The squabble between Imo State governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha and his deputy, Chief Jude Agbaso has again highlighted the cat-and-mouse relationship between state governors and their deputies. This is one of the identified negative highlights of the country’s presidential system of government.
Right from the Second Republic to the present dispensation, governors and their deputies have always been at each other’s jugular. Their relationship is often perceived as that of master-servant, a situation that makes people see the deputies as spare tyres or a “repeater station” of a network.
Central to the instant frosty relationship in the Imo State government, is the issue of succession. Agbaso is being investigated by the state House of Assembly over N458 million bribery allegation.
He denies the allegation that he took bribe from the contractor to award him contract. Agbaso, who the House is also threatening with impeachment, said during the week that he never had any encounter with the contractor or collected any money from him.
He said, rather, that he knows why the governor wants him out of the way. It is all about the 2015 gubernatorial race in the state, he claims. “The truth is that I am a victim of power play between two powerful political figures. I heard that there was an agreement reached between my elder brother, Chief Martin Agbaso that the governor should be in office for one tenure and give way for him to contest.
“It is possible the agreement is about to be breached and the best they want is to make sure I am out of the office at all costs”, he stated even as he denied allegations of wrongdoing. He has also challenged the House to to confront him with evidence of the bribery allegation.
“I am not the governor and do not award contracts and there is no way bribe for contract award should be channeled to me. The facts are there to exonerate me of any charges being brought up now.
“If the House wants to impeach me, it should do it in a tidy way and not trump up vain claims and charges. I know that members of the House have possibly made up their minds to get me out of the way but the world should know that it is politics and I did no wrong or took any bribe”, he added.
Okorocha and Agbaso are threading on familiar terrain. Only very few serving or past state governors at their time had robust relationships with their deputies. Examples abound of instability caused in several states across the country as a result of succession troubles. In the dispensation that started in 1999, of all the governors that served two terms that ended in 2007, none allowed his deputy to succeed him, except Ahmed Sani Yerima of Zanfara state. Alhaji Mammud Shinkafi, his deputy, too over from him, even though they immediately parted ways after Shinkafi ascended the throne. For the other governors, their chiefs of staff or commissioners that served in their cabinets succeeded them. Within the time they spent in office, some of the governors ended up having two or more deputies.
In this wise, among the most prominent governors and their deputies included the then governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu and his deputy, Mrs. Kofo Bucknor-Akerele. She was forced out of the government and later the party, Alliance for Democracy (AD). She left to join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). After the brush with Bucknor-Akerele, Tinubu also had serious disagreement with Bucknor-Akerele’s successor, Femi Pedro, a banker turned-politician. On December 13, 2006, Pedro left ACN to join Labour Party, the platform on which he ran for the 2007 governorship election in the state.
In Sokoto State, the case was also the same in 2007. Magatakarda Wamakko was the deputy governor for upwards of six years to Attahiru Bafarawa, the then governor. Wamakko saw himself as a natural successor to his governor. They both belonged to the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). He believed he would be the natural choice for the governorship candidate of the party in the 2007 elections. But at the end of their first term, Governor Bafarawa began to see reasons why his deputy could not succeed him. One of the things the governor allegedly did that made the perception obvious was his stripping Wamakko of all powers and functions he hitherto had.
But convinced that he had all it takes to become governor, Wamakko moved swiftly to put a parallel structure in place. His time came when the tide in ANPP turned against the governor. He (Wamakko) inherited what was left of the ANPP as Bafarawa left the party to form Democratic Peoples Party (DPP).
Saminu Turaki, as governor of Jigawa State, changed deputies three times in the eight years that he was the political boss of the state. The last to leave his government was Hassan Hadejia, who eventually dumped his party, the ANPP with many of the commissioners in the state at the time. It was believed that the then eventual victory of Sule Lamido, the incumbent governor, at the polls was made possible by the antagonism between the governor and his deputy. When it was time for the former governor to leave the stage, he sidelined his loyal deputy and picked someone else.
In Abia State, during the same period, Orji Uzor Kalu, as governor had problems with deputies who served with him, that he also changed up to two before he exited office in 2007. The first was Enyinnaya Abaribe, who is now a Senator and late Dr. Chima Nwafor. Even after him, the current governor, Theodore Orji had had to do away with his deputy, Chris Akomas, during the run-up to the 2011 election.
In Adamawa State, it became a running battle between Bello Tukur and ex-governor Boni Haruna. Tukur aligned with Haruna’s political opponents led by Jubril Aminu in a bid to unseat him before the expiration of the constitutionally guaranteed tenure. This explained why Tukur later emerged as chief of staff to Admiral Murtala Nyako in his first coming as governor.
Bauchi was another interesting kettle of fish. While Governor Adamu Muazu was in charge, Abdulmalik Mahmoud, a political heavyweight from the Katagun zone was the deputy. A native and former chairman of Itas/Gadau Local Government Council, he expected that he would naturally be eased into the seat, even as the geo-political factor in the state was expected to favour him. But, that was not to be as politics threw up other contenders, such as Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Aliyu Nadada and Isa Yuguda, a former minister.
Surprisingly, Nadada was the former governor’s choice, a situation that made Yuguda to defect to the ANPP, picked its ticket, and eventually triumphed at the poll on April 14, 2007.
Recently, governor of Taraba State, Danbaba Danfulani Suntai, spearheaded the impeachment of his deputy, Alhaji Sani Abubakar Danladi, and weeks later he was involved in a plane crash.
In Bayelsa State, former Governor Timipre Sylva sacked his erstwhile deputy, Peremobowei Ebebi, a former Speaker of the State House of Assembly, on charges of excessive ambition, while in Plateau State, Paullen Tallen, came under Governor Jonah Jang’s sledgehammer when she decided to contest the governorship seat against him in the 2011 general elections. Tallen joined the Labour Party (LP) along with her supporters.
In Osun State, deputy governor Iyiola Omisore was a thorn in the flesh of Governor Bisi Akande. He was impeached by the House of Assembly. In Ogun, former Deputy Governor Gbenga Kaka always grumbled about being sidelined. He usually complained that former Governor Olusegun Osoba preferred to saddle the Works Commissioner, Segun Adesegun, with assignments that should ordinarily be assigned by the governor to him.
Last November, without any prior warning, former Akwa Ibom State deputy governor, Nsima Ekere, resigned his position, stating that he took the action “on personal grounds.” Later inquests revealed that his resignation was deeply rooted in the succession politics being played in the state ahead of the 2015 election. It was discovered that he was a victim of his own ambition, which was to become the next governor of the state.
Unfortunately for Ekere, his interest clashed seriously with that of others who, perhaps, were more desperate for the position than he was. They, as a result, hatched up plans to have him impeached. In their calculation, his impeachment would serve two purposes. One, it would dissuade him from attempting to run for the office; and two, it would put a permanent legal wedge against any plans by him for future elections.
Few hours to the execution of the plan, he got wind of it, and did some quick and serious thinking by throwing in the towel rather than wait for the House of Assembly to carry through their plans. He believed this would help secure his ambition, both for the present and for the future.
In the Second Republic, the friction got to a crescendo in Oyo State. The governor, the late Chief Bola Ige, had to withdraw the roles assigned his deputy, Sunday Afolabi, as the feud and crisis of confidence between them festered. Even, at a time, the deputy governor’s allowances were withheld by his boss. Both the governor and deputy governor were members of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) Federal Executive Council. As the crisis escalated, two of them were nearly expelled by the party at the Yola Congress. Finding no space in UPN then, Afolabi aligned with the then National Party of Nigeria (NPN), a major adversary to the UPN.
It was worse in Ondo and the then Bendel Btates. In Ondo, Deputy Governor Akin Omoboriowo was invested with power by Governor Adekunle Ajasin, which he used to the detriment of the governor. When Ajasin later withdrew the powers, the vibrant deputy governor was left in the cold. A maverick, he rallied many key leaders and launched a virulent attack on the administration under which he served as number two citizen. It was worse in the then Bendel State where the deputy governor, Demas Akpore, also challenged his boss, Ambrose Ali, to a duel during the governorship shadow poll. The cabinet, presided by Ali was polarised for four years.
Even the presidency is not left out in this cat and mouse relationship between the substantives and subordinates. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his vice, Atiku Abubakar, battled each other to a standstill over succession issue. Atiku eventually lost out and had to leave the ruling PDP to contest the 2007 presidential election on the platform of opposition Action Congress (AC), which he lost to late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua.
The most current and potent one, Imo, is only a continuation of a long and consistent, if somewhat traditional peculiar relationship between a political boss and his lieutenant. This has been and there are no indications that it will end, at least, in the foreseeable future. According to one analyst, Nigerian politics is sadly built on the premise of who gets what and who is where. And for this singular imperative, the feud between governors – even presidents – and their deputies will continue.
Read more: The Sun News
