Sanwo-olu, Ihedioha, Babagana, 26 others take office as governors today
…amid high expectations, slowing economy
Few hours from now, a total of 29 governors-elect will take the oath of office as governors for a fouryear term, having won the March 9, 2019 governorship election in their various states.
Those to be sworn in today include seven first-time governors and 22 incumbents who have won a second term.
In Lagos, Babajide SanwoOlu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) will succeed the outgoing Governor Akiwunmi Ambode of the same party, while in Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha of the People’s Democratic Party will take over from Rochas Okorocha of the APC.
Also to be sworn in are Inuwa Yahaya (Gombe, APC), Darius Ishaku (Taraba, PDP), Abdullahi
Sule (Nasarawa, APC), Maimala Buni (Yobe, APC), Seyi Makinde (O yo, pdp),da po ab io dun(o gun, APC), Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq (Kwara, APC), Babagana Zulum (B or no, apc ), ahmed u mar fin tiri (Adamawa, PDP), and Mohammed Mattawale (Zamfara, PDP), who was recently declared winner by the supreme court.
Others include Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu, PDP), David U ma hi( ebonyi,pdp ), muhammad Badaru (Jigawa, APC), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia, PDP), Abubakar Bello (Niger, APC), Emma nu elud om( a kw aib om, PDP), Ben Ayade (Cross River, PDP), Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta, PDP), Nasir El-rufai (Kaduna, APC), Mohammed Badaru (Jigawa, APC), Aminu Masari (Katsina, APC), Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi, APC), Simon Lalong (Plateau, APC), Nyesom Wike (Rivers, PDP), Samuel Ortom (Benue, PDP), Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto, PDP), and Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano, APC).
The governors will be ushered in with high expectations from the citizenry amid negative economic indices across the country. Many citizens, weighed down by worsening poverty, look up to the incoming governors for salvation.
For these governors, this might not be the time to promise so many and achieve so little, but analysts say they should focus on the core areas they can make impact on the common man.
Sanwo-olu, incoming governor of Lagos State, would have to deploy an effective and efficient means that would ease flow on movement for the well over 20 million Nigerians living and doing business in the coastal state that prides itself as the Centre of Excellence.
Incoming governors in the North of the country will be faced with the challenge of improving the safety and security of the populace whom they will pledge today to govern. Many parts of the North have for long been ravaged by the Boko Haram insurgency, while the herdsmen threat has spread far into the North-central and many parts of the South.
Many of the states’ economies are also in a precarious condition. With allocations from the Federation Account ever dwindling, analysts have emphasised the need for diversification of the economy away from the traditional reliance on monthly allocations from Abuja towards deploying far-reaching economic policies that would drive growth in their respective states.