From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The usual breakdown and hostilities in the relationship between incumbent governors and their predecessors across most states in the country have remained a major characteristic of the nation’s democratic journey. Since 1999 when democracy was reintroduced in the country till today, the story has been the same.
In this current dispensation, the situation seemed to have worsened. For instance, in Kano State, it is now a straight fight between Governor Abba Yusuf and his predecessor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and in Kaduna State, it is the collapse in the relationship between the governor, Uba Sani, and his benefactor, Nasir El-rufai. In Rivers State, Nigerians are enjoying the battle between the governor, Sim Fubara and his erstwhile godfather, Nyesom Wike,
The Governor Fubara, Wike’s festering feud, the curtain-raiser for the floodgate of clashes between the incumbent and their predecessors in the current political dispensation, which started a few months after Fubara’s swearing-in, actually jolted many Nigerians.
The rift left many Nigerians wondering how both could allow their hitherto cordial relationship to break down to such irredeemable extent.
For many critical observers, it was shocking to see the fight between the hitherto political love birds degenerate to the shooting of guns, issuing threats to lives, burning and destruction of the State House of Assembly complex, and other violent protests. The situation has even taken an ethnic dimension and rivalry between the Ikwerre and Ijaw nationalities.
It did not matter to the gladiators the drastic effects of the supremacy clash on the development and well-being of the state. It was so fierce that not even the controversial intervention of President Bola Tinubu could restore sanity to the troubled state.
And when many thought that both had started savouring the breath of peace of the graveyard, events in the recent past, which culminated in the crossfire utterances from the gladiators last week, confirmed that both may have fully returned to the trenches.
To confirm that none is ready to blink first in the renewed hostilities, attacks were hauled at each other with threats of readiness to deploy every arsenal in their possession for the show of forces to consolidate who is actually in charge.
And unless intervention comes from unexpected sources, the last, certainly, has not been heard over this crisis which will occupy an enviable position in the history book of the current dispensation as the fiercest political clash.
As of today, the crisis in the state is unfolding with such disturbing magnitude capable of consuming either Governor Fubara or dismantling Wike’s much-touted political structure. Surprisingly, when Nigerians were still angrily registering their disappointments over the disturbing trend and dimensions the rumble in the jungle among the political heavyweights in Rivers is taking, news of the declaration of war between hitherto cordial political partners, El-rufai and Uba Sani, broke out against the expectations of many political watchers.
The crisis may have certainly taken many by surprise because their relationship was like a union made in heaven before the recent widening crack revealed the magnitude of animosity both harboured against each other judging by their tantrums.
The onus of the crisis is the allegation from the incumbent governor that the borrowing spree by his hitherto political allies has plunged the state into almost insolvent status, making it difficult to run his government due to deductions, from the source, the state’s federal allocations.
Frowning at the sour relationship, former National Vice Chairman, North-West of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Moh Lukman, had warned that the drastic effects would be cataclysmic and catastrophic if allowed to fester longer than necessary.
He warned: “Praise singers must not be allowed to take over a critical debate which is about the future of the state. Such a debate must not be reduced to the political theatrics of determining the future of the state in terms of only who is right or wrong between a predecessor and successor.
“Such an approach only stagnated the state in the past. It only holds actors at a standstill. Just check where Ahmed Makarfi and Lamadi Sambo today are politically!” Lukman warned.
In Kano State, the situation is also not different. The renewed vicious battle between the immediate past governor, Ganduje, and the incumbent, Abba Yusuf, is expectedly predictable considering their political differences, long harboured animosity and legal fireworks between the NNPP and APC since the declaration of last year’s governorship election in the state.
Expectedly, Governor Abba Yusuf is seriously putting Ganduje on the defensive with last week’s composition of two committees to probe the administration of the APC National Chairman, and threat to file criminal charges against him over alleged bribery of $413,000, and N1.38 billion.
As it is now, with the quantum of political scores to settle between Ganduje and his predecessor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, on one hand and the incumbent, Abba Yusuf, on the other, it may only take fresh legal battle or the intervention of President Tinubu to restore sanity to the state.
The same political feud is equally raging in Cross-River State where the immediate past governor, Ben Ayade, seems to have gone into political oblivion since the emergence of his successor, Bassey Otu.
If Ayade is capable enough to engage in any political battle with his anointed godson, he has left it to continue to incubate perhaps because the spirit and body may apparently be weak to challenge Governor Otu to a duel.
In Abia State, if Governor Alex Oti and his predecessor, Okezie Ikpeazu will engage in any war of attrition, wisdom has prevailed to keep it at the level of hide and seek, with both mostly allowing their aides to reply to allegations of unfavourable debt profiles.
Benue State is not also immune as the political gladiators have been fuelling the crisis manifesting in the current republic across the country. Governor Hyacinth Iormem Alia has ferociously engaged his political godfather, former governor of the state, and the current Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume, in an endless fight.
It was so bad that the national leadership of the APC issued a seven-day ultimatum to the warring persons to withdraw all pending litigations against each other just to restore peace in the state chapter of the ruling party.
A similar situation is also playing out in Zamfara State with the governor, Dauda Lawal Dare, drawing battle lines with his predecessor, Bello Matawalle, over sundry issues, especially the outcome of the governorship election in the state last year.
The clashes between sitting governors and their predecessors, prevalent in every political dispensation, and cutting across political party affiliations, have become a tradition, and apparently assumed a disturbing dimension to the point of posing a threat to Nigeria’s democracy.
The trend which dates back to almost all the successive republics usually took the same dimension where supporters loyal to the gladiators took the battle to each other’s doorstep, dominating the media space with all manners of unprintable abuses in such crossfire capable of claiming lives and disrupting the smooth running of governance of the states.
In the recent past, the rift in Osun State between Rauf Aregbesola and his successor, Gboyega Oyetola, the deadly clash between Rotimi Amaechi and his successor Wike, the surprised face-off between Peter Obi and his godson, Willie Obiano, and the dreaded rift in Enugu State between Chimaroke Nnamani and Sullivan Chime, among others were the few landmark examples worth mentioning in the Nigeria democratic history book.
In every political dispensation, successors and their predecessors have engaged one another in similar political battles for superiority over who was or is in charge of control of the States’ political structure.
The subjects of controversies are always the same. There are usually allegations of attempts to hijack structures through dismantling of political appointments, violation of undocumented gentleman agreement, mostly in the sharing of state resources, failure to cover the tracks of their predecessors over the state’s unhealthy financial situations.
Fuming over the escalating level of clashes between the successors and predecessors, National Secretary of Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), High Chief Peter Ameh, described the trend as greed on the part of the predecessors.
Speaking to Daily Sun while reacting to the drift, Ameh said: “It is pure human greed that is fuelling the crisis. After completing their eight years, the predecessors should walk away honourably. If they give advice and the incumbent didn’t take it, they should make them public through interviews, or write letters like Olusegun Obasanjo did during the Buhari-led administration.”
“It is wrong for them to force their opinions on the sitting executive governors. They don’t expect them to be doing their bidding after they have left office. It is happening because our elections are not free, fair, and credible. That is why godfatherism still exists. Godfatherism exists because they will threaten to deal with the godsons in the next election for failing to do their bidding.
“They don’t believe that the people can back the godsons and they will remind Nigerians how they made the godsons, just like what Wike was shouting on the television how he bought nomination forms for all candidates in Rivers state and how they got the positions they currently occupy.
“Such embarrassing utterance ought not to be made in the public if we should call a spade by its proper name. I don’t care who bought what forms for anybody. The fact is that we must save our democracy because whatever affects Rivers or Kaduna affects other states in the country. It is not about Rivers because it is likely to happen in other parts of the country. But for this, we have to deal with this.
“We run an independent state. The federating units are independent even from the federal units in the first place. It is just some level of collaboration. We are not talking about an individual outside government but those still holding on to power outside government. It will be difficult for the incumbent governor to deliver for the people.
“Everybody in government must be free to act fairly and treat everybody equally in the states in line with the principles of the Constitution. They should not discriminate based on race or religion when the governor knows that he will definitely function and deliver to the people.
“But if he has a godfather breathing down his neck because he bought his ticket, he will take permission on what to do, whether to give the people light, roads, and wait for his approval. Look at the appointment of local government caretaker chairmen in Rivers. Who was appointing them when Wike was the governor? “But today, he still wants to take charge and even screen the list submitted, changing the names. What Wike is doing to Fubara is wrong”, he fumed.
Ameh argued that; “if a former governor does his eight-year tenure, he doesn’t need to worry about controlling his successor, compelling him to do what he wants because God created us with the uniqueness of ideas that if not allowed to implement ours, whatever you are forcing us to implement will not be as balanced as what we want.
“They should allow the person on the saddle to fumble, learn and correct himself so that the people can be the watchdog to make sure that they do the right thing. Not those who have done their part and are using remote control to do another extra term outside their constitutionally required terms. What Wike and others are doing is executing another extra term. It should not be so and nobody should encourage it,” he warned.
In the perception of APC chieftain, Lukman, the complete absence or very weak party structures in the determination of successors is responsible for the crisis. “Similar reality is replicated virtually across all the states in the country. All the challenges that create worsened relationships between predecessors and successors highlight either the complete absence or very weak party structures in the determination of successors.
“Across all parties in Nigeria, serving governors exercise monopoly in producing their successors. This is one area that highlights the complete failure of APC as an envisioned progressive party. And as it is, beyond Kaduna State, similar dynamics are playing out in many APC states. At best, the party’s leadership, at the national level, is simply behaving as a distant observer.
“Check what is going on in Benue, Ebonyi, and Cross River. This shouldn’t be the case. Ideally, party leaders at both the state and national levels should have the capacity to intervene to resolve the challenge. At the minimum, they should be able to intervene to strengthen the capacity of State governments to manage challenges of governance,” he advised.
Another party chieftain who spoke to Daily Sun in confidence wondered why the governors that usually jettisoned their very loyal deputies for those they will control still end up clashing with their chosen ones.
“Governors have the mentality of feeling on top of the world and the capacity to do and undo while they serve. Look at the way they treat their deputies. If they manage to retain them till the end of their tenures without impeachment threats, they only allowed an insignificant number of them to succeed them.
“They usually anoint successors they feel they can control outside the office. They enter into all manners of agreements with them, including sharing of state allocation resources. And once the incumbent tries to build his political structure, they would bear their fangs on them.
“They would throw everything at them including some of them going to the dangerous extent of taking oaths in the shrines. The trend of predecessors declaring war against successors is usually witnessed during the first tenure of the installed incumbents. It is a trend that will continue until political parties take control of ensuring that the governors don’t impose their anointed aspirants on the parties. The effects of it on Nigeria’s democracy will be monumental in no distant time if the trend is not curtailed,” the party chieftain warned.