The rumblings within the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) have exposed some ignoble but hitherto hidden characters of some of our  political operators.

The purported ‘election’ of the Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi  has  amplified  the hidden flaws in these leaders thus putting  to question their morality, loyalty and the genuineness of their claim to being democrats.

At best, they could be accused of playing politics with the destiny of the nation

Quite a number of issues have come up since the NGF imbroglio, but, sadly  many Nigerians are not taking cognizance of them, especially as they affect our growth as a nation. They  seem to have  fallen for the wicked propaganda of the architects of the crisis in the forum to discredit the Presidency and further polarise the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

The NGF saga has, for instance, unmasked  a disloyal party man who connives with the opposition to frustrate his own party and discredit his own leader.  Loyalty is a character test that must be passed to qualify for a position of leadership.

Amaechi’s loyalty to his party should not be in doubt considering the role the party played in his emergence as governor. The Rivers governor did not contest the election that brought him to office  in 2007, but got to the position through the instrumentality of the court as made possible by the availability of the PDP platform.

The moral uprightness and loyalty of the  principal actors in the NGF crisis, especially those of the  Amaechi  faction, are also in serious doubt. They have the exposed themselves as undemocratic and unfit for leadership positions.

The  account of the Kano State Governor  Rabiu Kwankaso trying to justify the betrayal of his group against the other northern governors who agreed  on  Governor Jonah Jang as the consensus candidate for  the NGF chairmanship election  in the name of wanting “to teach them the game of politics” is, to say the least, shameful.

If being deceitful with display of highest degree of unreliability is what it takes to demonstrate one’s political prowess, then  the Amaechi-led team would have succeeded in redefining ingenuity in politics.

Till date, the account of the Jang led-faction of NGF that  the Northern Governors’ Forum, under the chairman, Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State presiding,  arrived at Jang as the consensus candidate for the NGF chairmanship is yet to be denied.

Neither has Aliyu denied the fact that he also presented Jang to the larger PDP family as the consensus candidate.

The question then is, why the betrayal at the critical point when the Niger State governor should have stood to be counted?

Also laid with suspicion was the decision of  Amaechi to insist on re-election as against the conventional one-term tenure and the succeeding pattern of  consensus.

The story has been told  of how the Rivers governor allegedly declared  the forum’s constitution to accommodate a two-term tenure for the Chairman and drag the forum away from its successful tradition of choosing its leader by consensus.

The most critical of the issues is the justification for shortchanging the North in the  rotational agreement of the forum’s chair.

Dr Bukola Saraki of Kwara State who represented the North in the forum handed over to Amaechi, a southerner. And by the rule of the forum, Amaechi should return the baton to a  northerner after two years in office, only for him to renege, in connivance with some northern governors who did not see anything wrong in their act of betrayal, apparently because they are the beneficiary of the treacherous act for now. They want to get at the President, using his own kinsman to give him a public showdown in an attempt to ridicule him.

Genuine democratic values demand that a contestant cannot preside over his own election to the extent of personally producing the ballot box and the ballot papers the way Amaechi did in the NGF poll.

The account given by the Jang-led faction of the forum indicates that despite the insistence of members that the Rivers governor  should step down as the Chairman for a neutral person to be chosen to conduct the poll, he was adamant and the result of the ‘election’ reflected that all the 35 Governors present at the venue participated even though Dr Segun Mimiko of Ondo State  challenges the Amaechi group to produce evidence that he voted.

Governor Peter Obi of Anambra also boycotted the election, yet the ‘result’ did not reflect that thereby giving credence to the claim of the Benue State Governor Gabriel  Suswan that what took place at the Rivers State House in the name of election was a sham.

It is natural that genuine democrats will kick against the imposition of  the result of a shambolic election on members but unfortunately, the populace have  been hoodwinked  to gloss over the process that led to the result of the ‘election’ rather than insist on a transparent process, if at all the rules of the forum must be changed.

It is impossible for something to stand on nothing; neither can a wobbly process bring about a commendable and justifiable outcome.

To advance, Nigeria needs sincere and dependable leaders. Definitely not men and women who take delight in experimenting with the destiny of the populace by playing selfish games in the name of politics as the governors in the Amaechi camp are doing.

* Bamidele Adeloye is a Lagos based public commentator.