• Amaechi's fate depends on 20 colleagues
• Presidency holds counter-meeting at Aso Villa
A CLEARER picture was expected to emerge Sunday or today on where the pendulum will likely swing in the race for presidential candidacy in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The Nigerian Governors' Forum (NGF), a formidable force in the polity, is scheduled to meet Monday in Abuja to elect a new chairman that will take over the reins from Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi if he is unable to clinch a second term of two years.
But observers see the session for what it is: A parley to garner consensus on some knotty national issues, particularly the 2015 elections that are heating up the system more than two years away.
Already, Amaechi is in the news as having set his eyes on the presidency, as a possible running-mate to Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State.
If one factors in the role of the governors in the emergence of the late Umaru Musa Yar'Adua as president, and the making of incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan substantive in 2010, other aspirants to the plum job, including Jonathan, may already have their hands full.
Perhaps, this was the reason the President scheduled a meeting of PDP governors last night at the Aso Villa to blunt any possible negative outcome from the entire governors' meeting.
The strategy, sources said, was to get enough number of the governors on the president's side before today's meeting that will decide Amaechi's fate for another two years.
But it was not clear, as at press time, how many of the PDP governors were at the Villa, and where their loyalty lay.
Meanwhile, dissentions within the fold of the Governors' Forum has heightened, with some members questioning the interference of the Presidency and by extension, the PDP hierarchy in the Forum's internal affairs.
Their grouse is that the Presidency and the PDP view the Forum as an arm of the ruling party rather than a body of all the governors in the country.
Nonetheless, the Forum's leadership may go to a governor of an opposition party at today's meeting.
This is as a result of increase in the number of pro-leadership change to 15 on Saturday.
The crisis in the forum came to a head last Thursday when a reported plot to remove Amaechi as the chair of the forum was uncovered.
Though Amaechi and his men succeeded in wading off the move, by intimidating those who were perceived to be in the thick of the enterprise, it was a temporal reprieve, as The Guardian confirmed that the anti-Amaechi governors have closed ranks and gained in numbers.
Inside information indicated last night that the forum had suspended any discussion on the change in the leadership indefinitely, but the anti-Amaechi group is reportedly poised to "ensure that he is removed."
A vocal member of this group from the Northwest was quoted as saying, "it is better the change in leadership is effected now that it has become public knowledge."
"As it stands, election to the forum's leadership is the only agenda in today's meeting," sources within the fold of the governors said.
One of the sources added that it would have been a straightforward decision if they had decided on who would succeed Amaechi, as some of the people tipped to take over have one short-coming or the other, or would not receive the blessing of the PDP governors who are the majority in both the forum and the pro-Amaechi camp.
For instance, Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State was being considered during Saturday's clandestine meeting in which some ministers attended.
"But his (Akpabio's) candidature was put on hold, as the governors at the meeting said, "he will not get the backing of the majority of the governors."
Indications are that the anti-Amaechi governors are considering a replacement for the coveted seat from a political platform outside the PDP.
However, the snag is that two governors, Rochas Okorocha of Imo State and one from the Southwest, seen as matching the pedigree of Amaechi and would be a formidable threat to his success at the in-house poll, are strongly in support of his renewed bid for the Forum chair.
One respondent said that Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State was also mentioned but they immediately dismissed him "because he is too radical to handle."
Rotimi Amaechi's crime is his perceived ambition to be a running mate to a northern presidential aspirant in 2015 (he has denied nursing such an ambition) and his seeming uncompromising stance on some of President Jonathan's monetary policies, as they affect the states.
Some of the governors also view as dictatorial and arrogant, even though a governor, who backs him, said, "any position taken by Amaechi is a collective decision taken in the interest and with the input of all governors."
Still, there are allegations of achievement and showing the scorecard of his tenure in the last two years.
One of the pro-leadership change governors was quoted to have said: "Some of us said give us the scorecard, the achievements for the tenure, which was a legitimate demand and a normal thing to do, at the end of the tenure of every executive of any association."
With the exception of Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State, almost all the core Northern governors are in support of Amaechi's return to the forum's chair.
But for the Chairman of the Northern Governors' Forum, Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, the governors of North Central zone were not openly involved in the chess board until Saturday when Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State was won over by the anti-Amaechi clique.
He is said to have joined the opposing camp after being persuaded by emissaries of the Presidency.
With about 15 of the governors in the cruise for Amaechi's ouster, the challenge is who they will present as the candidate to replace him.
Lately, Amaechi seemed to face stiff opposition from the South-South region, earlier from the Ijaw elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, the Minister of the Niger Delta, Godsday Orubebe, over what was perceived as uncomplimentary comments about the President.
It would be recalled that 33 out of the 36 State governors were in attendance at Thursday, last week's meeting at the River State Governors Lodge in Asokoro, Abuja.
The attendance is expected to be the same or more in today's meeting, as so much seems to be at stake.
As one of the governors from the Southwest said, "the integrity and survival of the forum would be decided tomorrow (today)."
This is also against the background that some "aggrieved" governors are threatening to quit the forum if their decision to change the leadership was not achieved.
"If the right thing is not done, some of us are ready to pull out of the NGF in the next meeting," the governor said.
The Nigerian Governors' Forum was formed in line with Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution, as an association, and therefore, its membership is voluntary.
Since its inception in 1999, the chairmanship of the forum had never gone to any other region in the country outside the North Central and South-South.
The first was Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, former governor of Nasarawa State (1999-2004); then Obong Victor Attah, former governor of Akwa Ibom State (2004-2006), and Mr. Lucky Igbinedion, former governor of Edo State (2006-2007).
Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, former governor of Kwara State held the position between 2007 and 2011 and the embattled incumbent Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State from June 2011 till date.
The Guardian