From the whole to the part (On Naija’s greedy governors)

Earlier on we had tried to get the Sokoto government’s position on a story we were doing but the government spokesman had said he wouldn’t give it to us until he had spoken to his principal. While we were waiting, he called to inform us that both he and Governor Bafarawa were in Abuja. Would […]

Earlier on we had tried to get the Sokoto government’s position on a story we were doing but the government spokesman had said he wouldn’t give it to us until he had spoken to his principal. While we were waiting, he called to inform us that both he and Governor Bafarawa were in Abuja. Would the governor be ready to talk to us then? We enquired, and the spokesman said he will try to arrange that.
Subsequently he called back and said the governor will see us very briefly because he had to leave town that very day. We went to Sokoto Governor’s Lodge for the interview where Bafarawa himself told us that he was rushing out of town to attend the funeral of his close friend, the late governor of Kwara state, Admiral Mohammed Lawal.
We had our brief interview and just as we were rounding up, one of my colleagues asked the governor what his future plans were once his second term in office was over. And he answered that if he failed to be his party’s presidential candidate he will not seek to become a senator. Why not, we asked, since some of his ex-colleagues were already in the senate, and he answered that it’s because ‘I can’t move from governing a whole state to presiding over one-third of it.’ He replied smugly.
At the time I wasn’t impressed with his reply, indeed he came across as rather arrogant. But viewing the disgusting rush with which sitting governors are seeking to secure senate seats today, I can’t help asking where their pride has gone that they are content with one-third of what they used to have as whole? Except that the issue here is not one of pride. The sole motivation for governors desperately seeking to become senators is greed.
When I looked at the list of governors who, running and gasping, made it to the senatorial candidates list yesterday, I couldn’t help marveling at the amount of pure, unadulterated greed that made them seek the seat in the first place. Check out this roll call: Rabi’u
Kwankwaso, Isa Yuguda, Godswill Akpabio, Gabriel Suswam, Aliyu Wamakko, Saidu Dakingari, Jonah Jang, Theodore Orji and Babangida Aliyu.
Yes, these are not the first set to make the transition from ex-governors to senators, indeed like my former boss Mahmud Jega said in his Monday column of December 8th, a Nigerian school child will be forgiven if he believes the senate is a retirement home for governors.
But should it be so? Why would people who should seek a sabbatical in order to ward off the exhaustion of years of service (?) to their homes states demand and block the chances of other aspirants by running for senate?
We Nigerians are known for breaking global records for all the wrong reasons. In other countries of the world which practice popular democracy, politicians move from the legislative to the executive arms of government, but in Nigeria our state governors have managed to reverse the trend by their penchant for running for senate after government houses. And with more and more of them joining the trend every four years, soon we will begin to see the transition as the most natural thing in the world, instead of the aberration that it is.
The fact that some of them resort to all kinds of unwholesome maneuvres to ensure that they emerge as senatorial candidates is a thing of shame indeed. At this point in their lives, they should be thinking of giving back to the society that elevated them to the rank of state chief executives by encouraging, mentoring and indeed sponsoring young and upcoming politicians to fill political offices in their states and on the national scene. But because they are driven by greed, they can’t imagine life without government’s largesse, these former governors would rather continue to recycle themselves in our various political offices than let others try their hands at them.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not vying for any elective post, indeed I am not a card-carrying member of any political party, so this is truly a disinterested attempt at constructive criticism. Must we sit still and let this ugly governor-senator transition continue? What do we gain by it apart from obstructing the political ambition of younger elements in our society? And on the converse side, we gain nothing but a bunch of aging senators who ought to be somewhere resting or otherwise tending to their farms and their grandchildren. Their productivity is greatly hampered by age and their interest in the affairs of the nation almost non-existent because they are more interested in their personal affairs and businesses.
For all intents and purposes, we should stop this trend and the time to do so is now. Let us all rise and make sure that no ex-governor is voted into the senate in 2015. Those who are already there can also be voted out using the same resolution. If these governors are so selfish as to decide that they have to spend the rest of their lives enjoying government’s millions, we should be determined to chase them out through the only means we have; our votes.
So far, the ones already in the senate have made little impact on the state of the nation, it is almost certain that the new ones that will come will do no better. Indeed, if their records as state chief executives are anything to go by, many of them deserve to be guests of the EFCC to account for what they did as governors. But in our country, where everything goes, they are the flag-bearers of their parties, heading for our hallowed chambers. As ex-governors they will spare no expense to get that senatorial seat, they are therefore an unfair match to other candidates who have no such wealth to spend. It is therefore our duty to stop them by not voting for them. Let us clear the space for younger, fresher and possibly untainted minds to run our higher legislative chamber. These greedy folks should be sent home by force.
They may be content to settle for one-third of what they used to govern, we must show them that even that one-third will not come as easily as they think. The holy Quran says ‘Those who are saved from the avarice (greed) of their souls are the most successful.’ Suratul Tagaabun verse 18. Alas we can already see what spiritual failures our former governors are, unless they can withdraw their senate bid now.