The governors include Kayode Fayemi; Rotimi Akeredolu and Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Ekiti, Ondo, and Lagos States respectively.

Others in their entourage include the Ekiti State Governor-elect, Biodun Oyebanji; former Ekiti State governor and Peoples Democratic Party chieftain, Ayodele Fayose, among others.

It was learnt that Wike, who lost the PDP presidential ticket to Nigeria’s former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, is meeting with the APC chieftains and others at his country home in the Port Harcourt area of the state.

As of the time of this report, the purpose of the visit by APC governors and the subsequent meeting with their host is unknown.

But it appears the APC governors may want to bank on the recent fallout of Wike with PDP leadership after the main opposition party’s presidential primary to woo the Rivers governor to their side ahead of the 2023 presidential election

Fayemi argued that the current federal structure only recognises the federal and state governments.

He also denied that governors frustrate the local governments by spending their statutory allocations.

He noted that the state government, headed by a governor, should be at liberty to determine how local councils in the state are operated.

The governor stated this on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.

When asked why state governments and governors are stifling the local governments, Fayemi said, “I am a student of Political Science, so allow me to always return to the basic principles. Today in Nigeria, the local government is not a tier of government; it is an administrative vehicle for delivering on what the citizens within those jurisdictions would like to see.

“Federalism is a two-tier system: you have the Federal Government and you have the state government. The state government should be at liberty, in my view, to determine the number of administrative units they want to have within their geographic space in order to know how effective they would be. You have some states where what is most effective is the town’s union.”

He added, “If you go to the south-eastern part of this country, people discover that towns’ unions are much more accountable. People will not steal money belonging to a town’s union because the penalties are severe if it happens. But they don’t have a problem stealing money that comes from an unknown government known as federal, state or local government.

So, if the government of Anambra State, for example, feels that it wants to have 200 autonomous community governments, because that is what would be more accountable to them, then so be it. That is what this principle should be about. However, this notion of force-feeding the local government…”

When asked if he was sure that federalism is two-tier according to the Constitution, Fayemi insisted, “That is what is represented in the Constitution. Local governments actually make their resources via the states. It is in our Constitution.”

When reminded that local government had always been known as the third tier of government, the governor stated, “You can check this out, whether what I am telling you is correct or not. In the current Constitution amendment process going on, one of the clauses that the National Assembly has just passed, that they want to go into the Constitution, is the recognition of the local government as a third tier of government.”

Fayemi added, “If it is the existing provision, there would be no need for that amendment to be put forward by the National Assembly. But it has been put forward now and it will go through the process in the 36 state (Houses of) Assemblies, we would see whether it passes that test of constitutional scrutiny or not.

“I do not know of any governor – and I stand to be corrected; I am the Chairman of the Governors’ Forum; I talk to my colleagues and I look at the books – I am not aware of any governor that dips his hands into local governments’ treasury and takes their money. I have been governor…this is my eight year as Governor of Ekiti State; I have never done anything to illegally remove or take any money that does not belong to the state.”

Airforce Chief of Policy and Plans, AVM Remigus Ekeh, made the commitment when he led a team from the office of the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Oladayo Amao, to Governor Kayode Fayemi in his office in Ado-Ekiti on Friday. The team had earlier embarked on an on-the-spot inspection of the cargo airport project.

Ekeh disclosed that the visit is a follow up to Fayemi’s initiative which he discussed with the former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, at the Force Headquarters, Abuja, last year.

he said  “We thank you for fulfilling your promise of giving us a portion of land at the international cargo airport for the air force to set up a base. We are very grateful and we will continue to ask for your corporation especially at this time when the nation is facing great security challenges”

The South West Governors’ Forum, in a document presented to members of the National Assembly from the geopolitical zone, also made other proposals to weaken central government, while allocating more powers to the federating units and states.

The governors had met with the lawmakers in Abuja behind closed doors last week.

The governors at the meeting were Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo State), who is also the Chairman of the South West Governors’ Forum; Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti State), Gboyega Oyetola (Osun), Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos) and Dapo Abiodun (Ogun).

After the meeting, Akeredolu had said the South-West would be approaching the constitution amendment with a common front.

He added that the meeting had set a committee made of up senators led by the caucus chairman (Opeyemi Bamidele) and House of Representatives caucus chairman (Femi Fakeye) and attorneys-generals of the South-West states.

The joint Senate and House committee would fine-tune the proposals and ensured that they were captured in the constitution review exercise.

In the document titled, ‘Proposals for the Review of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (As Amended): Presentation by South-West Governors’ Forum’ and dated July 5, 2021, the governors sought an amendment to Section 3(1) and (3) of the constitution.

The present Section 3(1) reads, “There shall be 36 states in Nigeria, that is to say, Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna,Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara.”

The governors added, “We propose that Section 3(1) be amended as a federation consisting of six geopolitical zones constituted from the states. The federating units or regions are divided into the following geopolitical zones: North-West Zone, North-Eastern Zone, Middle – Belt Zone, South-East Zone, South-South Zone, South-West Zone and the Federal Capital Territory.

The forum added that “the geopolitical zones have been recognised and accepted by Nigeria’s political class.”

It also said, “Section 3(6) be amended to provide for a number of local governments or such autonomous administrative units to be created by the respective federating units or states, the criteria of which shall include population, taxable capacity, ethnoreligious or other cultural and social affinities.”

Another major proposal in the presentation is an amendment to Section 7 of the constitution which is about local government.

The governors asked that the section “include an additional (sub)section prohibiting the dissolution of elected local government councils.”

“This will be in compliance with the Supreme Court decisions in ALGON v. Oyo State Government; AG Plateau State & Others v. Goyol & Others; Governor, Ekiti State v. Olubunmo & Others,” the forum added.

Also, the South-West governors proposed that Section 8 be amended by deleting Subsections 5 and 6, thereby removing the powers to create a state from the Federal Government.

The proposal reads, “Section 8(5) and (6) should be expunged. Section 8 (1) and (2) provides for the procedures for the creation of state while Section 8(3), (4), (5) and (6) provides for the procedure for the creation of local governments.

“However, Section 8(5) and (6) should be expunged to make local government created the exclusive duty of the state government.”

The governors also wanted the wordings of Section 14(4) changed.

The present version reads, “The composition of the government of a state, a local government council, or any of the agencies of such government or council, and the conduct of the affairs of the government or council or such agencies shall be carried out in such manner as to recognise the diversity of the people within its area of authority and the need to promote a sense of belonging and loyalty among all the people of the federation.”

The proposed version reads, “The composition of the government of the federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, fair representation of individuals and groups and also command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of a particular gender and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or in any of its agencies.”

If the proposed amendment to Section 15 eventually becomes law, Nigeria’s motto would be changed to ‘Unity and Faith, Equality, Peace and Progress.’

The forum also called for the deletion of Section 29(4)(b), which confers adulthood status on a married under-18 woman.

Explaining the proposal, the governors say, “Section 29(4)(a) and (b) contradicts each other. While (a) says ‘full age means the age of 18 years and above, (b) says ‘any woman who is married shall be deemed to be full of age.’ This reinforces child marriage which negates the Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 and the Child’s Rights Act 2003, which outlaws child marriage.”

The governors also want the states to be in charge of mineral resources within their respective territories.

Consequently, they have proposed an amendment to Section 44(3) that vests exploitation of mineral oils and natural gas in the Federal Government.

It was gathered that the meeting, which would hold eight weeks after the governors met in Asaba, the Delta State capital, would further assess decisions taken in Asaba on the open grazing ban, restructuring, fiscal federalism and the call for state police.

The governors would be hosted by Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, at the meeting which would start by 10 am today (Monday).

Aside from the host governor, others expected at the meeting are Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (Ondo), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Emmanuel Udom (Akwa Ibom), Diri Duoye (Bayelsa), Willie Obiano (Anambra), Ben Ayade (Cross Rivers), Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta), David Umahi (Ebonyi), Godwin Obaseki (Edo), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), Hope Uzodimma (Imo), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), Adegboyega Oyetola (Osun), Oluwaseyi Makinde (Oyo), and Nyesom Wike (Rivers).

Although he did not disclose the details of the agreement reached, he assured the nation that the implementation would start in May.

Fayemi disclosed this in an interview with State House correspondents after a meeting of the technical committee on the matter chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof Ibrahim Gambari, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The governor then appealed to the striking judiciary workers to return to work in the interest of the nation.

However, the National Treasurer of JUSUN, Jimoh Musa said the union had not met with the governors.

He said, “I know they invited some Chief Judges and met with them, but they have not come to the table to discuss with us. We have never met with them, we don’t know their faces. So are mischievous and I am surprised that leaders that we are supposed to emulate will come, saying things that are not right. We are meeting again tomorrow (Tuesday) with the Minister of Labour and I have been told that they are sending a representative, maybe the DG of the Nigerian Governors Forum. But until this moment, we have not met with them, even for one day. They have never called us as JUSUN to discuss with us. Let’s us sit down and discuss this thing, it is a constitutional matter and we can resolve this thing.”

Fayemi, who is also the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, disclosed these in an interview with State House correspondents after a meeting with  President Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The governor said, “There is a direct correlation between insurgency in the North-East and what we are seeing manifesting itself as banditry in the North-West or kidnapping in the South-West. Some of the people involved in these are also the ones responsible for insurgency. They are using the resources they make from kidnapping for the activities they are conducting in the Northeast. So, we need to take a comprehensive look at all these things and not treat them in compartments. We must treat them as a comprehensive issue and then tackle them collectively. I don’t think we are naive enough to think that it is simply a military action that will resolve all these security challenges. They have root causes and the root causes require political will, political action on our part against poverty, inequality and disconnections between our youths and the government.”

Fayemi said this during a visit he and other governors paid the Zamfara state governor, Bello Matawalle, on Tuesday, March 2, over the recent abduction of 279 schoolgirls from the Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe, Talatu-Mafara LGA of Zamfara.

He said “I believe that Nigeria will be rid of this menace. We need more prayers, that is why I was also trying to encourage Mr Governor and our leaders to go for prayers first before we have this session because, yes it is work and prayer, but prayers will assist us in really reshaping the irrationality that has come upon us, where violence is seen as the solution to whatever problem that we have and violence never solves any problem.”

The Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi made this known on Tuesday while delivering an address at the Chatham House Event, London, titled: “The role of Nigeria’s State Governments in recovery: responses to COVID-19 linked challenges”.

Fayemi, who is also the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, in his word said: “We are working with the Federal Government to ensure we have vaccines available in the country. Just last week, the NGF invited experts to brief governors on vaccine procurement and administration. We had a National Economic Council (NEC) meeting, where the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) shared the plans around vaccines procurement.”

“We expect about 80m doses of vaccines would be available in 2021 to cover 40% of the population, while another 60% does is being planned for 2022.”

NGF Chairman and Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi who described the killing as “obnoxious, wicked, unwarranted and morally reprehensible”, added that it raises serious questions on the general security situation in the country and around the capability of the nation’s security architecture.

He said “This sad narrative raises serious questions on the general security situation in the country and around the capability of the nation’s security architecture. Since insurgency engulfed the country more than a decade ago, each time it seems like the situation is coming under control, the enemy strikes again. This has happened consistently.  The farmers were attacked while harvesting their produce totally oblivious of the danger that awaits them in nearby bushes. This method is consistent with the senseless bombings of busy markets, bus stations, schools and abattoirs whenever the terrorists feel overpowered by the security operatives or feel their backs against the wall. Governors are concerned that the carnage is degenerating beyond explicable limits, yet again, and the catalogue of destruction is not only seeming to be endless and intractable but it has an adverse effect on everything in the state and the country at large.”

The Northern Governors Forum also condemned the killing of the rice farmers. Chairman of the forum and Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong averred that the entire country was deeply saddened over the killing of the innocent rice farmers who committed no crime except going to the farm to earn a living.