The son of the governor is also the governor? LWKMD!

At the end of last week, I came across a video of one of Governor Ikpeazu’s sons being transported like a governor, convoy and all to some event. He had women- his mother’s age, if not his grandmother’s- lining the dusty road, singing and dancing to welcome him.  The MC (?) who breathlessly announced his […]

At the end of last week, I came across a video of one of Governor Ikpeazu’s sons being transported like a governor, convoy and all to some event. He had women- his mother’s age, if not his grandmother’s- lining the dusty road, singing and dancing to welcome him.  The MC (?) who breathlessly announced his arrival even referred to him as “His Excellency” because the “son of His Excellency is also His Excellency, yes.” Kai! Na who do us this thing ooooo? See the level of stupidity? The son of the governor is also the governor? Governorship na inheritance to be passed down from father to son? Was Chinedu Ikpeazu and his siblings voted in to govern Abia State?  

As incredible as it seems, there are those who think that there is nothing wrong with the 21-year-old being treated like the governor. Some have said that he was representing his father and therefore deserved to be transported and welcomed like the governor would have. Absolute rubbish. First of all, he’s not an elected official and shouldn’t be representing the governor in any official capacity. Governorship no be birthright. Where was the deputy governor? The speaker of the house? The local government chairman? The majority leader of the house? The commissioner for whatever? And if Chinedu was standing in for his father in an unofficial capacity at a private event, then why all the police escorts and convoy and sirens and etc.? I even came across a post justifying the nonsense by saying that the said governor’s son looked decent and modest and had a good haircut bla bla bla and after all, if you’re the son of a governor, chances are that you’re mixing with folks who can show you how to make money and the cars might be gifts the young man had been given and folks should stop hating on him for his good fortune. Such drivel. Tufiakwa!  

You know how it works in serious countries? Government property no be private property and the son of a public official is simply that: the child of a public official. Last year, the now resigned German Minister of Defence, Christine Lambrecht came under fire when it was discovered – thanks to an Instagram post- that she had used a government helicopter to take her 21-year-old son, Alexander, on a family vacation. Arguably, the scandal contributed to her resignation last week. It was at least one of the many missteps she made that resulted in her being forced to resign her post.  Here in the US, a California National Guard top commander, Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Magram was fired after officials received reports that he asked his subordinates to run personal errands for him, including taking his mother grocery shopping and once, making an on-duty Guard member drive him to a dental appointment.    

Perhaps if Lambrecht and Magram had had the ‘good fortune’ of being Naija rather than German and American respectively, they wouldn’t have been forced to give up their jobs simply for exercising their rights as big ogas. Governor Ikpeazu isn’t even being called to apologise. He is yet to acknowledge that he did anything wrong in sending his son to be the “governor’s representative,” with the governor’s convoy. Mba. Instead, we have folks defending this nonsense behaviour, and it is business as usual. SMH. What I find ironic is that for a man who appears to talk about legacies a lot, Governor Ikpeazu seems unperturbed by the legacy he’s leaving behind as the state’s chief executive officer. 

Speaking as a concerned half Abia State indigene, let me ask: has Ikpeazu paid pensioners yet? Last I heard (in November, granted), Abia State workers hadn’t been paid in thirty months and retired workers hadn’t received their pensions (some since February of 2021), which led the NLC boss to warn that  Abia State was fast becoming one of “Nigeria’s most worker-unfriendly sub-national governments.”  What a shame! And don’t even let me get started on the state of roads in Abia. 

If the son of the governor is also the governor, perhaps, Abia State citizens should ask Chinedu Ikpeazu to fix the state instead of rolling out the red carpet for him. Abi, the miraculous transmutation from father to son only extends to enjoying the privileges of the office? Our mumu never do?