On Sunday, Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State thanked President Bola Tinubu for not interfering with the judgment of the Supreme Court, which declared his election valid last week. It is a most absurd sentiment for a governor to express.
One understands that the near-fatal judicial trajectory his electoral victory suffered before the Supreme Court’s intervention must have put him on edge, but equanimity and discretion are essential qualities that leaders worthy of the name must always exhibit.
It is also worthy of note that Yusuf was not alone in this outrageous gubernatorial expression of gratitude to the President, who should have no role in any judicial process. Nearly all governors cleared by the Supreme Court last week attempted to venerate the President.
However, the Kano State helmsman went overboard with this adulation until it sounded ridiculous and embarrassing. He said this to the tumultuous crowd that welcomed him from Abuja to Kano and he gave place to it in his broadcast to the people.
Even if Tinubu were the god supplying oxygen for the sustenance of democracy in the country, a state governor, the head of a sub-national entity, elected on the platform of another party should not give the impression that another tier of democratic governance can subjugate the nation’s judicial authority in a federation like ours. That is the essence of the principle of separation of powers, which a governor, if no one else, should know!
Yusuf and other presidential praise choristers are also unfair to the eminent justices who endured sleepless nights in their bid to uphold the law. Such unguarded statements stain the reputation of our justices and paint a picture of a pliant judiciary whose decisions and judgments are guided and dictated by external forces. It suggests that their hands are tied, not by the dictates of the laws but by the control of individuals and forces outside the contemplation of the country’s laws. This proposition is depressing and suggesting that this democracy is a joke, not just to Nigerians but foreign observers of the country.
For starters, these governors swore to uphold the 1999 Constitution. And the constitution spells out the responsibilities of each arm of government. It shows that the President cannot interfere with the judgment of courts, and it requires the judiciary to make decisions independently, according to the laws of the land some of which the court sometimes, makes.
The importance of the idea of separation of powers is explicit in Baron de Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws (1748), an essential 18th-century work on political science.
Here, the French philosopher states: “There can be no liberty where the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or body of magistrates … [or] if the power of judging is not separated from the legislative and executive powers.”
Former United States President James Madison, credited for his pivotal role in the drafting of the American Constitution and the Bill of Rights, tried to reconcile Montesquieu’s views with the American Constitution in Federalist No. 47 (1788).
According to him: “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
That tyranny is the exact situation that state governors suggest when they make comments like the ones under discussion. In making sense of such statements, you will wonder whether Abba and his friends also teleguide judges in their state. And that is actually not far-fetched.
Not too long ago, a former governor proudly told us that he selected everyone who contested for office in his state. Not only did this former governor determine who got what, he also boasted about purchasing the nomination forms for every contestant in the 2023 elections. This included his successor, with whom he is now having a running battle! So, governors play god with and try to appropriate the legislature and judiciary!
It starts with selecting members of state Houses of Assembly before elections. The selected ones thereafter become pawns in the hands of their benefactors. Governors dictate leaders of the legislature; they also hold the leash to remove and replace at will. The stranglehold on state legislature was so bad that for years, state Houses of Assembly voted against constitutional amendments that guaranteed their autonomy. They chose the economic bondage that restrained them from performing their constitutional essential checks and balances, choosing self-preservation over the good of the electorate.
The result of this capture and castration of the legislature in the states is the tyrannical rule of governors where no questions are asked, and none are answered. Our governors are the all-in-all in their states. Good governance, accountability and transparency are pushed to the background while governors have a field day with their reign of impunity.
It is the same way state governors have captured the judiciary in their states. Most judicial officers see themselves as appendages of the states and do not have the nerve to take positions against that canvassed by the governors, even when they run against justice. What is worse about the executive trespass of boundaries of authority is the suffocating influences of political actors in appointing and promoting judicial officers. This is primarily responsible for the incompetence or compromises that currently dog the judiciary at various levels.
This totalitarian conduct of governors is what the euphoria that attends last week‘s judgment affirming the victory of these governors of Lagos, Ogun, Cross River, Enugu, and Bauchi and reversing the sack of their counterparts in Kano, Zamfara and Plateau, and the praises of President Tinubu for non-interference underscores.
It reflects the inner thinking of those who drive our democratic journey and the real reasons behind the failure to use democracy as a catalyst for development and human progress in the 36 states of the country.
Unfortunately, if those who superintend the states carry on with this absolutist mindset, the survival of democracy and national growth will remain a mirage. Unless we have authentic, courageous, and knowledgeable democrats running the states, the tight hold of selfish politicians would only breed more poverty and ignorance. It will limit the capacity of our people to actualise themselves and perpetually the country is in danger. The governors just need to do better at allowing the growth of democratic institutions in the interest of the people.
For instance, one of the most formidable credentials of Tinubu was his performance as governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007. In addition to increasing the state’s revenue base and its capacity to hold its own as a sub-national, he demonstrated his understanding of the state’s independence. He stood up to every attempt by the Federal Government to intimidate him. Today’s governors must learn a lesson from this and stop presenting themselves as class teachers under the appendage of a supreme principal from Abuja who can decide their survival.
Nigeria’s redemption rests on its transition into a society governed by laws and the principles and values that drive democratic progress. That cannot happen until governors wean themselves of this unitary mentality that they operate.
All actions bear consequences. Leaders must learn to think through their positions, subject thought that can imperil, impede democratic growth. And the excuse that Nigeria is a toddling democracy can no longer be tenable. The first and second republics presented politicians who understood and respected democratic values substantially. Twenty-three years in a world of today’s technological advances leave no excuse for the mediocrity that we call democracy, especially when our sub-optical practices are sniffing life out of our dear country. We must reconsider and do what is right promptly.
Credit: Niran Adedokun