By Martins Oloja
The ecclesiastical
saying that there is a time for everything comes in handy today to interrogate
some political matters that are weightier than the stale and inevitable tango
between the sleepy executive and the restless legislature in Abuja. And here is
the thing, it is time to examine what is so constantly seductive about the
office of the Governor in Nigeria ,
that most politically active persons, federal and state legislators, returning
foreign envoys, retired public servants, retired clerics, repentant militants
and insurgents, special advisers and former Speakers want to contest that
office.
It is curiouser and
curiouser that even former governors that have run for only one term and even
serving as ministers, a former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) all
want to be nothing but governors. What is in it for the aspirants and even
occupants of that office? Are they going to fulfill a constitutional provision
for ‘welfare and security of the citizens, which shall be the primary purpose
of government? Political intelligence has it that at the moment, Senator Chris
Ngige, a former governor of Anambra state, a former Senator representing
Anambra state, currently serving as a Minister is in a dilemma even as he is
mobilizing fund to contest the 2017 election for governorship. So is Dr. Kayode
Fayemi, former Governor of Ekiti State, a serving Minister who wants to return
as Governor.
A former CBN Governor,
a Professor of Economics who once contested the office, is said to be warming
up again to plunge into the murky governorship waters. Mr. Dimeji Bankole,
former Speaker of the House of Representatives who never had little or no
experience before he was elected member of the House of Representatives, has
been fighting to be governor of Ogun State, not minding the principalities and
powers that would always frustrate him in his state. When his successor, Hon.
Aminu Tambuwal raised his hand to be counted among those to challenge PMB, in
2015, he was quickly drafted by the powers behind the throne to accept to be
governor of Sokoto
State as a settlement.
All protocols and legal processes were bent and broken for him to emerge as the
only candidate. But the seducers got him with governorship ticket bait. What is
in that office the occupants have added a qualifier to as “executive” governor”
that is not in the constitution?
“There are a few
exemplars that are quietly setting the tone for federalism at the moment: Lagos , Akwa Ibom, Ekiti, Kano states, etc are strategically evolving
as federalism brand ambassadors.”
Ifeanyi Uba, an oil magnate, a successful football club owner and publisher of The
Authority
newspaper, in the eye of the storm over some allegation of missing N110 billion
in his domain, would like to do all that is politically possible to be the next
governor of Anambra state. Nothing else appeals to him. He had taken that road
before. What is in that office?
Lest we forget, the
late Abubakar Audu (24 October 1947-22 November, 2015) was twice the Governor
of Nigeria’s Kogi state. His first tenure was from January 1992 until November
1993 when democracy crashed again to ‘militicians’ led by General Sani Abacha.
And the second was from 29 May, 1999 to May 2003. He died of a heart attack
shortly after the announcement of the election results on 22 November, 2015. He
actually won on the platform of the APC, now ruling party. That was his third
term. The man, Audu never placed premium on any other political or elective
office, except the governorship he had been twice. What was in it for him? I
hope these answers will not blow in the wind.
Can a good man who has
been governor write a book to reveal the reason that office is so, so enticing
beyond service to the people? We need an insider account from another Peter Obi
who has begun a good job in that realm. He recently revealed in a colloquium how
to be successful as a governor and how he institutionalized prudence in Anambra
state with verifiable pieces of evidence. We do it regularly in the media.
Bernard Goldberg, a CBS insider has through a classic, titled, Bias: A CBS
Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News. Just as many CIA operatives and
agents have been revealing in good books how they have used their powers to
deal treacherously with the citizens. That was what John Perkins did in 2004
when he wrote a thriller, Confessions of an Economic Hitman, an account of his
career with engineering consulting firm Chas. T. Main in Boston that worked for the powerful
intelligence agency.
Really, we need a book
on “Why Governorship Office is Seductive in Nigeria ”. We certainly need more
books and documentaries on this subject that may interrogate why Nigeria has
been consistently recording and celebrating economic growth without development
since the “soldiers of fortune” struck in 1966. Such revelations in books and
documentaries may reconstruct the tone set years ago by a chartbuster,
“Squandering of the Riches” by one of us, Lady Onyeka Onwenu, a veteran
journalist and singer. The documentary explores the situation in Nigeria prior
to the military coup of December, 1983 (that ushered in the then Major General
Muhammadu Buhari to power). A resourceful television journalist at the time,
Ms. Onwenu travelled across the country to talk to professionals such as
bankers, industrialists, street traders, farmers, etc to capture the mood of
the people in those weeks of rising dissatisfaction with the economy and with
government corruption in a democracy of the then NPN under President Shehu
Shagari. What has changed since 1983?
Now as most political
leaders and rent seeking non-governmental organizations and individuals pay lip
service to calls for federalism to drive development, I think we should reflect
on the grave implications of our overconcentration on the central government
activities and agencies while looking at Nigeria ’s challenges of
development. It is time we began to examine whether it is not another face of
intellectual masturbation or corruption that we hardly interrogate the powerful
impacts of the
massive nonsense, excesses, indolence, mediocrity and corruption in most of the 36 states of the federation. In other words, is there a sense in which we can claim that even if the federal government under any regime performs well, Nigeria can automatically migrate from third to first world even if the governors of the 36 federating units are unserious? I mean here, for instance, that even if the federal government maintains all the federal roads and federal schools in all the states, will good roads and quality education era emerge inNigeria ? I
don’t think so.
massive nonsense, excesses, indolence, mediocrity and corruption in most of the 36 states of the federation. In other words, is there a sense in which we can claim that even if the federal government under any regime performs well, Nigeria can automatically migrate from third to first world even if the governors of the 36 federating units are unserious? I mean here, for instance, that even if the federal government maintains all the federal roads and federal schools in all the states, will good roads and quality education era emerge in
At the moment, about 30 of governors cannot pay
their workers regular salaries and allowances without recourse to the centre
that is also struggling in the valley. Yet the lifestyles of these governors do
not suggest that we are in a recession and the nation is a failing state. They
still charter planes to attend frivolous personal events. They carry on with
hundreds of personal aides, long convoy SUVs and all the wasters that destroy
economic growth.
I was reflecting on
this conundrum the other day when I stumbled on the difference between public
service here and other lands. Specifically, in the United
States , the serving Governor of Iowa state,Terry
Branstad, recently accepted to serve as the U.S Ambassador to China.The
longest-serving governor in US
history, Branstad, 70, started a second run as governor in 2011. He previously
held the office from 1983 to 1999. Will a serving governor agree to be Nigeria ’s ambassador to even the United States ?
He may not even have had a house of his own. Even former presidents including
Barack Obama have become tenants after leaving office. As for Bill Clinton, he
was 40th and 42nd Governor of Arkansas. He was first in office from 1979 to
1981 and the state’s 42nd Governor from 1983 to 1992. Before that time, he had
served as Arkansas Attorney General from 1977 to 1979. He served two termsas
President of the United
States (1992 – 2001). And it was after he
left office he and his wife bought a $1.7 worth of a house of the Dutch
colonial style in Chappaqua, a New York suburb through a loan.The Obamas are
renting an 8,200
square foot brick Tudor home (built in 1928) in
Washington D.C.The house is in Kalorama neighbourhood where neighbours includea
former Congressman, the French ambassador and Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
Poor Obama, not on the Potomac River side, expensive houses north of D.C and
Maryland where former Nigeria’s Vice President, former Governors and former
Nigeria’s envoys to the United States own very expensive houses. That is the
clear difference. There is no point talking about where our former presidents
have retired to in Minna, Abeokuta
and Otueke. They are not rented quarters anyway. They had worked very hard in
office where recent reports from one of their spouses indicate that they
receive a lot of expensive gifts while in office.
Let’s leave the
federal capital powers alone for now and return to the point at issue here: the
hard truth that cannot be kept in the grave is that unless all of us repent
from our complacency and put pressure on the state governorswe in the news
media underreport, unless we demand responsibility from most of the reckless
governors who will always legalise huge pensions to themselves as they leave
office, we will end up reading from the book of lamentation only till eternity.
This is just a caveat that agitations by all the right-thinking members of the
public for a constitutional return to federalism destroyed in 1966 by the
military may not be heeded by the governing elite in Abuja now. But it seems to me that federalism
can only evolve through critical and strategic thinking and breath-taking
developments by the state governments. There are a few exemplars that are
quietlty setting the tone for federalism at the moment: Lagos ,
Akwa Ibom, Ekiti, Kano
states, etc are strategically evolving as federalism brand ambassadors. Sooner
than later, they may not require special communication strategy before they
become reference points for the road we should take. Lagos state, for instance, is standing out as
the most organized bureaucracy driven by a very capable cabinet. The other day,
the governor of Lagos state told the nation
within the context of the controversy over Oshodi-Airport road that, “with the
kind of capacity we have now, we can construct a 10-lane road to the Lagos airport with a
whopping N10 billion within six months….” As I read yesterday on a Lagos notorious (danfo)
mini-bus to be phased out soon, “To be a man is not a day job”. A very apt
inscription, which depicts a fact that the “dynamic capabilities” you find in Lagos are not a flash in
the pan. They began in 1999 and the state government has been fine-tuning and
refining its bureaucracy in the state.
Have you been to Akwa Ibom
State to see how a very
restless Governor Godswill Akpabio (2007-2015) picked up an urban renewal and
development plan gauntlet left by his predecessor, Obong Victor Attah, and
developed the state capital and the state generally to a beautiful city and
modern state? But for what a professional colleague, always calls unfortunate
“minority syndrome” when we discuss this issue, Akwa Ibom state that has
developed what will emerge soon as the most sophisticated and best equipped
hospital in the country, would have become the opposition party’s example of
how to set the tone for development. The quality of construction work any
visitor can see all over Akwa Ibom state is simply breathtaking. Ekiti state
recently taught the nation how to peacefully resist incursion by herdsmen
though the instrumentality of the law. I was in Kano
state recently, the economic development projects including strategic roads and
an“Economic City ”,
etc being developed like that of Dubai
by the Governor, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje are remarkable for democracy. The
point being made this week is that we should swallow our pride and vanity and
return to our states to use available data to assess what our governors are
doing. And we should use all available media to encourage them to shun
mediocrity at all levels and get angry like Ambode and Akpabio to develop their
states remarkably. That is the only way Nigeria can make progress through
quiet federalism.
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