Emperors in historical occasions – Medieval or Renaissance period – have been very highly effective. They exercised absolute powers in political, authorized, monetary, navy, and non secular issues. They have been mentioned to carry each imperium maius (supreme energy of command) and tribunician potestas (tribunician energy).
In Rome in the course of the interval of Emperor Augustus, the tribunician energy permitted him to dictate to the civil equipment and preside over in addition to dominate the Assemblies and the Senate. The Emperors of Outdated have been the state and so they have been second solely to God. That’s the reason in Oriental civilizations like Japan and China, they have been known as “the Son of Heaven”
Amongst those that loved such absolute, imperial powers have been Genghis Khan of the Mongol Empire (1162 – 1227), Augustus Caesar of the Roman Empire (63 BC- AD 14), Ashoka the Nice of the Maurya Empire (India) (c.268 BCE – c. 232 BCE), Charlemagne of the Carolingian Empire (c. 742 – 814) and Kublai Khan, additionally of the Mongol Empire (1215 – 1294).
Why am I dwelling on the Emperors of previous and their immense powers? What relationship did they’ve with Nigeria of as we speak the place we’re alleged to be working towards American-type democracy based on liberty of the citizen, separation of powers, checks and balances, grownup suffrage system, and rights of the residents to elect and take away their leaders?
Nicely, it’s as a result of, because the return of democracy in 1999, Nigeria has steadily descended into producing Emperors, significantly at sub-national ranges who rule with absolute powers just like the aforementioned emperors of the Medieval and Renaissance eras. Most of our state governors elected since 2007 have been governing like emperors of their respective states.
Within the first eight years of the current republic, Governors have been below strict verify by the sturdy persona of the then Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, a military Normal. Whereas Obasanjo was accused of being too autocratic, his strong-arm techniques curbed the excesses of the governors to a big extent. Since his exit, the governors have risen above the legal guidelines within the varied states.
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Just like the Emperor of previous, our state governors have a robust management of the purse of their respective states and so they spend the cash the way in which they like. They train powers just like the tribunician potestas (the tribunician powers) as they’ve subdued the legislature and the judiciary. The governors decide the management of the state legislature and take away Audio system of their respective state Homes of Meeting at will. No member of the legislature can converse towards the governor and survive, politically.
The governors make the legislators feed from their palms and the legislature do their will always. In some states, lawmakers elected on the platform of the opposition events versus the ruling one within the states are given persona non grata therapy. In some circumstances, they’re denied the privileges and different perks of workplaces prolonged to their colleagues who belong to the ruling social gathering. They’re harassed, suppressed, oppressed, intimidated, and compelled to both defect to the ruling social gathering or turn out to be pliable to the needs of the governor.
Additionally, one can hardly get the state excessive courts to provide any ruling or judgment towards the state authorities or its emperor-governor, regardless of the benefit of 1’s case. The Emperors have prolonged their meddling schemes to the judiciary. No establishment is so sacred as to flee the interference of those omnipresent Emperors.
The normal and non secular establishments are frequent victims of the rampaging Emperors. The governors may order the suspension, elimination, or interdiction of any conventional ruler who fell out of favour. Even, journalists are usually not exempted from the lengthy arm of the Lords of the Manor. Nosy and prying journalists are detained or imprisoned on the orders of the governor. In some states, few journalists have been murdered and there have been no hint of the perpetrators.
These modern-day Emperors in Nigeria brook no opposition. Members of the opposition or their estranged buddies are served a dose of their uncooked anger. A few of such hapless folks have their landed property demolished on the orders of the governors to cripple them economically. The Certificates of Occupancy (C of O) on the selection properties owned by the opposition components or aggrieved buddies are revoked. These on this class who’ve one enterprise or the opposite that require authorities approval must wait in useless or pray for regime change after they in all probability will fall on the favoured aspect. Such opposition components have their companies denied authorities patronage and if they’ve any pending cash owed them by the state authorities, they need to simply overlook about it. These males of energy use their posts to settle private scores and household feuds.
Governors have turn out to be so careless that they order their safety aides to assault or maltreat different residents for “making noise” whereas the Emperor was speaking at a public occasion. Such ‘unruly’ residents can be lucky to solely undergo some slaps and kicks and never be additional thrown into detention for talking above the whisper in a gathering the place the Emperor is current.
Our governors show they’re the state like their predecessors within the Byzantine period by spending state cash the way in which they like. They dwell giant by utilizing state funds to rent plane which they fly to locations that don’t have anything to do with state features. A few of the governors throughout their tenure construct private estates or homes the place they show ridiculous opulence. They spend cash lavishly in a fashion that they may not have dreamt of doing if they’d not been elected as Governor.
The state cash is the Governor’s cash. No Home of Meeting may dare activate the provisions of the structure to question the governor’s profligacy. The governors don’t cease the misuse of funds belonging to the state authorities. They’ve additionally appropriated the funds from the federation account because of the Native Authorities Areas (LGA). Governors spend LGA funds the way in which they like and if any LGA chairman dares converse out, he’ll get the boot. Both his councilors can be induced to take away him or the State Legislature is used to droop him.
It’s the purpose why throughout the 36 states, the candidates of the opposition events don’t win chairmanship seats throughout LGA polls. The state electoral fee whose members have been appointed and managed by the governors would merely write the outcomes and announce that the Emperor’s social gathering has gained all of the seats. That’s the development throughout the nation.
When a brand new governor who belongs to a distinct social gathering from the previous governor below whom the present native authorities officers have been elected assumes workplace, one of many first choices he takes is to droop all of the elected LGA officers. That’s one other violation of the structure and an indication of the truth that a brand new Emperor has taken management of the Empire. He then appoints caretaker chairmen and councilors to take over. One other aberration. Why should the governor who would, rightly so, refuse the management by the president dictate to the native authorities chairmen and councilors? It’s the emperor’s mentality. The emperor is a totalitarian. He’s a conqueror.
The brand new Emperors on the town see their deputies as their errand boys. Any Deputy Governor who proves to be intelligent or has any sense will chew the bullet. He shall be eliminated by the subservient Home of Meeting which typically bends the legislation to attain the impeachment of the deputy as desired by the governor. A fortunate deputy governor could merely be sidelined and diminished to a newspaper-reading, indolent workplace employee. One other illegality that’s steadily perpetrated by the brand new emperors.
Incumbent Governors now single-handedly choose all candidates contesting for seats within the Senate, Home of Representatives, state Home of Meeting, LGA chairmanship, and councilorship on the platform of their political events.
Even below the navy, the governors didn’t have the kind of management that these present elected governors acceptable and train. Navy governors have been then subjected to manage from the Supreme Headquarters. They report back to the Deputy Head of State then often called Chief of Workers, Supreme Headquarters, or the Chief of Normal Workers. Their essential choices wanted approval and may very well be vetoed. The current governors in Agbada report back to nobody. They’re all in all. They’re supreme rulers and ‘Sons of the Heavens’.
The management to which the navy governors have been subjected indicated that this totalitarianism we now witness on the state degree has not at all times been so. Within the Second Republic, the elected governors couldn’t toy with members of the Home of Meeting. Every of them performed totally different roles and the place they have been members of the identical social gathering, the governor couldn’t unilaterally deny a member his return ticket. In Ogun State, a state legislator, Hon. Muftau Ajibola brazenly dared Governor Olabisi Onabanjo and instructed him solely the citizens in his constituents may cease his re-election. He gained his seat on the normal elections earlier than the governor even gained his personal.
In the identical Second Republic, deputy governors like Chief Akin Omoboriowo of Ondo State and Chief Sunday Afolabi in then Oyo State challenged their governors for the gubernatorial tickets on the social gathering primaries and so they weren’t impeached. They voluntarily resigned after they wished to get the tickets of rival events to allow them to face for election within the 1983 polls. Additionally in Might 1983, when Alh. Muhammadu Rimi left the PRP and received the gubernatorial ticket of the NPP, his deputy, Alh. Abdul Dawakin Tofa didn’t comply with him and was not impeached. He merely changed Rimi.
In 1982, throughout what is called the Day of the Lengthy Knives, then Oyo State governor, revered Chief Bola Ige (of blessed reminiscence) and his deputy, Chief Sunday Afolabi stood for hours earlier than the disciplinary committee of the Unity Occasion of Nigeria in the course of the NEC assembly of the social gathering in Maiduguri to reply costs of indiscipline as a result of they allowed then Normal Olusegun Obasanjo who was considered an enemy of the social gathering to intervene of their feud. That was the interval of the supremacy of the social gathering. When the governors have been solely senior members of the social gathering and topic to the social gathering structure, organs, and management. Right this moment, what you’ve got is the supremacy of the governors. The Governor, like the traditional Emperor, is now the social gathering of their respective states, besides in a couple of circumstances like Lagos State the place there’s an overriding godfather.
Nicely, most of those emperor governors overlook they may depart workplace sooner or later. And after they depart they discover it troublesome to regulate to life after energy. The few ones who managed to get elected into the Senate discover out they can’t name any shot within the 109-member meeting. They’re only one out of the lot. There was a case of a former governor who received elected into the Senate alongside the police officer who served as his Aide-De-Camp (ADC) whereas in workplace. If he had not been good to the ADC, it might have been very odd for him to sit down aspect by aspect as a colleague of the person who used to hold his file round and saluted him at times.
Just a few of the ex-governors received appointed as Ministers and needed to now report back to many line bosses within the Presidency earlier than they may get to the general boss, the President. The vast majority of the ex-Emperors ended up as peculiar males. In fact, they’re wealthy after they’ve cornered state wealth. But, they now not benefit from the consideration and relevance they used to have.
The bid to stay the centre of attraction after their tenure most occasions set the previous governors towards the brand new Emperors, and their successors, who they enthroned by all means, to make sure and guarantee their continued management of state affairs. The conflict with the reigning emperors often make previous emperors turn out to be extra peculiar and pitiable sights. It often leads to extra humiliation and extra hassle. In any case, a Yoruba adage says no one provides approach to the person who rode the horse yesterday and walks the road as we speak like each different individual.
These governors who’ve turned themselves into oppressors of the folks, unhealthy managers of state funds, and riders of the excessive horses ought to do not forget that they may find yourself leaving the exalted workplace. For instance, among the many 1999 set of governors, aside from the likes of Chief Olusegun Osoba, Chief Bisi Akande, and Chief James Ibori, what number of of them nonetheless command nationwide consideration as they did whereas in workplace? The case of the incumbent President of the nation, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who was additionally a part of the 1999 set is a particular one.
When these Emperors depart workplace, they stop to board non-public jets. The operators of the industrial planes they resort to touring with don’t delay flights to await their arrival on the airport as they used to do when the governors have been the reigning emperors. Additionally, as former governors, no one will delay public features to await their arrival. If they’re unfortunate to lock horns with their successors, that’s when they may realise how bitter nemesis might be as they’re made to swallow the toxic capsules they pressured down the throats of their predecessors.
The primary purpose why our nation isn’t developed is due to the misplaced priorities of its state governors. As a substitute of specializing in growth points, the governors expend a lot power and time on the show of uncooked energy, demonstrating how they’re the all-time conquerors, the unquestionable ruler, and those to whom all others should submit.
I’ve at all times believed that if all our governors turn out to be real, sincere, and humble servants of the individuals who dedicate extra time to serving the folks, looking for options to issues confronting the folks, the nation will turn out to be developed and the folks will turn out to be happier. The state governments shall be engaged in wholesome competitors with Concepts and initiatives that may remedy day by day issues confronting the folks. If the assorted states are doing effectively for his or her folks by offering good governance, then the vast majority of the citizenry shall be glad.
Additionally, I consider we simply want governors in ten states working so onerous and making lives significant for the residents of their states. The multiplier impact shall be felt within the remaining 26 states. The ten states the place the federal government is efficient can be good fashions for others to emulate. The initiatives and concepts behind the success of the federal government in a single state might be copied and replicated by the opposite states. We skilled this within the First Republic among the many three regional governments.
The place we now have folks with historical Emperor mentality in our varied Authorities Homes, what can we anticipate apart from a state of anomie and inertia as outlined by Emile Durkheim?
Yusuph Olaniyonu writes from Abuja.
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