Bauchi Governor Leaves Northern Forum Because Of Amaechi

Bauchi State governor, Mallam Isa Yuguda, has vowed never to return to the Northern State Governors’ Forum (NSGF) until it declared that it had reneged on its earlier agreement, chiding the members that they are hypocrites.

Governor Yuguda also reiterated that he had withdrawn his membership of the NSGF because he could no longer work with people who could not be trusted.

Governor Yuguda, who spoke on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Hausa programme, said “it is not a must that one must be a member of the NSGF, it is just that one finds it necessary because issues about the North are being discussed, but things should be done in unison. But what we are doing must be done accordingly; we should not be in politics to be led astray, we should do things with the fear of One Allah.

“Allah enjoined us not to betray trust, not to be hypocritical to one another, there is a verse on hypocrites from Allah and so I can’t be among hypocrites, I won’t do that.”

To make real his threat, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) of Bauchi State was conspicuously absent during the meeting of SSGs from the northern states at the General Hassan Usman Katsina House, Kaduna, on Wednesday, preparatory to the NSGF’s meeting today.

Meanwhile, the steps taken by the Yuguda to leave the NSGF has continued to generate controversy, as some indigenes of the state condemned the action, saying the state would now lack representation in the NSGF.

They said matters affecting the region would now be discussed without the state having any input in the discussions.

A chieftain of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the state, Nasiru Darazo, claimed that “if it comes to issues of betraying trust, Governor Yuguda should be at the forefront, because the people of Bauchi State voted for him on the platform of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP), but he betrayed them and returned to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).”

The ACN chieftain alleged that it was the betrayal by Yuguda that led the people of Bauchi to the present state they found themselves, adding that the state would suffer from the action taken by the governor.

Reacting to Darazo’s allegation, Yuguda, in the radio programme, said “the likes of Malam Darazo does not know the workings of NSGF, which membership was voluntary.”