Edo: Governors Are Gods!

By Lanre Adewole

In recent memory, only two deputy governors had survived impeachment onslaught by their principal. Incidentally, both cases are in a state, under one governor.

Agboola Ajayi, the ever-migrating first deputy to now-late Ondo governor, Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) stubbornly held to his decimated office even after he joined two opposition parties in quick succession, PDP and ZLP, to achieve a burning gubernatorial ambition. Now, he is back to PDP, which he left originally, to become Akeredolu’s deputy on the platform of APC in 2016, and still, seeking Alagbaka. Some ambition there.

His successor, Lucky Ayedatiwa, who also succeeded Akeredolu as Governor, equally fought off attempts by his boss’s loyalists to dim his political light at bloom. He blunted the impeachment efforts and he is now close to securing a final four-year term as Governor.

If both Lucky and Ajayi should emerge as their parties’ nominees, for the November 16, 2024 election which either of their platforms, has the most realistic chance of winning, then fate must have deliberately preserved the duo for a moment like this.

Incidentally, apart from Akeredolu, no other governor either in the second, third or the running republic, had lost an impeachment effort against an unwanted deputy, though I will welcome more insight that may prove this assertion wrong. But no feud that blew into public domain between a governor and his deputy, had gone in favour of the latter, politically, even when public opinion court was in favour, which is always the case, because deputies are usually seen as the underdog and the bludgeoning governors, as the topdog.

From East to West, regardless of their perceived political strength and financial muscle, deputy governors have found it difficult to successfully contain onslaught by their principals, dating back to the second republic when Sunday Afolabi, then-deputy to Bola Ige, then-Oyo governor, still gotta go, despite history recording him, as a fairly formidable political strategist in his own right.

Nearby Osun in the Third Republic, a manifestly more-grounded IyiolaOmisore, as deputy, still lost the impeachment battle to Bisi Akande, an unpopular governor.

In fact, many would swear that a fit Akeredolu would have finished off Ayedatiwa, and he possibly let Ajayi be, knowing going full throttle against him, would mass more public support behind the underdog in an election season. The four-hour look-up of Ajayi’s official residence was already shoring the sentiment of Akeredolu putting his knee on his deputy’s neck, and it was just commonsense, to let go. By the time Ayedatiwa’s ambition battle was up, the late governor was already in what Yoruba will call ese kan aye, ese kanorun (partially conscious) and since the leader is always the all-in-all in a struggling democracy like ours, Akeredolu’s orbit, now led by his wife Betty and son, Babajide, could also strife.

Before Oshiomhole, as Edo governor, brought Godwin Obaseki into public service, he didn’t have a known political pedigree, though he was probably a silent financier of politicians. But in about four years as Governor, he badly bloodied his godfather and three years later, threw his ambitious deputy out like a fevered phlegm. Didn’t Jesus talk about the lukewarm being given the Philip Shaibu’s treatment. The erstwhile deputy, was trying to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. He ended with a thud, though I disagree that some unwritten zoning code, should decide his fate. If the former Oshiomhole boy believes he can hold his own, he better seek a new home, and shame his mockers.

The ease with which governors sail through impeaching their deputies should give more than political worries. The problem is tugging at the heart of governance. It is a dangerous signal that checks and balances, enshrined in the constitution, are mere inked idealism. While the obvious “collusion” of the state assemblies can be forgiven as they are populated by politicians, and lawmakers are always mostly helped into office, especially the principal officers, by forces eating out of governors’ hands, the judiciary, as represented by the Chief Judges of state judicial divisions, should not be seen, in bed with politicians and even aligning their heads in the same direction as the always-scheming class.

I understand the judiciary isn’t off-limits for governors. As Kogi governor, Yahaya Bello literally haunted Nasir Ajanah, then-state CJ to an early grave, because the jurist would not do his polical bidding. Sadly, all NJC under CJN Tanko Muhammad could do, was raise a team, led by a former President of Court of Appeal, to plead with the governor, not to sack Ajanah. In the middle of the crisis, Ajanah died.

Many governors have also refused to appoint Chief Judges who aren’t their choices, despite statutory clearance by the National Judicial Council (NJC), especially on religious, gender and ethnic grounds in Northern Nigeria. Down South, it is more of political than cultural/religious issues and this is an appointment, which process, is clearly spelt out in the Constitution. That is how powerful governors are, pissing on the Constitution as desired, to achieve personal agenda.

Governors have both the proverbial yam and knife when it comes to funding institutions of government and even when the constitutional opportunity came the way of the state legislature to free itself from slavery so to say, majority of the state assemblies voted for sustained mental slavery, by opposing financial autonomy for state legislature, during a review exercise, of the constitution!

I must say, voting for it, wouldn’t have magically ensured state lawmakers’ independence, because governors, are by convention, leaders of their parties in their states and lawmakers need parties’ tickets, to be in the assemblies. The servitude is from the entry point.

But judiciary can do better, though its first-line charge arrangement is more in theory than reality. Yet, a couple of cases, have shown that governors, despite their mini-gods complex, can’t easily throw out principled CJs, who haven’t soiled their hands with contracts to build courtrooms and have chosen fidelity to correct interpretation of the law, over and above affectation towards their states’ helmsmen.

Last year, Ayedatiwa was single-handedly rescued by the Chief Judge of Ondo State, Justice Olusegun Odusola, when he chose to obey the judgement of a federal high court, barring him from setting up a probe panel to investigate the then-embattled deputy governor. Such panels always return with guilty verdict, like the “probe for dismissal” saga in Osun State. Tanko Al-Makura, who survived it and had a “not guilty” verdict, as sole-CPC governor, was a beneficiary of political deals, facilitated by some big men of Goodluck Jonathan government.

In the defence of the judiciary, a couple of impeachment exercises, had been called illegal and nullified, but while most of the impeached governors, were able to return to office, no impeached deputy governor ever had that grace, even when the impeachment was ruled illegal.

If my research is right, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa would be the only sacked governor who didn’t regain office, despite judicial victory, because by February 11, 2016 when he was reinstated, his term of office had lapsed. He was impeached on July 15, 2014, meaning his case took two years five months. But all dues, as governors, were restored.

However, without an exception, all judicially-vindicated sacked deputies, never returned to office, including those who moved early to seek judicial reprieve.

Alli Olanusi, deputy to Olusegun Mimiko, as Ondo governor, was impeached on April 27, 2015 for dumping Labour, the party of his principal, for APC. A federal high court in Lagos, presided over by Mohammed Idris, on August 13, 2016, tossed the fundamental rights enforcement suit he filed to stop his impeachment. On March 24, 2017, the Court of Appeal ruled his impeachment unconstitutional. The embarrassment caused the judiciary by Idris who incidentally now sits at the Supreme Court and in succession line as future CJN, could have been avoided if the Nigerian judiciary would try to have a harmonised position on governors and deputies’ impeachment, because it has always been about politics, will continue to be about politics and the illegalities that desperate times in politics, always, call for.

It becomes scarier that the excellencies in the states, are about acquiring more powers a-la restructuring and true federalism. Very scary.