Kogi State governor Usman Ododo has so far spoken and acted like someone undeserving of the office his predecessor and kinsman Yahaya Bello single-handedly gifted him. Everything about the new governor betrays his mindset: his wistful look, his unspeakable subservience to the former governor, his first set of appointments, his deferential statements. He will not be the first man to be imposed on a people, nor will he be the last. Those who claim to be his betters, such as ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, had done much worse in imposing misfits and ruining whole destinies. There is indeed hardly any former governor not susceptible to the itch to aggregate to himself the interest of the state’s electorate. In nearly all the impositions, Nigeria has been worse for it. Now, a different kind of farcical electoral shenanigan is playing out in the governorship polls of Edo and Ondo States, for obviously no lessons have been learnt. The field is crowded in Edo State, which will be the first to have a go at imposition in September, and for the November Ondo poll, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, probably the most remorseless of governors, given the way he handled the illness of his predecessor, has a head start in an uninspiring field of aspirants.
Edo first, then. Governor Godwin Obaseki has no conception of loyalty or finesse. Nor does he care anything about ideology or fairness. He is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over which, in the Edo chapter, he has a tenuous hold as leader. He will first need to get his protégé elected in the primary poll slated for later this month, but will almost certainly head into the September poll with a fairly divided house, an unruly field of political and governorship hopefuls, and a hardly disguised preference for Asue Ighodalo, a corporate lawyer and investment banker. But then there is also Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama from the Dan Orbih/Nyesom Wike PDP faction, and the cantankerous and sometimes disagreeable deputy governor, Philip Shaibu, who is determined to be a pain in the neck of Mr Obaseki. The governor won his second term exemplifying the state’s suspicion of the godfather phenomenon, an electoral tool deployed with devastating impact against ex-governor Adams Oshiomhole who denounced his leadership and backed Osagie Ize-Iyamu, a pastor. The governorship primaries in the PDP and APC are therefore expected to be keenly contested, but the victors are unlikely to underscore the beauty and independence of democratic practice in Nigeria.
The dynamics of the Ondo governorship APC primary is unusually different. With a less congested field, which appears more worrisome than Edo’s in terms of leadership capacity, the state may head for an anticlimax. Sen Jimoh Ibrahim is a powerful and wealthy aspirant, but he will have to move mountains to best the incumbent. In his reactions to the late governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s health crisis and eventual death last December, Mr Aiyedatiwa hardly put one foot right. He needed to be patient, circumspect, calculating, and even dissembling if the situation demanded. Instead, he spoke brusquely, displayed abrasive and grating manners, and came across as unfeeling and dismissive. Since assuming the governorship, his tactlessness has left many people squirming and bewildered. But, for a governor, patronage is a powerful tool, and the Ondo governor has won many officials and ordinary people to his side. It is nevertheless too early to determine whether he would win, for his opponents will match him in every department of the game. But incumbency, regardless of how long a governor has been in office, can be stifling and unnerving to any opponent.
Edo and Ondo, however, reinforce and exemplify Nigeria’s deeply flawed succession politics that keeps churning out misfits as local government, state, and federal administrators. The administrators may have flattering academic qualifications, but leadership is far more than academics, far more than loyalty, and far more than looks, eloquence and to some extent even charisma. Decades of focusing on wrong leadership yardsticks have worsened Nigeria’s existential challenges. There will always be global economic pressures triggering or exacerbating domestic economic crisis. And there will always be internal conflicts sometimes consequent upon warped constitutional arrangements and safeguards incapable of mediating ethnic, religious or regional suspicions and pressures. No part of the world is immune to such disharmonies and pressures. What makes the difference is the capacity of their leaders and perhaps too their imagination and boldness. There is nothing in the coming elections in Edo and Ondo that encourages the belief that prospective governors will be judged using the right yardsticks. In Ondo, a flawed Mr Aiyedatiwa schemes his relevance by positioning himself, against all scruples, and even before his benefactor is buried, to take advantage of the state’s desperate situation. And in Edo, the controversial and overhyped Mr Obaseki, who spoke glibly about democracy and denounced godfather politics when he campaigned for a second term, is now desperate to reproduce his kind, with scant attention paid to democratic practices. He believes his preferred candidate’s impressive CV should clinch the argument.
The succession battle raging in Rivers State between Mr Fubara and ex-governor Wike should serve as signal lesson to political leaders eager to impose successors. Nothing is ever guaranteed. Most states where succession was midwifed by meddlesome political leaders have ended in a cul de sac. But no one takes history lessons to heart, and as Ondo may yet prove, perhaps even those who will vote at the party primary as well as at the governorship election seem absolutely incapable of learning anything. The choices facing Edo may be less complicated than Ondo’s; but simple or complicated, the chances of producing first-rate leaders, when the outgoing leader is himself third-rate, is one in a million.
Atiku, Makinde and Ibadan blast
A farcical drama played out in Ibadan last week when Governor Seyi Makinde, still smarting from the January 16 explosion in Ibadan, openly jousted with former vice president Atiku Abubakar over the latter’s lack of empathy for the people of Oyo state. Labour Party’s Peter Obi, a former presidential candidate, had visited the state to condole with Mr Makinde and Oyo people over the loss of lives and destruction of properties. The PDP’s former presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku, said the governor plaintively, had not deemed it fit to visit and commiserate.
The former vice president’s media aide, Paul Ibe, however, refuted the governor’s claims. Mr Makinde, a notable member of the famous G-5 was too busy minding other things, he said, to read the letter of sympathy published in the media and issued less than 24 hours after the blast. How the spokesman missed the inanity of his response is hard to say. Of course Alhaji Atiku’s statement was published in the media, but for a former vice president conversant with bureaucracy and officialdom, it is passing strange that he considered such impersonal methods adequate, let alone one a spokesman would openly boast about. Does vindictiveness not have a limit for Alhaji Atiku?
