Our rapacious state governors

Watching the Osun State Governor, Raufu Aregbesola, last Thursday on Channels Television address journalists after the National Economic Council meeting, a new meaning of the word irony came to my mind. I mean what’s more ironic than for Mr. Aregbesola talking about a presentation that the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) made to the council imploring governors to set up pensions board for pension administration at their states.

That is, for those who are yet to do so when back home, lecturers of tertiary institutions including the Esa Oke College of Technology, Osun Polytechnic Ire, and the Osun State Colleges of Education at Ila and Ilesa, were on strike for nearly a year from last year till some weeks back. Part of their reasons for the strike was the non-remittance of pension deductions from their salaries to their preferred pension fund administrators. Even though the strike has been called off, these lecturers are only providing ‘skeletal services’ whatever that means, as the Osun State government has not met their demands.

Across the land, our governors, irrespective of their party affiliation, have shown themselves as a bunch of jokers who clearly were not prepared for the responsibility entrusted upon them. If they are not engaged in needless fights with their predecessors, some of whom interestingly were instrumental to their emergence, they are busy chasing after shadow leaving the serious business of governance unattended to as seen in their comical actions. Some of these include Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State who went to Turkey with over 100 delegation on the state bill for a supposed ‘investment trip’ while the man in Cross River State, a professor of Law, is planning to appoint ‘envoys’ to represent the state across the globe.

Other examples include appointments of a retinue of aides without recourse to the funds available. Some governors’ wives have a full complement of staff like their husbands ensuring that the waste is gender balanced even when we did not vote for the wives. For instance, the Ogun State governor, Ibikunle Amosun, who told the world last week that there would be no new projects in 2016 because the state cannot afford it but would only continue with those already embarked upon has a special adviser on print media, special adviser on electronic media, and would soon appoint another on social media. How ridiculous could a governor get? One also hopes that it is not true that the Ekiti State governor charters helicopters to Abuja when he could make that trip in less than four hours. We can even excuse that on account of urgent missions that might not have been planned earlier, but what about the one that he flies within the state? Perhaps no state is as homogenous like Ekiti and Bayelsa, why does one need a chopper to move in Ekiti? The gentleman in Edo State is busy fighting everybody yet flood has taken over Benin City that movement becomes difficult. Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State in an obvious my-folly -is -bigger-than-yours mood bought 24 SUVs for the state legislators and government officials even when he got a bailout from the federal government and still owes salaries of workers.

Two months ago, this column in a piece titled, ‘Our governors didn’t get the memo’ lamented that majority of our state chief executives cannot fathom that things have changed and the era of “money-miss-road” is over with oil projected to sell for as low as $20 per barrel next year, things cannot continue the way they have been. Governor Mohammed Jibrilla of Adamawa whose state is still battling Boko Haram terrorists plans to spend N200 million on prayer warriors against the group. The same governor has also appointed 35 advisers and 50 development area administrators. Their democratic credentials too will make the late Sani Abacha green with envy that how come Nigerians are tolerating them but fought him to a standstill. I may be wrong but I don’t think any state has elected people at the helm of affairs at local government levels, what we have are ‘caretaker committees’ headed by governor lackeys who are too willing to do the bidding of their lords. They have found a way of navigating the constitution by making such appointments for six months in the first instance before renewing it over and over with a pliant House of Assembly.

Typical of them, they’ve started shouting about the N18, 000 minimum wage and threatening that they can’t continue paying because they don’t have money. Too often citizens are asked to make sacrifice in Nigeria with elected officials not showing the way and a pertinent question is, “When will our governors start cutting the cost of governance?” When will the large convoys give way to leaner and manageable ones? When will their wives stop strutting around like peacocks and move away from opulence? The answers lie with not only the governors but also all of us who bear the brunt of these rapacious elements.