“Nigerians are simply not interested in holding their state governors to the same standards of accountability they hold the president. ” —Ebuka Onyekwelu
For some reason, Nigeria’s president is the ultimate and final focus of Nigerians in several efforts to hold government and public officials accountable. It is the norm to have the president of Nigeria thoroughly dissected, with clear evidence of leadership failure. This was the fate of President Olusegun Obasanjo; it became the fate of President Musa Yaradua.
After him, President Goodluck Jonathan was the most politically unfortunate as that gave impetus to the emergence of President Mohammadu Buhari who equally suffered the same fate. At the moment, this is the fate of President Bola Tinubu. There is little doubt about the problem of leadership with Nigeria’s president. The presidency has so much power that naturally attracts enormous attention from Nigerians. This is understandable. But on the flip side, there is a magical attribution to the president of Nigeria by Nigerians. The President, for Nigerians, is someone with all it takes to simply fix Nigeria by a magical wand.
If, by any imagination, it happens that the president of Nigeria is the only consequential political office holder, the sole focus of Nigerians on the presidency would not only be expected but completely justified. However, there are governors the thirty-six states of the federation and local government officials in the seven hundred and seventy-four local government areas across the federation. Yet, most Nigerians can conveniently stop at analyzing the president, and the federal government. They are at home to discuss policies of the federal government, wastage in the presidency, and lack of creativity in governance at the federal level, among other ills. But they can never speak a word against the ineptitude of their state governors. They don’t even know their state laws, passed by their state Houses of Assembly. They are not aware of their governor’s policies and seem to have no interest. They never speak a word against the clannish appointments by their state governors. They never say a word against a lopsided focus of government projects by their own state governors. Not a word against the security crisis in their state despite their governors collecting billions of public funds as a ‘security vote’ every month and not deploying it to ensure the safety of lives and properties. And this is not to say that state governors are doing any better. In the true sense, if their state governors were anything better, there is so much they would not be bothered about.
State governments in Nigeria amass billions of Naira every month from federal allocations and internally generated revenues. Most Nigerians who show interest in governance are only interested in how the federal government is expending public money, but not how their own state governors are doing the same. They are simply not interested in holding their state governors to the same standards of accountability they hold the president. This, without doubt, is why the governors are refractory, turning themselves into emperors of sorts, and pocking local government funds without consequence. One would think that people who expect so much from the president and who invest so much energy pointing to the bad policies of the federal government should at least be as concerned about governance in their states. They should at least ask their governor questions about his use of the security vote. The question should include justification for clannish appointments and concentration of government projects in a particular section of the state, usually the governor’s area. These are the same pesky issues of abuse of power and reckless disdain for public accountability, as well as weak creativity in governance for which the president is often butted. This is not to be seen as an innocent omission. In some instances, many of those calling for the president’s resignation, pointing to his ineptitude and carefree attitude towards public funds, are beneficiaries of the same ills in their states or local governments, one way or another. There are cases where some focus on the president, leaving their governors and local government leaders alone because they are anticipating an appointment or other forms of personal benefits from their state governors or local government leadership. For instance, while it is convenient to criticize President Tinubu for appointing many people from his part of the country, it is not okay for some, to criticize Governor Soludo for doing the same in Anambra State. This exposes the hypocrisy of many Nigerians masquerading as patriots and advocates of good governance in Nigeria. They care so little about their own state and local government where it should matter more to them, yet, they appear to care so much about Nigeria.
There is something fundamentally wrong with such ‘patriotic’ posturing that cares more about what happens outside than what happens within. After all, it is said that ‘charity begins at home.’ Therefore, any charity that has no home address is no charity at all.
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