affirmed that the NGF has six core mandate areas and politics isn’t one of them.
Bakindo said;
“Governor Wike is an old member of the NGF and a strong one at that. He could not have referred to the NGF as a Beggars Forum. Blame it on the author of the release, Mr Nsirim the Information Commissioner in Rivers State who couldnt distinguish between the NGF and the Progressive Governors Forum which is the political platform of APC Govs. The NGF has six core mandate areas and politics isn’t one of them.
“The NGF is happy to state that Gov Wike is one of its strong members and has delegated his Deputy Gov to the Forum and she has never missed any meeting.”
