Governor-elect without a program

He asked me to advise him on his media relations. I said the most important thing was to take into account the media’s traditions when drawing up his program of rule. The media, I said, traditionally marks a ruler’s 100 days in office, then his six months in office, then his one year in office, […]

He asked me to advise him on his media relations. I said the most important thing was to take into account the media’s traditions when drawing up his program of rule. The media, I said, traditionally marks a ruler’s 100 days in office, then his six months in office, then his one year in office, followed by his two years in office, and then the end of his first four years in office. Therefore, I said, it is important to break down his program of rule into time periods so that at each stage he will have something to show the media. Otherwise, I said, if you only have programs that would take years to mature the newspapers will go to town with stories, features and columns saying you achieved nothing in 100 days. This could damage your public image to a point where it is difficult to recover.
Then came the shocker. The Governor-elect asked me to draw up his program of rule. At first I thought I did not hear him well. I thought, “How can anyone get elected as a governor without a program of rule? He must have one; what he probably wants me to do is to help break it down into time periods in order to conform with media traditions.” We talked about many other issues and when he was about to leave I said, “Sir, where is the program so that I can work on it?” He said, “There is no program. That is why I asked you to produce one for me.” At that point I wanted to say, “What do you mean there is no program? You wasted people’s time and asked them to vote for you when you know you don’t have a program?” Of course I didn’t say that but I told him as politely as possible that I was not in a position to write a program for him since I have never lived in that state and I did not know what its problems, resources or aspirations were. He needed a committee to do that, after which I could polish and break it down into time periods.
Today there are 20 fresh governors-elect at loose in Nigeria. I am not talking about the governors that have just secured fresh governorship mandates and who are experienced rulers already. I am thinking more about the governors-elect of Sokoto, Kebbi, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Kaduna, Bauchi, Adamawa, Taraba, Niger, Plateau, Benue, Lagos, Delta, Enugu, Abia, Ebonyi, Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Rivers states who are about to govern states for the first time in their lives.
We should do some disaggregation. Some of the new governors-elect already have rich experience in governance and may not require much adjustment to Government House. Governor-elect Dave Umahi of Ebonyi has been a deputy governor for eight years so he is not new to power. Governor-elect Nasiru el-Rufa’i was a virtual governor as FCT Minister while Governors-elect Aminu Waziri Tambuwal and Aminu Bello Masari held [Tambuwal still holds] the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives, a political post higher than a governor’s. Some other governors-elect have been senators, ministers, commissioners and state assembly speakers all of which was relevant leadership experience. Yet, I cannot but wonder if each and every one of them has already produced, printed and adopted his program of rule. Never mind if he has not broken it down into segments in order to escape future media blackmail; there is still enough time to do so. The problem is with the governor-elect who does not have a program already.
You see, distraction in this circumstance is understandable because every governor-elect’s house is now a mecca, a beehive of activity. There was a newspaper story last week saying that visitors to the Presidential Villa in Abuja have dropped by two thirds since President Goodluck Jonathan lost the election. This must be the case in the states as well. In the ten states where power is being transferred from PDP to APC no contractor, senior civil servant or traditional ruler would like to be seen visiting the outgoing governor. [I make an exception of Bauchi State; I saw a picture of the state’s royal fathers visiting Governor Isa Yuguda last week].
Instead, the governor-elect gets a surfeit of visitors. Politicians that worked in his campaign, now pitch tents permanently in his house and office so that their contributions will not be forgotten during the sharing of posts and contracts in the new regime. Commissionership posts are highly sought after in the new regime, as are the headships of some key state agencies. In every Nigerian state the headship of State Basic Education Commission [SBEC] is a plum job while in states such as Lagos, Rivers, Kano and Kaduna headship of the internal revenue agency is a plum job. Also jostling around the governor-elect are people angling for leadership positions in the state assembly, those angling to become permanent secretaries, contractors who are bidding for juicy contracts, bankers who want to grab the state government’s accounts and princes who want to be remembered when their fathers’ thrones fall vacant.
Given all this commotion a governor-elect may easily forget to draft a program of governance. It is never far from his mind that he must seek re-election in four years’ time. Some governors begin thinking about re-election the day they are sworn into office. If however a governor adopts the wrong strategy from day one, then he might have imperilled his re-election chances from the start. During the 2015 elections many governors-elect in the North rode to power on the very long coattails of the Buhari guguwa [best translated as the Hurricane Buhari]. Now, this guguwa may or may not blow again in 2019. Even if it does, a governor has no assurance that it will again blow in his favour. Some other governors-elect, mostly in the South, rode to power with the help of local godfathers, mostly outgoing two-term governors. Obviously they will be on their own in 2019.
Given the game-changing role played by the card reader in the 2015 elections, it is better for a governor to assume that this traumatic national political experience will be deepened in 2019 with further electoral reforms. In which case, a governor-elect today should expect to rely less on godfathers and guguwa in 2019 and more on his good standing in the eyes of voters. The key to this obviously is to deliver on a dynamic and impactful program of rule. You cannot do that if you don’t have a well thought out program.
The essential elements of a good governance program will be similar in all the states but there must be variations based on individual states’ peculiarities. Now, any expert will say the key to any Nigerian state’s future development and prosperity is education. Yet, education is a slow-running affair that may not produce visible results for a generation. As such, a first term governor may prefer to concentrate on areas that bring quicker political results. The key to Alhaji Ahmed Makarfi’s tenure success in Kaduna State was his razor sharp focus on three things: roads, rural water and rural electrification. Every social and economic sector will come to a governor begging for intervention but unless he sticks to his priorities, his tenure will end without visible impact in any area.
A governor must also have cat-like program flexibility. If the music changes the dancing must also change. Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno was pursuing a very dynamic program of agricultural projects, urban housing and school construction but when Boko Haram crisis enveloped the state, he flipped over and made housing, feeding and clothing IDPs his top priority. That must explain why he was recently re-elected with 95% of the vote.