Governance without Sparks
It is remarkable to note that in recent times, the over-used cliché of “nascent democracy”, is no longer a regular lexicon in our political conversations. It is not for nothing. Having done unbroken 20 years in the “Democracy school”, the age of nascency (permit the inflection) should have been over, even as we continue to learn one thing or the other, as we move forward.
Twenty years after, therefore, we expect to see improvement in the governance style at all levels. But rather than improve, we seem to be seeing retrogression.
In the third republic, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum was a lot more active and progressive. It soon served as a ground for peer review mechanism. The governors tried to subtly compete. They compared notes amongst themselves
What’s more, in the third republic, then President Olusegun Obasanjo and his vice, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar had it as a policy to undertake what was then described as State Visits. That policy required either the president or the Vice to embark on a two or three- day visit to states wherein they would tour, inspect and commission projects executed by the state government being visited.
Then, governors were eager to construct roads, build schools, embark on water projects, build hospitals and health centres, and even get into ambitious programmes like energy generation (like Rivers and Lagos -- which attempted to under Bola Tinubu with the botched Enron Energy project)
That fostered some kind of healthy rivalry among the governors, as they strove to ensure there is something worthwhile to show Mr President as dividend of democracy.
Today, al that is long gone. The policy may have started the journey to death under late President Umaru Yar ’Adua.
When presidential visits stopped, the state governors themselves, through the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) began to organize what looked like peer review mechanism among themselves. They met and indeed compared notes.
I remember how former Justice Mohammed Uwais chaired such fora which had members like Mrs Ayo Obe, Olisa Agbakoba etc. They had a template of measuring performance among the governors. In a way, it helped to keep them on their toes, as there was a conscious effort to “do something” which can be visible and remarkable.
Not anymore! Most of the states have gone to seed. They are on another level of irresponsibility.
Even the media (particularly THISDAY) used to send reporters across the country trying to ascertain how much impact the governors have had on their people vis-à-vis the projects and programmes they have executed.
The present set of governors literally run like sole administrators.
They do not even hold Town Hall meetings. There is no forum for the citizenry to meet the governors and interrogate their programmes and policies. They operate like zombie administrators. No feedback, no connect.
Nobody checks them. Not even the Houses of Assembly in the states, many of whom are literally in the pockets of the state governors. They swing wherever the governor wants them to swing. A classical example is the present Imo State House of Assembly where 27 out of 28 lawmakers who were until recently all PDP members have suddenly decamped to All Progressive Congress (APC), just because their new governor, Hope Uzodinma is an APC member. President Buhari hardly leaves Aso Rock for anything like State Visit, except his now many foreign trips. Professor Yemi Osinbajo also does not undertake any state visit. The consequence is that the state governors are almost appearing like lords and islands unto themselves, as nobody questions them and their activities, not even the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), many of which are also gasping to drag in some breath.
Nothing propels or urges them to perform. There are hardly set goals.
Their campaign promises are what they are: campaign promises. They are merely fragile ladders with which they climb into office. They are soon discarded.
We are in era where there is no sanctity with the state or even national budget. The huge noise and ceremony that precedes the passage of budgets in Nigeria is merely to sell the impression that Nigerian government operates on structured expenses. Too often, the state governments run unchecked and operate with no deference to the provisions of the budget. Were it not so, the former governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, who was also the chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), would not have the guts to formally request the sitting governor to be paying him ‘ex-governor’s allowance’ of N10 million every month. Such audacity!
There are many such ‘paddy-paddy’ arrangements that are running without the knowledge of the public, all to the detriment of the people.
Getting re-elected for second term, for the governors, is hardly premised on performance these days. Money does it! Huge sums are stolen and with that the electoral system and processes are manipulated. And the beat goes on. The electorate get poorer and short-changed. And we make no progress as a country. Only few states are an exception to this malaise. And all we see on the horizon is governance without sparks. Sad!