Yesterday the baton of governorship changed in no fewer than 12 states. New governors took charge, and others were sworn into office for  a second term. Some of the exiting governors found new abodes in the Senate, except for former Governor Yari of Zamfara State, whose election as a senator has been nullified by the Supreme Court on account improper primaries in the state, for which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has handed all seats in the state to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Less than a week to swearing in, the victory of  someone who may even have pencilled down names as his cabinet members has been turned to ashes in his mouth. It is hoped that politicians would learn to abide by the rules.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) chairman, Adams Oshiomole, is reported to have faulted the Supreme Court decision. No one knows where he would take his appeal, but the electoral body has complied with the law. When primaries are at the behest of godfathers who want to decide who becomes what, the court should be bold enough to stop them in their tracks. The handover ceremony in many places went well, where same parties retained power. In Lagos, the same party won but internal wrangling within the APC took the shine off the event. Secretary to the state government, Mr. Tunji Bello, played smart politics when he said the government, which he was part of for four years, had no soul, whatever that means. It was a way to stand at a distance from the out-gone governor, who had fallen out of favour with the godfather. Bello wanted to remain in Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s political family. Former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode is politically out in the cold in Lagos. The transition was smooth but the politics was not.

Imo and Ogun present a different kettle of fish. In Ogun, the ruling party won, but the outgone governor did not give his backing to the party’s candidate. Senator Ibikunle Amosun is, however, returning to the Senate from where he came, eight years ago, to replace Gbenga Daniel. Imo is peculiar. Let me preface my comments by stating that I have always rated former Governor Rochas Okorocha high in performance. In all honesty, he has left the state far better than he met it, in spite of his ‘familiocracy.’ It will be hypocritical for anyone to look at the Imo State now and dismiss the regime of Okorocha. He did the best he could, but his greatest undoing was the desire to become the godfather of Imo politics. His insistence on being replaced by his son-in-law became the albatross that bogged him down.

The people became so infuriated, more so the elite, which always had an axe to grind with him. They found a common ground to unite against a mutual foe.  There is an irony in a man who came into office without the input of any godfather now wanting  to enthrone himself as one. He did not know that the people would resist with such vehemence, aided by a bitter elite, most of whom he had sent into political oblivion. He was right when he stated that if those rent-taking political elite were with him, he may not have performed as he hid, given that he would be ‘servicing’ them with state funds, rather than deploying same for developmental purposes. Governor Emeka Ihedioha ought to beware of such things, if he wants to succeed. Rochas was on the right track before he began to enthrone himself as the godfather.

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That phenomenon had never had the wings to fly in Igboland. I hold that, if he had not insisted on imposing his son-in-law to succeed him, Rochas would have been celebrated out of office. That was unmitigated political miscalculation and disaster. He threw everything calculation overboard. He did not reckon with zoning in the state, where his zone had governed virtually since the inception of this democratic dispensation. Now, pitiably, in spite of his good performance, in my rating, his exit is not on a high note. Everyone has looked the other way from his performance. Now the electoral body has denied him a certificate of return to the Senate for an election he purportedly won, though the returning officer said he returned him under duress. Had Rochas supported a neutral person, he would have had a smooth sail to the Senate.

External factors from the state aided his political travails, but he could have mitigated the effects if he had not insisted on ‘familiocracy’ in Imo. There is a trend in the state, where people yearn for the exit of an existing governor, only to look back in nostalgia. Ihedioha must  break that circle. Imo people should hold back encomiums for now, until the new governor shows capacity. Shouts of joy heralded the entrance of Rochas into Government House, but his exit is not on that high note. I hope history would be kind to him, and that he would have learnt that democracy is not the rule of one man and his family.

Rochas built roads, schools, health facilities and general infrastructure, but he did not want to walk away from office. His insistence on his son-in-law was the single stroke that brought him political foes in droves. He must have learnt that godfatherism is alien to Igboland.

He did not come through that route, which is why one is aghast that he put his feet on that thorn-ridden road. Politicians never seem to learn any lesson, but the hope is that Rochas and others would take a good lesson from his experience. There is a sense in which one feels genuine sympathy for a man who did so well but is ending the dance with terrible dance steps. In the last days of his government he gave houses and cars to his predecessors. It must be noted that those were part of their legal entitlements. He has shown that his previous issues with them was just political, not personal. The overriding lesson in the long run is that there is an end to everything that has a beginning.