The flipside of power

In five days, the sirens will stop blaring. The convoy will thin out. The retinue of aides will be no more. The freebies upon freebies will cease, and the power almost beyond the limit will no longer exist. The phone calls will drastically drop. These are the realities that will hit governors who will serve out their terms on May 29.

As governors, there is a larger-than-life image around individuals elected or rigged in. Sirens announce their arrival and exit from events. Aides have headache on their behalf. Things happen at their say so. A governor once asked that a boy who insulted him be beaten to a pulp and brought to him. He thereafter gave the boy’s father money to rehabilitate him. The beating was carried out by men of our security agencies who are well aware that their action was unconstitutional. But who were they to disobey the governor? Such is the power of a governor.

It is, however, a different kettle of fish after a governor has completed his tenure of office. Some of them even go broke. The flipside of power is nothing like life in power.

That perhaps explains why some governors have tried to make provisions for their lives after power to be close to their years in power. About a year to the end of Godswill Akpabio’s tenure as Akwa Ibom State Governor, the House of Assembly initiated a bill, which literally meant he did not have to work again for the rest of his life. If the law had endured, Akpabio’s headache would have become the state’s. His pain, the state’s. His worries would have been sold to the state. He could rest and the state would bear the brunt for him.

By the virtue of the controversial law, the state would have been paying Akpabio N100 million annual medical allowances. He would have been entitled to a brand new official car and utility vehicle once every four years; a personal aide paid for by the government would have served him for the rest of his life; his security would have been sorted out by the government, and he would have been paid some N5 million annually as pay-out for a cook, chauffeurs and security guards.

Additionally, he would have been entitled to a house either in Abuja or any part of the state at the expense of the government; a furniture allowance of 300 per cent of his annual basic salary must be paid to him once every four years; annual maintenance and fuel allowance of 300 per cent of his annual basic salary and severance, a gratuity of 300 per cent of his annual basic salary must be paid to him.

In the wisdom of the lawmakers, he also deserved a yearly utility allowance of 100 per cent of basic salary. There was also a provision which mandated the government to bear the full cost of the burial of the beneficiary and pay a condolence allowance equivalent to the annual basic salary to his next of kin. The gesture would have been extended to his predecessors.

For a fact, Akpabio did not score first by assenting to this bill, which some have vowed was his idea in the first place. One or two governors had done something similar. With hues and cries, Akpabio put a seal to the whole debate by initiating a reversal. He said the state government had sent a bill to the House of Assembly requesting that a section of the controversial state Pension Act be expunged. He also asked that the act be reverted to the status quo.

But even if generous retirement package is secured, the loss of influence is a shock that many in power will now have to deal with post-May 29. For those who even get elected to the Senate or get an appointment at the federal level, it does not take long before they realise that being a minister is not like being a governor: the influence and power are just incomparable. It is even worse being a minister under a president like Muhammadu Buhari who has largely tightened the treasury!

Please permit me to mention Abiola Ajimobi, Oyo State Governor, who lost his bid to return to the Senate to Kola Balogun — the younger brother of one of the new obas in Ibadan. Ajimobi was a senator before becoming governor and was cocksure he would become a senator once more, contrary to a prayer he once said that there was no position he craved again after leading Oyo.

As a sitting governor, many thought Ajimobi should easily win the election in one senatorial district. But he lost. And certainly, life after May 29 will never be the same again. With APC losing the governorship, the pain of loss will have its political effect on Ajimobi, who may now have to battle Communications Minister Adebayo Shittu for the state’s ministerial slot.

Shittu and Ajimobi have never been on the same page. Shittu wanted to be governor but was screened out by the national secretariat of the party for skipping National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). He became a minister despite Ajimobi’s objection. I see a major fight ahead of these sworn enemies!

Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha is another man who will miss the power. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has so far delisted the outgoing governor from the list of elected senators.

Not long after the apostle of Iberiberism was declared winner, the man who declared him duly elected cried out that he did so under duress. INEC later came out with a statement that any candidate declared winner at gunpoint would not be recognised. The threat became real when the commission published the list of senators-elect and His Excellency’s name was omitted. This interesting development came at a time Okorocha’s son-in-law and preferred successor Uche Nwosu was duly defeated by former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha. Ihedioha, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, was Okorocha’s closest rival in the 2015 election. For His Excellency, it was double jeopardy.

Special mention must be made of Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun, who, though succeeded in his bid to become a senator, lost his gamble to have Adekunle Akinlade as the state’s next governor. Dapo Abiodun, the man he fought tooth and nail to thwart his bid to be governor, will be the new landlord in Oke-Mosan from May 29 —which also will mark his 59th birthday. Interesting times sure await Amosun, whose bitterness towards a friend appears set to contribute to making the flipside of power more difficult to adjust to.

My final take: For those who are taking power as governors in five days, four or eight years is not a long time. The years only look like a long time away, but the moment they start counting, they become like candles in the wind and whether or not we like it, they are soon reduced to wax on the floor.