By Olu Fasan

STATE governors in Nigeria are probably the most imperious yet ineffectual sub-national politicians in the world. They treat their states as personal fiefdoms andbehave like tin gods. Delusions of grandeur and a ferocious sense of entitlement blind them to the transience of power. Above all, they are utterly unable to improve people’s lives, the real purpose of governance. So, why do Nigerian state governors harbour such self-importance?

By international standards, based on their states’ wherewithal, state governors in Nigeria are, at best, the equivalents of large-city mayors like the Mayor of London or the Mayor of New York. In fact, given that most states in Nigeria are technically bankrupt, unable to provide basic public services, most governors are lower in status than local government leaders in the UK or the US, who control large resources and provide vital services for people and businesses in their areas.

Yet, despite being glorified city mayors or even local government leaders in other climes, state governors in Nigeria behave like potentates, acting with impunity.The archetypal is Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers State, whose narcissism, self-aggrandisement and abuse of power know no bounds. His antics are self-indulgent and intended for attention, which he craves insatiably, but they demean public life, debase politics and diminish governance.

Since Wike lost the presidential primary of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in May and subsequently lost out in the selection of running mate for the winner, Atiku Abubakar, he has been behaving like a bull in a china shop, undermining his party’s chances in next year’s presidential election.

Yet, however, aggrieved Wike feels, if he has self-awareness, he will know that, with his aggressive politics, he lacks the temperament for national leadership. During his presidential primary campaign, Wike said: Nigeria “needs a mad man like me” to turn it around.

But Nigeria doesn’t need a “mad man”; it doesn’t need a brash and eccentric leader, who makes everything about himself! Rather, Nigeria needs a reflective, visionary and competent leader, who can get the best out of a diverse and complex country with great potentials without being imperious orautocratic. 

Wike’s existential battle with his party is interesting because it shows that historycan repeat itself and that people rarely learn from history. In 2015, five dissident PDP governors, called the G5, helped the patently clueless Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress, APC, become president.

Today, five renegade PDP governors, also called the G5, want to help Bola Tinubu, the APC’s deeply flawed presidential candidate, become president, at the risk of inflicting a monumental tragedy on Nigeria. But where are the G5 of 2015 today? They are disenchanted, regretting their role in the emergence of Buhari’s disastrous presidency. The same fate awaits Wike’s G5 if they facilitate Tinubu’s emergence as president.

But that’s not the main focus of this intervention, although it’s worth making those points. My main concern here is the collateral damage of Wike’s politics of revenge. First, there’s the infantile vindictiveness, with reports that he is witch-hunting and victimising PDP members in Rivers State who are allies of Atiku, sealing up their businesses, revoking the certificates of occupancy for their lands and, generally, creating a climate of fear.

Wike vowed to “crush” his opponents, and that’s exactly what he’s been doing. Recently, he revoked the certificate of occupancy for a plot of land belonging to former Senator Lee Maeba, chairman of Atiku’s presidential campaign council in Rivers State. A few months ago, he ‘derecognised’ Celestine Omehia, an Atiku ally, as a former Governor of the state! Tell me, what would Wike do if he ever became president: unleash state security agents on his opponents, ruining their businesses and lives? Turn Nigeria into a fascist state? 

Public life must not be the property of narcissists and bullies, who inject toxicity into politics. But such people thrive on applause and adulation, which Wike is suffused with, thanks to the obsequiousness of his fellow G5 members and others in his echo chamber. Recently, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State named a road in Makurdi, the state capital, after Wike. What for? Well, political point scoring, of course. What’s more, Wike has long been known for his ‘Father Christmas’ role, using Rivers State resources to fund party affairs, something that would count as corruption elsewhere.

Which brings us to the apogee, for now, of Wike’s megalomaniacal politics. Recently, he appointed 200,000 so-called Special Assistants on Political Unit Affairs, in addition to 350 Constituency and Local Government Area Liaison Officers, both estimated to cost N42bn between now and May next year when he leaves office. He justified the appointments as a “stomach infrastructure” policy. But the appointees are his cronies who might double as facilitators of political thuggery in a state notorious for its proneness to crisis during governorship elections. 

Yet, here’s a governor whose administration owes public sector workers several years of unpaid salaries and pensioners nearly seven years of unpaid gratuities, according to the state’s branch of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC. Here’s a governor whose state has the highest number of unemployed people in Nigeria, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Of course, Wike is known for “projects”. President Buhari recently gave him the ‘Distinguished Award in Infrastructure Delivery’, which isn’t surprising given Buhari’s fetishization of physical infrastructure even when poverty, hunger and insecurity ravage Nigerians. Narcissistic leaders love physical projects, which they can be identified with, rather than investing in human development and improving people’s lives. NLC in Rivers accused Wike of “inhuman disposition to the plight of workers and pensioners.” Yet, he prides himself on commissioning projects and creating jobs for political hangers-on.

Wike is an example of what can go wrong when state governors are too powerful and state legislatures are supine and too weak to provide effective checks and balances. Nigeria must remove the constitutional immunity for state governors and subject them to a robust accountability system. That’s an antidote to the impunity of future Wikes!