Nigerian Governors must be a timid lot. Timid beyond words and beyond pardon. The cause of their timidity is not far fetched. Civilian governors especially since 1999 must have inherited their loss of dignity from the long rule of the military which made its governors mere errand boys to their Commander-In-Chief. With the Military’s command and obey structure military governors considered their deployment to administer states as mere postings and their loyalty was to the starched jackboot at the centre. Thus in those heady days of military dictatorship governors in neighbouring states would troop to wherever the military head of state was visiting. If the Military head of state was visiting Ibadan for instance all the governors in the Western region including those of Kwara, Edo and Delta would march to Ibadan to show loyalty and pay obeisance.
Unfortunately for civilian governors who came on board with Chief General Olusegun Obasanjo as President, Obasanjo was a hard nut to crack and he was to all intents and purposes a military General except for his starched agbada. All the governors who served between 1999 and 2007 with the exception of Chief Ahmed Tinubu of Lagos state held Obasanjo in fearful awe, and it was that fact and factor that allowed Obasanjo to take the Western region governors for a ride in 2003.
The second reason for the nauseating timidity is the fact of Nigeria ’s Unitary form of government, again, a carry over from the long Military Rule. Civilian governors are made to go cap-in-hand to Abuja every month to collect hand-outs from the Federal Government. This shameful practice has made nonsense of the status of governors who in real sense are mere glorified school prefects. They do not even have a say in how much is doled out to them every month!
When you talk to the governors they all express helplessness in the fate imposed on them by Nigeria ’s military crafted ‘Constitution’. They all know that something terrible is happening in the country, they know that the polity is not what or how it is supposed to be but they all shrug their shoulders as if to say the matter is beyond them.
Many things are wrong with the way the country is being run. Every governor is unhappy that they are not allowed to generate their own power to service their respective states. All the governors are not happy that collaborating governors of a geopolitical zone cannot come together and create a light rail. All the governors are not happy that their states are being overrun by hoodlums, armed robbers and ruthless kidnappers and yet cannot do anything to reverse the trend because security is out of their control. Almost all the governors have cried out for the establishment of state and regional police force to ensure workable and efficient community policing, yet the god in Abuja would not allow.
A few years back Governor Rauf Aregbesola was like a lone ranger crying in the wilderness about the serious stealing in NNPC and the loss of massive crude oil on the high seas. All he said has now been confirmed by recent exposures, but at that time no other governor had the courage to cry out.
The question to ask our governors now is “Are you satisfied with the way you’re living?” as Bob Marley would pose. Is this the best way to run a modern democracy? Are you satisfied that our national currency, the monetary symbol of our Sovereignty has become a toilet paper? Are you happy that the Federal Government has hijacked all the moneys and resources meant for the whole country? Are you happy that Abuja takes almost 70% of all the revenue while leaving the 36 states, Federal Capital Territory and 774 Local Governments with a paltry 30 per cent?
Our beggar governors, are you satisfied that the Federal government has usurped most of your functions like feeding primary school children and building low income houses in states and local governments? Are you happy that there is a bogus body called Basic Education Board? Are you happy that most roads that ought to have been the primary responsibility of local and state governments have been taken over by the ubiquitous Federal Government?
Is there anything federal about your so-called federal government?
If all the posers worry you, what in God’s name are you doing to redress the choking anomalies? What are your Governors forums doing to free Nigeria and your state governments from the stranglehold of the Unitary government in Abuja ? What stops the APC Governors Forum, the PDP Governors Forum and national Governors Forum [if that one still exists] from coming together to mount pressure on the Unitary Government in Abuja to shed weight?
Why can’t the Governors Fora employ the services of the best Constitutional lawyers in the land and drag the Unitary Government in Abuja to the Supreme Court and clip the wings of the overbearing national government?
State governors have a great role to play if this unfortunate country is ever to survive the economic mismanagement which is about to send her to untimely grave. I remember crying out in frustration last week that Nigeria is ripe for breakup. While some commentators hold to the view that Nigeria could be a great country if built on justice, equity and fairness, the corollary is who and what will make that building possible?
When will the governors have the courage to challenge the irritating lopsidedness of appointments in the country? When will the governors have the courage to challenge the concentration of all apparatus of coercion in one section of the country to the obvious detriment of other sections?
State governors must shed off the silly toga of timidity and inferiority complex and recognise that Abuja is just one government out of the 37 governments in the country. Our governors travel out to other countries, have they ever heard that when the Prime Minister of Canada visits a province all neighbouring Premiers come sheepishly to watch him yawn? Even the premier of the province being visited may not even pay the least notice to the visit. The same thing applies in the US and other federations or Confederations in the world.
I challenge the state governors to live up to their billing and stop being timid and disrespectful of themselves. State governors have a great role to play in freeing Nigeria from the enslavement by the Unitary government in Abuja .

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