IN November 1981, Alhaji Muhammadu Shehu Kangiwa, Second Republic and first elected governor of old Sokoto State (now Sokoto and Kebbi states), fell off his horse and died while playing polo, in the 1981 edition of the Georgian Polo League.
Did the governor, as a public figure, have the right to endanger the life of a public property, even if he had his inalienable private right to play polo?
In October 2012, Danbaba Danfulani Suntai, governor of Taraba State, crashed in a small aircraft he was personally flying, sustaining serious injuries with all the passengers on board. Now, did Mr. Suntai have the right to risk his life as governor, even if he had a private right to indulge his passion for flying?
These are hard questions in a republican and federal state, satisfactory answers to which would help to strengthen state institutions and deepen democracy. Where, for instance, do the personal rights of a governor end and where begin state strictures, in exchange for immense gubernatorial – or even presidential – benefits, that come with that office?
In other words, did Governor Suntai have the right to fly himself, even with his pilot’s licence, knowing full well the avoidable dangers such an adventure constitutes to the life of the Taraba governor, which though he is, he is not a sum total of?
And even on his hospital bed in Germany, is the governor culpable of risking the lives of hapless aides constitutionally sanctioned to be with him and even risking the collective asset of his state – the crashed aircraft, which the governor does not own – even if he knew that the flying of the plane should have been left to more professional hands?
If indeed the governor could be legitimately charged with culpability in risking the lives of lesser mortals in his suite by his decision to fly, what logic drove the evacuation of the governor to a foreign hospital, while leaving other victims of the crash at home?
And if the logic of flying the governor abroad is for better care, is Nigeria, a republican state, now saying that though republican tenets proclaim every citizen equal before the law, some of its own citizens are more equal than the others, as in George Orwell’s famous satire, Animal Farm?
Even more on the basis of justice and equity: should the governor get rewarded with better care for executive recklessness, while the victims of his actions are abandoned to their fate, even if the government can counter-argue that it is giving the governor’s aides the best care it could afford?
This annoying double standard and brazen lack of respect for the rights of the underdog must have fired the ultimatum Femi Falana, SAN, issued to the powers that be to fly the other crash victims abroad as the governor or face a legal challenge – but more on that presently.
The Yoruba – and certainly other cultures – have a wry way of dismissing unbridled excesses that lead to foretold but needless disasters, even in the most private of affairs.
“Omo yo tan, o npe baba re l’eranko” [The wayward brat calls his doting father a fool], goes a Yoruba proverb. But who does not know that the parents just need to cut off their munificence to bring the brat crashing and begging?
A more detailed anecdote, made more popular by Juju music ace, Ebenezer Obey, spoke of a vain, rich man who rolled out everything, in a reckless celebration of the unknown festival of wealth and prosperity. In the heat of it all, he fell off his galloping horse, broke his neck and died!
Thanks to Chinua Achebe and his classic Things Fall Apart, the non-Igbo are exposed to similar societal sanctions, in Igbo traditional society. One of those follies, as pointed out by the master storyteller, is the all-muscle-no-brain who felt himself powerful enough to challenge his chi (personal god) to a wrestling bout!
All these underscore only one thing: order is the first law in heaven – and is certainly not the last on earth! So even in the primordial state, modes of behaviour guide the community. In the complex modern state, these modes are codified into the Basic Law, which not only creates public offices and institutions but also clearly states the relationship among state officials – such as a governor and his aide-de-camp, chief security officer (CSO) and chief detail: all these three, incidentally put in harm’s way by Governor Suntai’s decision to fly an aircraft, though it must be stated that the governor could not have wilfully endangered his own life, not to talk of the other three’s.
And just as well the three victims: Dasat Iliya (aide-de-camp), Timo Dangana (CSO) and Joel Danladi (chief detail) have been flown to Germany for medical care, as with the governor, according to newspaper reports of Sunday, November 4.
It is not clear how much this change of heart had to do with Mr. Falana’s threatened suit, though the story spoke of bowing to public opinion, with the additional spin that the governor, perhaps to salve his conscience, had insisted on their coming to Germany.
There is nothing to suggest that spin, of the governor insisting his security aides should be brought to join him in Germany, is contrived. But it is a moot point, with the reported extent of the governor’s injury, if he is in any condition to bother about the state of his fellow victims in the crash.
Besides, there is ominous gathering of clouds that the polity is set for the Taraba version of Vice President Goodluck Jonathan Vs Yar’adua Cabal constitutional outrage, with a Taraba cabinet lobby reportedly suggesting that though Deputy Governor Garba Umar is good enough as deputy governor in the eyes of the 1999 Constitution, he is not good enough to act as governor during the governor’s medical leave, in the eyes of this puritanical lobby – and Alhaji Umar’s personal faith appears to be the culprit! See how a reckless individual action can put the whole polity in a tailspin?
While wishing Governor Suntai quick recovery, his odyssey should serve as timely warning to the president and Nigeria’s gubernatorial tribe that stringent conditions come with the office of president or governor – and that is strictly obeying the laws that created these high offices.
If Governor Suntai had obeyed these laws, he would not have decided to himself fly a plane (when a full time pilot could be procured for that chore), put himself and his security aides in jeopardy and gift his state a potential but needless constitutional crisis, in a North East that already has its hands full with the murderous Boko Haram insurrection.
The president and the governors are not democratic emperors, which is a contradiction in terms. Rather, they are creations and servants of the Constitution, without which they are nothing but ordinary citizens, as others in a democratic republic.
