Ignore Fayose, we supported Buhari to collect $1bn for Boko Haram fight because he has supported us to pay salaries —Govs

The Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) has called on Nigerians to pay Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State no heed over his assertions concerning their approval for the federal government to withdraw $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) for the insurgency fight.

The governors who spoke through their chairman, Governor Abdullaziz Yari of Zamfara State noted that Fayose “was just doing his thing”.

Fayose had condemned the decision by the governors, and argued that the funds purportedly meant for the fight against Boko Haram was a ruse to set aside funds for President Muhammadu Buhari’s election in 2019.

Fayose had said, “Since they said they have defeated Boko Haram, what else do they need a whopping sum of $1 billion (over N360 billion) for, if not to fund the 2019 elections?”

But Yari in a statement on Saturday further explained that the governors decided to assist President Buhari in the fight against insurgent, as the federal government has been assuring the state with their problems in the past.

The federal government had over the last few months disbursed funds from the Paris Club refunds to states to enable them pay workers’ salaries.

The NGF boss noted that Fayose is on his own as far as the approval for the money was concerned since he personally elected not to attend NGF meeting where the decision was taken.

According to him, the decision to allow the Federal Government access the money was a collective one by the governors’ forum.

Yari said, “I am saying that that statement by Governor Fayose was an unfair cut against the Forum. When a decision is taken by the Forum in one’s absence, once there was a quorum at the meeting where the decision was taken, (it) becomes binding on all. I am sure Fayose was not making the statement to undermine the Forum. He was just doing his thing.”

Mr. Yari said the decision was a “conscious sign by the two parties to show the synergy between the NGF and the Presidency, “which ought not to be politicized”.

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“This same lack of unity between governors and the presidency had brought about poor governance in the past, throughout the country and now that we are working together no one should constitute a wedge in the process,” the governor said.

“If Governor Fayose was there at the meeting, he would have seen the wisdom in the decision. Yes, the administration is claiming to have decimated the insurgents out of Sambisa Forest but they are re-emerging in different flashpoints across the country.

“They need to be tackled wherever they are and the NGF decided to support the Presidency just as it (The Presidency) had been supporting states with their own problems,” Governor Yari Abubakar argued.

“Governor Fayose is on his own. We have to protect our people and we have to do it with everything we have,” he said.

“Let me reemphasize one more thing, Mr President is a responsible and honest leader who does not believe in money politics and he would never divert public resources into it.”

 

 

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