Governors, Deputy Governors ,By Dan Agbese

0
105

Dan-Agbese 600What happened in Niger State this week once more points to some fundamental pork marks in our constitution. Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, the state governor who prefers to go by the more talakawa common touch title as Chief Servant, handed over the state administration to the speaker of the state house of assembly as acting governor for the ten days he would be away performing the lesser hajj in the holy land. He thus denied the deputy governor, Alhaji Ahmed Musa Ibeto, his constitutional right to hold the fort in accordance with section 190 of the constitution.

There were no howls of protest over this constitutional travesty because it was nothing new. This sort of cynical sidelining of a deputy governor was more or less the rule rather than the exception in the first four years of our return to civil in 1999. In some cases, governors appointed their trusted commissioners as acting governors. We hopefully put it down to the rather messy learning process in which state governors and legislators at federal and state levels were confronted with the twin challenges of mental de-militarisation and at the same time getting into the mental frame work of a democratic temperament. Hope said things would work out.

 

We thought the ill wind had since run its course and the right lessons had been learnt and applied in the solidification of our democracy. We were wrong. As the reggae musician reminds us, there are still many rivers to cross in our attempts to get it right.

 

Enugu and Niger states could not have put it more starkly: the position of the deputy governor is still blowing in the wind. The deputy governor of Enugu State was removed from office last year for what must rank as the most asinine misuse of words. The grave offence of ‘gross misconduct’ that cost him his high profile job was his raising poultry at his official residence. The offence was not in the chickens but in the foul smell they emitted. Enugu has become the perfumed garden to which all who love expensive perfumes now flock.

 

The case of Niger State is slightly different. In the eyes of the powers that be in the state, Ibeto sinned by his expressed ambition to step into Babangida’s shoes as the new tenant in the Government House, Minna, from May 29 this year. Constitutionally, a legitimate ambition but one that has put an end to the political careers of many a deputy governor throughout the country. His boss, as has since become the convention, did not support him. Ibeto lost the primaries of his party, PDP. He did not wait for anyone to tell him that the time had come for him to move out of the shadows of Babangida and chart his own political course. He signed in with the All Progressives Congress, APC. Splendid.

Ibeto put Babangida in an awkward position. Faced with the delicate choice between adhering to the constitutional provisions and protecting his own interests, the governor promptly chose the latter. He walked Ibeto out of the state executive council meeting sometime last month. He thus served him notice that the centre would no longer hold. He and Ibeto are not feeding from the same trough any more. Anyone who has good ears can hear the clock ticking for Ibeto.

I think some of the most troublesome clauses in the constitution have to do with what to do with the deputy governor and his office. Section 186 of the constitution created the office of deputy governor. It simply provides: “There shall be for each state of the federation a Deputy Governor.” Section 187 (1) tells us how this important political personage is to emerge. He is to be elected along with the state governor.

Two things are obvious as potential areas of trouble. Firstly, the constitution created an office without functions or responsibilities. Yet the deputy governor is high up there as the number two citizen in a state. In truth, his office is the most empty high office in our political kingdom. He is a big man but he has no functions or responsibilities to discharge save what his oga at the top tells him to do, as in attend naming ceremonies or funerals of lesser mortals the governor himself would not condescend to attend.

Section 187 (1) effectively shows who is boss. Is the deputy governor in office at the pleasure of the governor? All the state governors believe so. They believe too that their deputies are unnecessary constitutional evil they would rather not live with. I know of no state governor who truly respects his deputy and resists the temptation to treat him ever so shamefully and shabbily, desecrating his high office.

The framers of the constitution did not think hard enough about the office of the deputy governor or the vice-president for that matter. We were witnesses to the show of shame between President Obasanjo and Vice-President Atiku Abubakar. Other state governors took the cue from Obasanjo. Neither the vice-president nor the deputy governor has any constitutional protections against the constitutional travesty perpetrated by either the president or the state governor against them.

In the circumstances, I suggest we address two fundamental questions. One, what do we do with the deputy governor and his exalted office? Two, are we truly satisfied that the high profile office of a deputy governor serves any useful political or administrative purposes?

It is possible to make it neater in a way that obviates the occasional hiccups in the system. As I see it, cosmetic constitutional changes would not do. If the constitution cannot assign functions and responsibilities to that office, then the most logical thing is to scrap it. If a governor is removed from office, the speaker steps in for 90 days during which time a new election is conducted to fill the position. The speaker, as acting governor, would not be eligible to contest the governorship election.

I am fully persuaded that we will not miss the deputy governors. Without their deputies as cruel reminders that they are only mortal, the executive governors would roam freely and do what they will with their executive powers.

Follow Us On WhatsApp