The (un)enviable life of a Northern Governor

“Only a tortoise knows where to bite another tortoise”.

Kenyan Proverb

In the last few weeks, the unapologetic posture of Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso over the controversy around resource control and constitutional amendments appears to be making a case for a review of the general perception of northern governors by media, and the overwhelming majority of people in the north. Some people say Kwankwaso is more experienced as a politician than his colleagues, and his nose for opportunism is more acutely developed. Others say he is a rank outsider among northern PDP governors anyway, and he can choose how far into the waters he ventures. Still others say he is also playing to the same gallery that Sule Lamido, Dr Muazu Babangida Aliyu and one or two less visible, but equally ambition governors and northern politicians are playing to. Whatever his motives are, Governor Kwankwaso has earned a few brownie points for himself. But it is very doubtful if even this posture by Kwankwaso will mitigate the settled perception of northern governors as the biggest liability of the north.

It is a mixed bag, being a governor in the north these days. On the one hand you have a lavish lifestyle, a safe and secure existence, huge powers to bestow patronage, an opportunity to live in a world that perfectly reflects your own perception of yourself, the capacity to reward friends and punish enemies and opponents, and the near-certainty of a post-governor life as Vice President, Senator, Party Chairman, Chairman of a powerful parastatal or a rich businessman. You could also have a capacity to scuttle prosecution by EFCC, I.C.P.C., or C.C.T, and even the remote possibility of being re-elected after being disgraced, among the positives.

On the other hand, in this safe and secure environment, newspapers, radio and television are not welcome, unless they are the ones setup by your government to sing your praises. When non-government media are allowed a few minutes’ attention, they are seen as merely confirming what governors already know: everyone have made up their minds to castigate governors, and nothing they do will ever be appreciated. So the actual views of the public are not allowed anywhere near governors.

The irony is that majority of northern governors started out as educated, experienced and concerned citizens who ventured into politics and the search for public office to do good. Many were accomplished Nigerians who had made their marks in other areas, including politics. So what goes wrong when they become governors, and are then held up with so much disdain and contempt by ordinary citizens? There are many reasons behind this transformation. Nigerian politics creates bitter enemies, including enmity between those who occupy elective offices and those who were supposed to have elected them. Few Nigerians believe elected officials are genuinely elected. Most would have been induced as voters, and they believe that the money used to buy them rice, detergents and fertilizer is also used to induce the electoral machinery, security agents or even opposition politicians and supporters.

Then you have a system which isolates elected leaders so tightly from ordinary citizens, that even the party officials that facilitated their acquisition of the offices are locked out. A very tiny circle emerges around governors, and this circle absorbs a huge amount of resources to keep the governor under control. It creates the impression that governors are in charge, when in fact the small circle of officials, party men, commissioners and contractor-friends call the shots. Governors are their prisoners, and they feed them with the worldview they are comfortable with. Sadly, this worldview includes heavy doses of falsehood that people are general happy with a little here and a little there, and they understand why the governor cannot do more. They assure governors that the rot in the north started long before their times, in some instances under the noses of the very critics themselves. So they can ignore accusations of being the North’s undertakers.

You also have a widely-shared perception that governors single-handedly decide just about everything of importance. They allocate resources as they wish. They appoint who they want into what they want, and remove anyone they wish. They can make anyone rich, and can punish whole communities if they choose by withholding resources. They destroy opposition through massive deployment of state resources to weaken opponents, cripple opposition activities and poach good people from opposition. They use state resources to build “political structures”, a synonym for people massively funded purely for electoral purposes. They pocket the state legislature and compromise the judiciary. They cannot be trusted with the police or security agents. In short, they are so powerful, they perfectly embody the state.

All these are not unique to northern governors. They are characteristics of all our elected leaders, so it is unfair to accuse northern governors of using state resource as if they are personal; of wielding power that destroys the basic elements and structures of the democratic system; or creating personality cults that offend all standards of decency. What do northern governors do that makes them worse in the eyes of their own people?

You could start by their absence of vision. The north is potentially the richest part of Nigeria, and it does not even need oil to realize its potential. Northern governors claim that payment of N18,000 minimum wage takes out at least 50% of “their” allocation so they are unable to invest or facilitate real investment in agriculture and solid minerals. They use payment of salaries as excuses for not investing in infrastructure and education. They hold up pervasive security threats to justify near-total absence of expenditure in vital areas of the economy and social development. They use the excuse that littoral states take a lot more than they should, to justify the absence of investments in roads, hospitals and schools. They blame the economic environment and corruption by public officials for the pitiable internal revenues they raise.

If northern state governments are so poor that they can do very little else for their people after paying salaries, you have to ask why our governors are so desperate to cling to their offices. Surely they cannot enjoy being pillaged as betrayers of the Sardauna legacy; insensitive and corrupt people who are only interested in power and wealth; and the people who oversee the final demise of the north? They cannot enjoy the stigma of facilitating the emergence of President Jonathan as president against the possibility that a northerner could have been in the Villa now. They cannot enjoy the scathing criticisms from elderly and respected northerners, from northern media, from young northerners without a future, from critics who accuse them individually and collectively of creating the conditions for the emergence and sustenance of the Jammatu Ahlil Sunnah Lid’diawati Wal Jihad (a.k.a. Boko Haram); and for being utterly irrelevant in the scheme of things in Nigerian politics today.

Assuming northern governors are even remotely aware of these perceptions, or believe they are genuine, what can they do to begin to reverse the tide and reclaim some grounds for respect? If northern governments are so poor that they can barely pay salaries, we could ask them to cut the cost of maintaining expensive lifestyles of leaders and cronies, and use the savings for education and health. Governors can also take voluntary cuts in their huge salaries and allowances, and stop waste and corruption which oil their political machines, and use the savings to train young people in skills acquisition.

They could also collectively take firmer stands in demands for a review of the onshore-offshore dichotomy; genuine and substantial investment in agricultural infrastructure by the federal government, including water resources; real efforts to attract investment into solid minerals; and genuine involvement in the search for resolution of the JASLIWAJ(Boko Haram) insurgency. They can lower the barricades they have built around their governments, and allow quality inputs that will improve governance. They could tolerate criticisms and the opposition, and respond to them by improving the manner they relate with citizens.

They could resolve to present a united front for the north in its relations with the rest of Nigeria. They could work with each other to resolve the major cleavages which exist between faiths and communities in the north. They could undertake joint and real initiatives to improve the quality of education of the young; to stop child begging and address massive and frightening unemployment levels among northern youth. This is only a brief agenda for people who asked for our mandate to govern. If they cannot do these things, they have very little relevance in our lives.