The Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has been chosen by consensus as the chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.
He succeeds Governor Abdulazeez Yari of Zamfara State.
Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State has also been chosen as vice-chairman of the group, at a meeting held in Abuja on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued before the election, the Bayelsa State Governor and Chairman of the South-South Governors Forum, Seriake Dickson called on the 36 governors to adopt the principle of rotation of power to pick a new leader for the NGF.
The governor said in a statement by his Special Adviser, Media Relations, Mr Fidelis Soriwei, that the decision on who should be the next NGF chairman should be guided by the time-tested principle of rotation between the North and the South.
The governor said the next NGF chairman should come from the South after the end of the tenure of the incumbent, Yari, who is also the governor of Zamfara State.
Dickson added that the governors elected under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party would not contest the position in consonance with the precedence that the NGF chairman should be a ranking governor from the ruling political party.
He stressed that the PDP governors would not make any move to endanger the time honoured principle guiding the emergence of the NGF chairman.
However, Dickson noted that the next NGF chairman should emerge preferably through consensus among the governors.
He said, “I am calling on the governors who would assemble today (Wednesday) to take a decision on the chairmanship of the NGF to be guided by the time-tested principle of rotation of power between the North and the South.
“Now that Alhaji Abdulazeez Yari, the governor of Zamfara State will be ending his tenure, we expect that the next chairman should come from the South.
“The precedence is that the ruling party produces the chairman.”