Governors as emperors

For clarity’s sake, an emperor is a man who solely rules a certain empire. An empire, on its part, could be described as a society of people that is being controlled by only one person. In summary, an emperor is a person, male individual precisely, who singlehanded controls the day-to-day activity of a particular society […]

For clarity’s sake, an emperor is a man who solely rules a certain empire. An empire, on its part, could be described as a society of people that is being controlled by only one person. In summary, an emperor is a person, male individual precisely, who singlehanded controls the day-to-day activity of a particular society and stands not to be questioned by anyone whenever he errs.

With the above definitions, it has become clearer that truly most of our so-called leaders are presently operating like emperors in their respective jurisdictions. Take for instance, a situation where a governor would refuse to conduct the Local Government (LG) election in his state and such scenario would linger till he leaves office. In most cases, he would put up a façade in the name of an election towards the expiration of his tenure, perhaps to prove to people that LG polls were eventually conducted under his watch.

Why wouldn’t such governor be rated as an emperor when every other official in the affected state such as the legislators cum judicial custodians would remain a rubber stamp as the unfortunate scene prevails? Funnily enough, when a court orders the governor to without much ado conduct the long awaited LG polls, he would rather regard such legal directive as baseless.

On a monthly basis, the Federal Government (FG) would release funds accruable to the third tier governments via the various states. In the process, the said allocation would be hijacked by the governors and such funds would never be utilized on the projects for which they are meant. Instead, they would be channeled toward the implementation of non-feasible projects.

The judicial system in the states suffering from such unruly behaviour is vulnerable, to assert the least. I have often times witnessed a situation whereby an injunction is issued by a court of competent jurisdiction to stop a governor from taking a certain intended action, yet the latter would overlook the order with the notion that he alone is in charge of the state.

The vulnerability of the lawmakers in such states cannot be left out. Rather than act as independent elective officials, the legislators would be reduced to mere aides of the governor thus would be left with no choice than to operate as they were instructed by the latter. It’s indeed a pathetic circumstance. What is left for this set of governors is to fence their states in order to possess it as their personal asset.

In the same vein, it’s high time the electorate woke up from slumber. They need to fully acknowledge that they possess the constitutional immunity to recall any lawmaker who is not living up to the expectations. Similarly, they needn’t be reminded that it’s equally their right to say enough is enough whenever the impunity of their governor goes to extreme point. 

All in all, we must bear in mind at all times that he is an elected governor, not an emperor. Think about it!

Comrade Fred Doc Nwaozor, Abuja