By Dele Sobowale

“We are hoping that the President-elect will do everything possible to bring about a bailout, not only for the states, but, for the Federal Government, at least for the people [read public servants] to get their salaries..”

Rochas Okorocha, Chairman Progressive Governors’ Forum, VANGUARD, May 6, 2015.

“Politicians are their own grave diggers.” Will Rogers, 1879-1935.

(VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 191).

The real game has not even got underway and already some of the elected officials want to change the rules. The “solidarity” visit of the governors-elect of the All Progressives Congress, APC, to President-elect Buhari, on Tuesday, May 5, 2015 which resulted in the declaration above by Rochas Okorocha, newly appointed Chairman Progressives Governor’s Forum, PGF, portends grave consequences for all of us in many ways. The most glaring is the immediate cleavage created within the party by the governors elected on the ticket of the APC – at a time when many political analysts believe that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, lost the last election mostly on account of the over-bearing activities of its Governors Forum. APC Governors Forum is taking off where the PGF left off. The most obvious question arising from this is: do Africans, especially Nigerians, ever learn from theirs or other peoples’ mistakes? It is doubtful.

Three facts render this request for bailout very astonishing; if not too previous and, perhaps, ridiculous.

File Photo: Vice President-elect, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha and APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun when the President-elect meet with APC Governors and Governors-elect at the Defence House in Abuja on Tuesday, 05 May 2015

First, at least ten of the governors-elect were already governors before the election this year. They created the problem long before Buhari received APC’s nomination. How would they have managed if he did not win?

So, the admission that “most states of the federation had not been able to pay salaries and even the Federal government has not paid April salaries” – a statement that has already been refuted by Okonjo-Iweala – has demonstrated how badly the nation had been governed by ALL the governors and the President in the last four years. The question is: why feast for four years and try to pass the bill to a new comer? It is ethically unacceptable.

Buhari had not been elected to bail out states who squandered their revenue on corruption and frivolities between 2011 and 2015. He has been elected to start afresh; not clean up messes left by others. As for those new to the office, they were also warned – as we intend to prove next week. Like so many sleep-walkers, they just ended up in the gutter. Newspapers cannot force intending leaders to read and think.

Second, was the request for bailout made on behalf of only APC-controlled states or all the thirty-six states of Nigeria?

If for all, then Okorocha has overstepped his bounds, No governor-elect of PDP or even the APGA Governor had asked him to plead on their behalf. And they may never do so. If, however, he speaks on behalf of his colleagues in APC, then he has confronted Buhari with a constitutional problem. Buhari is the President-elect of ALL Nigerians; including those who voted against him and those who did not vote at all. There is no provision in the constitution for him to dip his hands into the Federation Account to bailout only APC states. Buhari will bailout ALL the states or none. There is no other alternative.

Third, the request, certainly made out of desperation, ignores the fact that Buhari is also inheriting unpaid salaries and entitlements due to federal public servants. In a report in PUNCH of May 6, 2015, it was revealed by the Federal Minister of Finance that the Federal Government had borrowed N473bn in four months – mostly to pay salaries of its own staff. Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala attributed the situation to the 50 per cent drop in oil revenue. Presumably, we had voted matured adults as Governors-elect. So one can ask them a simple question: How on earth do they expect a Federal Government, up to its eyeballs in debt, and borrowing to pay its own staff, to bail them out? There are some requests, which, all things considered, an adult should not make. When several adults make that demand, it only proves that groups are often more dishonest than well-adjusted individuals. Do they expect that, given the separation of powers, the Federal Government will borrow to pay its own staff and borrow again to pay their own? And what percentage of their debts to their staff should the Federal Government assume? Even if Buhari were to be unthinking enough to entertain this daffy and silly idea, will the bailout be in the form of loan, grant or extra-ordinary revenue allocation such as is not in consonance with the constitution?

That said; it would be interesting to know if all the APC governors-elect met to decide this matter; or was it an idea to which the majority was asked to subscribe when they reached Abuja? It will also be instructive to know why they thought the request was legitimate and the most urgent problem Buhari should address given the monumental problems associated with selecting a winning team.

Perhaps what makes this request so laughable is the fact that all the incumbent governors in Nigeria, as well as aspirants for governor’s office, were warned on the pages of VANGUARD since 2013 about the impending economic calamity which is now unfolding. SUNDAY VANGUARD and I repeatedly raised alarm about the worsening economic situation and even predicted that salaries might not be paid by April this year. In actual fact, most states only paid salaries in February and March in order to avert public servants revolt before the elections. They borrowed heavily to do it. Cynically, now that the elections are over, only those returning to office now care about salaries. Those on their way out don’t give a damn anymore.

That shows Nigerians the sort of people we called Excellencies for four or eight years.

NEXT WEEK: WARNINGS THE GOVERNORS IGNORED :Why Buhari should tell them off.