The Nigeria Governors Forum led by Governor Rotimi Amaechi on Thursday said its members did not have any input in the 2014 budget.
It also expressed dismay with the way governors were being invited for the National Economic Council meetings only to be informed in Abuja that they (meetings) had been cancelled.
These were part of the resolutions contained in a communique issued after the meeting which held at the Rivers State Governor’s Lodge in Asokoro, Abuja.
The communique reads, “The forum notes that NEC meetings have been postponed for five consecutive months.
“It has become embarrassing that governors are invited to Abuja for NEC meetings only to be told of their cancellation after their arrival without any tangible reason; yet there are issues of urgent and utmost national importance that ought to have been addressed at such meetings.
“Consequently, we have a 2014 national budget without input from the states resulting in a lack of sense of ownership of the budget process
“In furtherance of the issues raised above, the forum reiterates that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Ministry of Finance are obliged to brief the governors formally on the non-remittance of $49.8bn into the Federation Account.
“In the absence of NEC meetings, the platform for resolving these issues becomes non-existent”.
The forum also noted with concern, the developments in Rivers State and called on President Goodluck Jonathan to convene a meeting of the Police Council to discuss the matter and other related issues.
The NGF also agreed to hold a retreat in Lagos in March this year.
Rivers, Edo, Ekiti, Jigawa, Ogun, Nasarawa, Sokoto, Borno, Lagos, Imo and Kano were states represented at the meeting.
Meanwhile, the Jonah Jang faction of the NGF has described as ‘frivolous and inciting’, the content of the statement issued by the Amaechi-led faction.
In a statement released in Abuja by its Media Officer, Mr. Kassim Yakubu, the Jang faction said that issues by the Amaechi-led forum, lacked credibility.
It said, “From the day Gov. Amaechi joined the opposition group of governors, he has sought all avenues and opportunity to attack the Federal Government. All the attacks so far have been political and self-serving with 2015 in mind”.
The Jang faction noted that the NGF was created to work in partnership with the Federal Government for the good of the people and not to oppose it.
It therefore implored Nigerians to disregard the communiqué by the Amaechi-led NGF because it did not represent the views and thoughts of all the 36 state governors.
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