WHEN cocksure governors complain about others obstructing their political space, we are again reminded – as if it really matters for more than a few moments – that we are all human, with needs, including the need for others. The issue at stake is the seemingly small matter of representation at the Senate, where some governors want as retreat after eight years of executive control of their States.

Not a few have wondered aloud over what the governors want. In strict political measurements, a senate seat is one-third of a State. The simple calculation leaves many lost about the counts that would make a governor, whose dominion once spanned three senatorial districts, and created platforms that graded him among the top 40 people in Nigeria, would be interested in a miniscule part of his former fiefdom. The ways of politicians are unclear, even to themselves.

Accusations of greed have stemmed from contests for senate seats. It is interesting when one hears politicians describing each other as greedy. Governors think that a senate seat is a natural progression from their eight years of executive nothingness in most States. Governors who opted out of the rush for senate seats appear awkward in a move that could see former governors forming the majority in the Senate soon.

The implications of that outcome are not our concerns now. What we dread is the consequences of restricting entry into primaries for the Senate. The unwritten rule appears to be that a governor is a senatorial candidate at the end of his eight-year tenure. His only qualification is that he wants the seat; and we know governors get what they want or the polity over heats.

Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, not one to tolerate anyone disrupting his service to his peoples accuses those trying to stop governors of greed.

“I am aware that people are saying sentimentally that they should not allow governors to the Senate because they said nobody can control people like me. If I win, I am going to represent my people in the Senate but it is not a question of who would control me. They don’t want governors because of two or three governors in the Senate were giving them tough time or making things difficult for them. They are even sending forms to people to contest election into the Senate against other people (governors).

“It is for their own selfish reasons, it was not for the benefits of the people or for the country; they are protecting their jobs.”

Aliyu drops the hint that governors too are afraid of unemployment when they are out of office. Aliyu has given us another shade of greed.