If information that is fast spreading in some quarters is anything to go by, then trouble that is capable of throwing the Nigeria Governors Forum off balance and unsettling the Forum may have started brewing over what dependable sources informed is a fall out of the benefits accrued from the re-payment of Paris Club loan to state governments.
Sources revealed the process into how the whole fund was going to be managed which started in the last dispensation had seen the Forum engaged a few consultants who had started skeletal works while talks were on finalizing on commission percentages.
The whole thing took a new turn after some changes had been effected following the last general elections which saw some governors exited the Forum and new power blocks came into existence. According to source, the initial arrangement had since been altered thereby paving way for another Consultant allegedly single handedly appointed by Governor Nasir El-Rufai, which allegedly put the governor of Kaduna state at the position of advantage to dictate the pace.
Getting Rufai to have his way was said not to have been an easy one since everyone was interested in dictating the pace but Rufai was said to have had his way because of the power he wields in the presidency.
Trouble, sources revealed is gradually brewing among them with twenty five percent of the fund remitted to the Forum but nothing seems to be coming the ways of others, except that of Rufai who is allegedly being perceived of funny practices since he was the one who allegedly brought about the choice of one Jimi Lawal, his right hand man as the consultant to the recovery of the fund from Federal Government sometimes in September 2016. Meanwhile, another Consultant, a lawyer from South West who was appointed in 2015 by the Forum and reportedly played major role in unraveling need for the refund of the money by federal government is said to have been dumped.
That members of the governors’ forum might be spoiling for a showdown, according to information might not be far from the truth as they are said not to be comfortable with how it seems governor Nasir has cornered the huge fund under the guise of paying consultant fee of 5% of the total fund to his crony Jimi Lawal. It was further learnt Nasir El-Rufai is also being accused of single handedly purchasing a property opposite Bukola Saraki’s Maitama house for the Forum as the Secretariat despite the fact there is constituted committee to handle the purchase. Other governors were said to be miffed when it was revealed that the house he bought was one of his numerous houses in Abuja.