Adebiyi Oduyale
Apart from the various presidents the nation has had since the past 25 years of unbroken democracy, another set of active players in the current dispensation are the governors.
They, with the presidency, constitute what is generally referred to as the executive arm of a democratic government. The other arms are the legislature or the law makers and the judiciary, which interpretes the laws made and adjudicates in times of crises.
The role of a governor in the day to day running of a state is as important as the existence of such state. That is why the electorate are supposed to make good choice when voting for their governors as such choice will eventually have a lasting effect on the progress of their states. Ironically, the attitude of many of the governors, especially in recent time, is very discouraging, if not totally condemnable. They give the impression that they have absolute power through their actions and performances. Since absolute power corrupts absolutely, they tend to do just anything under the sun with impunity many times, without recourse to the law.
By virtue of the nation’s constitution, the president, his deputy, the governors and their deputies enjoy immunity. The reason behind this constitutional provision is to prevent them from unnecessary distractions and frivolities so as to concentrate fully on the discharge of their duties.
Although many people have argued against the provision and have gone further to call for the expunging of such law, it is my considered opinion that those who drafted the law meant well in the sense that once these political office holders are insulated from the usual pettiness of the citizens they would be able to concentrate and perform their duties effectively.
Unfortunately the governors appeared to be overwhelmed by the provision and are therefore misusing it.
Many of them govern their state by what is referred to in management as rule of the thumb, which in other word means just doing what they like and pleases them at any time regardless of what is proper and would benefit the people. One of such actions is the idea of declaring public holidays recklessly and closing down government offices for as long as one full week, at times, for people, especially civil servants to go and register or collect their voters’ cards. In that case the question that comes to one’s mind is, do they extend such holidays to workers in their various private businesses?
The answer is definitely is no. If anything, they are supposed to do everything that will encourage hard work and productivity.
These same governors arm their thugs before and during elections so as to assist them win such elections by all means possible. A clear case is that of a former governor in the South West who was seen on the television handing over large catches of arms and ammunition purportedly used to fight a gubernatorial election war which his candidate lost, which he had all along kept in his personal residence, to the commissioner of police of his state on the eve of his exit from office.
A related case is that of a group of armed robbers who confessed after being caught that the arms they were using for their nefarious act were given to them by and used to assist the then sitting Senate president during the election that brought the latter to power.
Another attitude of the governors that they need to change is the idea of abandoning uncompleted projects of their predecessors, however good and viable they are. That is exactly what happened in the case of the Dangote Petro Chemical Refinery in Lekki which was to have been built at Olokola/Waterside area of Ogun State but for the change of government in the state in 2011.
At least the billionaire business man owner of the refinery confirmed few days ago how the emerging new government frustrated his effort which necessitated the relocation of the refinery.
The role the governors play in the local government elections which are in the purview of the state independent electoral commission(SIEC) leaves much to be desired. Across the country, the governors make sure that their bidding is done whereby their ruling parties score 100% in the elections. Due to the dubious role they play in such elections, they make sure chairmen and councillors elected from such sham elections are sworn in within 48hours after the elections.
This is to render complaints that are likely to emanate from some defeated candidates in such elections irrelevant and possibly irredeemable. The usual pattern (at least in the South West) is that elected chairmen of such elections, done just 24 or 48 hours earlier, wear the same attire with the same sowing style for the swearing-in ceremony, thereby leaving observers wandering on when such attire by the victorious candidates were purchased and sown for the ceremony. Closely related to this is the fact that the governors have practically rendered the local government across the country ineffective through the so called joint account their states operate with the local governments. With the recent supreme court verdict on the matter it is hoped that sanity will prevail, provided the governors don’t devise a way of making the judgement unworkable.
There is no single candidate in any state house of assembly that wins election in such state, especially from the ruling parties without the influence of the state governor. That is why the legislature in all states are mere appendages of their governors, thereby rendering dissenting voices of the few members of the opposition parties in such houses of assembly ineffectual, unheard and feeble.
This is the main reason why the governors’ excesses can not be checkmated or curbed by the legislature which is the only organ of government that has the constitutional powers to call the governors to order. The excessive use of power reminds one of a melodrama that happened in one of the South Western states prior to 2019 general election in which the then out-going governor merely compiled a list of all the 41candidates from his party that were to succeed him, right from the governorship candidate up to the state assembly members purported to have emerged from his party’s primary election, which he single-handedly organized without following the laid down electoral guidelines with a view to submit such list to INEC.
This, among other excesses of his, made the powers that be in his party to move against him and his so called candidates. As expected, all hell was let loose in the state before, during and even after that year’s general election.
There is a trend these days whereby if court judgements do not favour state the governors they will either twist the content of the judgement or insist that what they have done, doing or planning to do is not negotiable and can not be stopped by any power or force.
Apart from this, the governors have largely contributed to the pervasive insecurity bedeviling the country by refusing to sign death warrants of convicted criminals.
Yet they have all been stridently shouting themselves hoarse, complaining loudly and calling for the establishment of state police which, lam sure, they won’t be able to fund and even misuse eventually if and when established.
The governors prefer to embark on white elephant projects that have no bearing with the needs and aspirations of the people of such states. That is the reason why all the states in the federation that can hardly boast of five trunk A roads are having airports that are largely unviable and unpatronised.
There was, for example, a case of a former governor in Ogun State who embarked on the building of 26 multi billion naira model secondary schools in all the 20 local governments of the state. More than half of such schools were either completed or nearly completed before his exit in 2019 with just one of them functioning for about two academic sessions before he left.
Yet nobody raised any eyebrow about the colossal waste of public fund which normally should have been expended for the payment of the backlog of unpaid salaries, gratuities, pensions, leave bonus, cooperative and union deductions.
It is unbelievable that some state governors are still paying the paltry eighteen thousand naira(#18,000.00)per month as minimum wage which has been in existence for over ten years not to talk of the expired thirty thousand naira(#30,000.00) minimum wage that came into existence over five years ago.
If some states refused to pay #30,000.00 and heaven did not fall how would they pay the proposed minimum wage that won’t be less than sixty two thousand naira(#62,000.00) from all indications? Even without reaching a compromise on the amount to be settled for, the governors have already been kicking against the payment of whatever amount is agreed on.
Majority of them are clamouring for each state to pay what it is capable of paying, forgetting that they are all receiving the same amount as monthly salaries and allowances. Yet, all of them surround themselves with retinue of aides that are doing practically no discernible job but collecting mind boggling salaries and allowances.
Beside that after just four years in office they all collect millions of naira as severance package whereas civil and public servants that served the country meritoriously for 35years are not paid their gratuities and pensions many years after retiring from service.
The worst of this scenario that has to end immediately for this democratic experience to survive is the latest idea of the governors deliberately pulling down government buildings in order to have upper hands during political disputes. It first started few years ago when the governor of Edo State was at loggerhead with his party’s national chairman.
The state’s house assembly building was pulled down on the directive of the governor to prevent the members of the house, especially those loyal to the party chairman, from sitting and commencing his impeachment process.
He eventually survived, had the upper hand by ensuring that the loquacious party’s national chairman did not have his way and even lost his party position.
The same drama played itself out some months ago when the Rivers State governor ordered for the demolition of the state house of assembly building, claiming that it was defective, whereas it was meant to stop the sitting of the members of the state house of assembly being prodded by his predessesor to impeach and throw him out of office.
The battle is still raging while various cases about the matter are pending in the law courts and as such the nitty gritty of the matter cannot be discussed. In like manner, the controversial Kano emirship tussle is enmeshed in legal cobwebs in many courts.
Apart from the vindictiveness in the whole episode coupled with the usual politicisation, the most worrisome aspect of the matter was the attempt of the governor to get one of the two palaces being occupied by one of the emirs in dispute demolished save for the detachment of policemen guiding it.
Probably our governors need to be reminded of the sanctity of the holy books( bible & Koran) they sworn with while taking their oath of office. In neither of the holy books nor the nation’s constitution was it specified that the best way to win a political war is to destroy the legacy of the state they are governing. If anything, the two holy books emphasize, implore and encourage their users to love and build rather than destroy.
The desperation that warrant pulling down government buildings to win political battles, many of which are self induced, cannot in any way be justified at all. The governors should remember a popular proverb that says a king that builds and turn forest to town and the one that did otherwise will never be forgotten.
Furthermore, they should also remember that life is like a stage, you play your part and leave for others to come and play their own part. This type of unimaginable attitude is the reason why many political watchers are of the opinion that there must be some evil spirits propelling Nigeria governors and other political office holders to do things that appear to be out of this world once they get into office. A word is supposed to be enough for the wise. BIYI ODUYALE adebiyioduyale@gmail.com (An educationist and a former school administrator)
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