THE MANY FACES OF NORTHERN GOVERNORS

“If you want to burn down your own house, your enemy will lend you a match.” Zimbabwean Proverb.

Northern Governors rose from a meeting last week Friday, and reeled out a long list of decisions and resolutions. The media had whetted public appetite that the governors were to discuss the state of insecurity in the north and the nation. You would have been forgiven if you thought the governors planned to discuss fresh perspectives and far-reaching decisions on dealing with the damaging impact of the insurgency of the Jamaatu Ahlil Sunnal Liddaawati Wal Jihad (JASLIWAJ) and the crippling collateral damage being registered in the economy and the social values and structures in most of the north from the responses of security agencies. The communiqué released at the end of the meeting did say something about security, as well as plenty on constitutional amendments, the President’s maneuvers towards 2015, the judiciary, on management of the nation’s accounts, on the Petroleum Industry Bill, the national minimum wage and the role of traditional rulers, among others.

The meeting of northern governors took place against the backdrop of a public spat involving chairman of the northern governors’ forum, Dr Muazu Babangida Aliyu and the governor of Plateau State, over the decision of the federal government’s military to relocate Fulani villagers for an operation against terrorists. The chairman had kicked against the decision, and the governor had questioned his right to do so on behalf of all northern governors. The quarrel was drowned by the intense interest drawn to a drama which had all the appearances of tipping the balance in the attempts at ethnic cleansing in parts of Plateau State, one way or the other. It was never clear whether all northern governors (except Governor Jang) supported Babangida, but not one of them spoke in his support, or in support of Jang. In the end, Jang’s point that Babangida spoke for himself, and not for northern governors appeared to have been validated. There certainly was no reference in the communiqué to events in Plateau State, unless you count an obscure reference to the resident/indigene issue, and the plea that people should be encouraged to integrate.

Northern governors meet and speak in a context they are thoroughly familiar with, and with colleagues who insist that peaceful co-existence and effective integration can only be achieved if some citizens accept severe limitations to their rights to live with full and equal rights. The governors know where these citizens live with severely abridged rights. They know colleagues who are the architects of their misfortunes, and whose political platforms are the  fear, blood and guts of innocent people fed fiction that their salvation lie in the subjugation of fellow citizens who have lived all their lies a stone throw away.

Because northern governors cannot set benchmarks on good governance that should allow them to assess unacceptable conduct from colleagues and deal with them appropriately, no one really takes them seriously. They cannot set these benchmarks because each, in his own way, is guilty of major breaches of the basic elements of good governance. So when they speak of setting a committee on Reconciliation, Healing and Security, the general reaction will be one of outright dismissal. The States of Borno, Yobe, Kano and to a lesser extent, Bauchi, Gombe, Kaduna, Adamawa, Taraba and Kogi are virtually battle fronts, with economies crumbling by the day. What stops State Governors from effectively mediating the conflict between the JASLIWAJ and the Nigerian state (including state governments) as well as facilitating a breakthrough in the basic doctrinal impasse among Muslims is that they have very little moral authority. They can bestow huge quantities of patronage in contracts, fertilizer, Hajj and Jerusalem seats, appointments and selective investments in limited infrastructure, but all these are centered only around their primordial need to feel politically safe. The governors build their own world in which only sycophants and party men live. So they fear their own people, and fear even more the days they will not be governors anymore.

While in power, they treat public funds and trust as personal assets. Governor Murtala Nyako appoints 50 Special Advisers and 37 Development Area Administrators at public expense on the same day Governor Babangida said northern governors will study the new Petroleum Industry Bill and take steps to re-visit the on-share off-show dichotomy. Governor Gaidam of Yobe State orders 11,760 bags of assorted grains to be sold at N1000 instead of their market price of N8000. If experience is anything to go by, the bulk of the grain will go back to the market to be sold at N8,000. This was on the same day a federal legislator complained that N5b of the N6b released by the Federal Government for dam projects across the nation was spend entirely in the south south zone. Honourable Kaita said N83b was budgeted, but only N6b was actually released. The rest of the nation shared N1b, and some of the largest dams and irrigation assets in the north, such as Sokoto Rima and Hadejia Jama’are got nothing.

If northern governors cannot influence strategic spending on northern economic infrastructure by the federal government, with all northern ministers, legislators and the dominance of the PDP all over the north and at the federal level, one really wonders what leverage they will exploit to accomplish a whole battery of other tasks which were lisled in Governor Babangida’s communiqué. For instance, what muscle will they use to influence the federal government to amend section 215 of the constitution to give them more influence over the operations and disposition of the Police, since, unlike their southern counterparts, they dislike the idea of State Police?

By the same token, what influence will northern governors use to stop President Jonathan running again in 2015? Most of the 14 PDP Governors are on their second terms. Most were actively involved in the enthronement of President Jonathan as President. They are also aware that his grip on the party machinery is a lot firmer than theirs, and will be even stronger as we move nearer to 2015. They underrate public knowledge over issues around the legality or otherwise of Jonathan’s touted interest, and their vacuous demand that the provision of two terms of four years be maintained will be meaningless. In short, they must either be too far removed from the tenuous control of the PDP in northern affairs, or they intend to abandon it in unprecedented scale and style to ensure that their stated preference for a northern president in 2015 will materialize. 

At this stage, most Nigerians from the north have no faith that PDP governors from the region can influence President Jonathan in the slightest. It is also clear that the President has his favorites among them, and these are both the weak links in the chain that create the resistance against his current policies and his touted ambition, and his strongest asset in a north that is currently prostate politically.

Northern governors are a major liability to the people in a region bleeding badly from mismanagement of its resources and the absence of competent and committed leadership. It is doubtful moreover, if they command much respect, or have much influence around President Jonathan. He is not likely to respect them more than he does unless they improve their own support levels and image among their own people. To do this, they have to radically improve on their qualities of leadership, which must include major assault on corruption and waste. The President and the rest of Nigeria will not yield an inch to the north, so long as its governors are those that make its case. The regeneration of the north in Nigeria is not likely to start under the watch of these governors.