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| Govs Imoke, Suntai and Chime |
It is an all-too-familiar spectacle: the governor is hospitalised and the entire state is on the bed with him; the governor travels abroad and the state is in checked-in luggage. When the carousel malfunctions, the people’s destiny, of course, languishes in airport storage.
This would be funny if it were not true. But this, sadly, is the story of Nigerians in the hands of their governors.
The continued absence of some state governors, Sullivan Iheanacho Chime of Enugu and his counterpart in Cross River State, Liyel Imoke, especially from their duty posts for months without proper explanation and proper hand-over to their deputies, illustrates the disrespect with which leaders treat their electors and the country’s constitution.
It also shows the predilection of the governors to turn their states into their private estates even before the ink dries up on their signatures on the oath of office.
Of course, there is nothing wrong in a governor being away from his duty post if the need arises. As a matter of fact, the constitution envisages this need and makes allowance for it. What is wrong, however, is the penchant for the governors to ignore, for self-serving reasons, the provision of the constitution which demands that when a governor is leaving his duty post, he should put in place requisite mechanism for the sustenance or running of government business. In other words, government must not be incapacitated by the absence or incapacitation of the incumbent governor.
To ensure this, the constitution provides for the office of the Deputy Governor whose sole responsibility is to stand in for the Governor in the event that he is sick or absent from the seat of government. In fact, that is the only responsibility constitutionally ascribed to the Deputy Governor in the lifetime of the incumbent. This is the clear intendment of Section 190 of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
It is the contemplation of the constitution that this interim transition of executive powers shall be smooth, straight forward, and devoid of acrimony. Regrettably, this is far from being so as governors are known to abscond with gubernatorial and/or state powers in crass and flagrant disregard of these constitutional stipulations.
The lingering absence of Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State since September 2012 has led to agitations in the state such as could soon lead to a breakdown of peace. In Taraba, Governor Danbaba Suntai’s absence occasioned by his involvement in an aircraft crash, initially grounded the state as little could be done in his absence.
In Cross River State, kicking against the personification of governance is not so loud but no one is fooled into believing that any governance is happening in Liyel Imoke’s absence. Chime of Enugu reportedly took a cumulative leave of absence, which as it were has exceeded permissible limit. Yet, there is no trace of the governor even in the face of agitation, speculation and restiveness, which this has generated.
The question is: why are the heads of government at various levels afraid to hand over to their deputies? Why would the President be afraid to hand over to the Vice President or a governor to his deputy in appropriate cases? It was this attitude that led to the unnecessary political crisis following the failure of the late president, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, to hand over to his deputy when he was incapacitated by ill-health, until maximum pressure from the populace compelled the National Assembly to break the constitutional deadlock with its doctrine of necessity.
Of what relevance is the oath of office sworn to by these officials by which they undertake to discharge their duties “to the best of their ability, faithfully and in accordance with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria” if an obligation as basic as handing over to a person presumably co-elected as their deputy becomes a difficult task. After all, the governor and his deputy are bound by a joint - ticket.
The deputy governors must also be prepared at all times to rise up to the occasion whenever it is imperative to do so, to preserve the dignity attached to the office. The constitution demands that “the Deputy Governor shall perform the functions of the Governor as Acting Governor”. He is not expected to do less.
The State Houses of Assembly, of course, have become rubber-stamps for governors and have abdicated, for pecuniary gains, the role they ought to play to douse the tension created by the continued absence of their governors.
The State Legislature should wake from inertia and justify its existence as an arm created to rein in the executive branch. Failure by any governor to transmit any declaration to the House of Assembly regarding his vacation or absence, that would be a fundamental aberration, nay a violation of the constitution, which may expose him to the allegation of gross misconduct. In such a situation, the House of Assembly only needs to wait for 21 days and not eternity, as many do now, to invoke the provision of Section 190 (2) of the Constitution which enjoins it to pass a resolution by a simple majority mandating the deputy governor to “perform the functions of the office of the governor as Acting Governor until the Governor transmits a letter to the Speaker that he is now available to resume his functions as Governor”. This is what should happen now. Not unnecessary grand standing; not even a threat of impeachment.
The flagrant impunities and imperiousness that reign in governance in Nigeria is driven by a conquest mentality on the part of the so-called leaders. Having ‘won’ the office, the people stay conquered and so-called leaders are in office only for service to self.
Yet, a culture of service to all is what Nigeria’s elected officers should imbibe.
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