Government of former governors. What will they do differently?
When Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima were sworn in as Nigeria’s 16th President and Vice President respectively on May 29, 2023, they became the country’s first President and Vice who had been legislators (Senators) and governors before becoming the No. 1 and 2 citizens of the world’s most populous black nation. It would also be the second time two former governors will be running the country as President and Vice, the first being Umar Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan when they were sworn-in in 2007.
With the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly on Tuesday, June 13, 2023, and emergence of Godswill Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa-Ibom state, as the Senate Presidenct, Nigeria’s first three citizens – the President, Vice President and Senate President, as well as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) George Akume, for the first time since independence, are former governors, who have spent eight years managing the affairs of their respective states. The first three citizens and the SGF also have legislative experience as Senators.
Tinubu was elected as Lagos Senator in 1992 before the military grabbed power in 1993 and truncated democracy. He was governor from 1999-2007 and has remained a political godfather since then, before running for president in 2023. He has business interests in TVC and The Nation newspaper and several others.
Shettima, a former banker, was governor of Boko Haram-ravaged Borno state from 2011-2019 and was elected Senator in 2019. The abduction of Chibok girls in 2014 took place when he was governor.
Akpabio, a lawyer, served as a commissioner and two term governor of Akwa Ibom state South-South Nigeria under the Peoples Democratic Party. He was elected Senator in 2015 and crossed to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2018 but lost his bid to return to the Senate in 2019. He was appointed Minister of Niger Delta Affairs and spent three years in office before resigning in 2022 to run for President under the APC. After stepping down for Tinubu in the primaries, the APC replaced the name of and nominated Akpabio as the party’s candidate for Akwa-Ibom North-West senatorial seat. The replacement led to legal battles that dragged to the Supreme Court. On January 21, about a month to the February 25, 2023, Presidential and NASS elections, the Supreme Court declared Akpabio as APC’s validly nominated candidate. Akpabio defeated a former governor of Zamfara state Abdulaziz Yari to emrger Senate President on June 13.
At the Senate which has become a sort of retirement home of former governors, 14 of the 109 lawmakers elected in 2023 are former governors.
Many of the politicians queuing to be appointed Ministers are also former governors. Former Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti state is being tipped as the Foreign Affairs Minister. Also on the queue is Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano state, and other outgoing and former APC governors who all lost their Senatorial bid – Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi state, Simon Lalong of Plateau State who was Director General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Ben Ayade of Cross River State, among others.
The new government is gradually looking like a party of former governors who are also positioning to make up Tinubu’s cabinet. But what do they bring to the table and what difference would their experiences as former state executives make on the dwindling fortune of the country?
The nee government inherits:
- A nation with 63% (133 million) multidimensionally poor residents;
- 33.3% (23.18 million people) jobless citizens;
- 21.82% inflation as of January 2023, the highest since September 2005;
- N46.25 trillion national debt as at the end of December 2022. Experts say it is likely to hit above N77 trillion by end of 2023;
- 9.6 million out-of-school children from ages six to 11;
- 4,545 people were killed by non-state actors and 4,611 others were kidnapped in 2022.
The list goes on.
If it is by impressive résumés, experience and the charisma to lead, we may not be bothered, but the many demons of the Nigerian state have defeated impressive résumés in the past. Jonathan is a PhD holder, former governor and Vice President. Muhammadu Buhari, a former military general, could not tackle insecurity in eight years.
Who would have thought that a government where Yemi Osinbajo, a Professor of Law, law lecturer and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, is the Vice President, would demonstrate the worst form of disregard for rule of law and court orders by a democratic government? Then there is Babatunde Fashola – the Lagos ‘poster boy for good governance’ – who was unable to fix the country’s power sector when he was in-charge of the nation’s Ministry of Power for four years.
Although many Nigerians have doubts in the résumés of the new set of leaders, those who see it as a spark of hope believe the country’s new leadership would perform better than the outgoing government, if their résumés can be trusted.
Managing Nigeria is a herculean task that requires more than a solid résumé, you also need the mental and physical strength, empathy, doggedness, strength of character and more. Do the new leaders have this? We may not be able to say.
With a lot of overlap in the characteristics and the experience that the President, Vice, Senate President, SGF and cabinet members bring on board that is expected to make them a dynamic team, we hope they stick to the script and the country turns out just fine in a few years.
- Last updated, Tuesday, June 13, 3023. Read previous version here.
