Edwin Clark urges President Goodluck Jonathan to BAN Governors' Forum

Edwin Clark, one of President Goodluck Jonathan's closest political confidants, wants the Nigerian Governors Forum outlawed. He described the Forum as a threat to Nigeria's democracy.

Clark, an elder statesman, made the call in an open letter to the Forum. He accused members of the Forum of breaching the Nigerian constitution with impunity.

“I wish to dwell on some of the offending activities of the Governors Forum which are driving the country to madness but which as members you do not care about, provided you achieve your purpose and the Forum’s over-bearing influence on the Peoples Democratic Party, the supremacy of which you have hijacked.

“The Governors Forum is now acting as an opposition party to the Federal Government. It deliberately breaches with impunity, the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Constitution of the PDP, without any challenges.

“The Forum has now become a threat to the peace and stability of Nigeria. Most of the governors today, are more dictatorial than the then military governors. The President should ban them,” the letter stated.

Clark regretted that President Jonathan might not be able to abolish the Forum since members of the National Assembly were unlikely to pass a bill to that effect. He argued that “members of the assembly are loyal to the governors, who put them in the office."

He stated that the National Governors Association in the United States of America, which the Forum copied, operates within the confines of American law and described the Nigerian Governors Forum as “a thorn in the flesh of the country.”

Clark praised the American counterparts of the Nigerian governors when he stated that “For instance, President Bill Clinton on his own as the Governor of a very small state, Arkansas, and as a chair of the [US Governors] Association, did not use it for his personal gains but rather worked assiduously under the platform and directive of the Democratic Party, to become one of the most successful Presidents of the United States of America.”