$1b To Fight Boko Haram: Governors Forum Chides Fayose

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum on Saturday faulted the position of Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State on the approval of $1 billion by the National Economic Council, largely made up of Governors, to fight the Boko Haram insurgency.
Fayose had after the NEC meeting distanced himself from the approval and said it was a means by the All Progressives Congress to fund President Muhammadu Buhari’s reelection in 2019.
But the Chairman of the NGF and Governor of Zemfara State, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, on Saturday said Fayose cannot extricate himself from the decision.
He said Fayose’s absence from the meeting did not clear him or anyone for that matter of responsibility for the forum’s resolutions.
His words: “I am saying that that statement 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.
“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.
“You can never spend too much on security because the safety of lives and property are the most cardinal among all the principles of governance, in any democracy.
“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 Fayose is on his own.
“We have to protect our people and we have to do it with everything we have.
“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.”