What we have now are these pusillanimous, small-minded, fearful and uncharismatic figures who believe they serve at the pleasure of the president and they owe their position to him and not the people who voted them into office. Nobody embodies this troubling seismic shift in the psyche and character of the current batch of politicians like the Edo State governor
These days, the Nigerian political space is nothing short of a circus with different political actors assuming the role of a clown or stooge who work assiduously to please a certain puppeteer. The political and ruling class have now undeniably been taken over by vacuous, uninspiring and unimaginative characters who deliberately destroy social values, undermine socio-political firmament and erode our democratic ideals.
Nigeria, at least on paper, operates a system of government that is modelled after the American presidential system. Ideally, this system should grant subnational semi-autonomy to manage their own affairs. They also shape the development of the nation and also serve as a counterbalance to the excesses of a domineering and overbearing president. In America, the governors are not an appendage of the president nor are they shamefully subservient to him. This is not the case in Nigeria. We may have copied the American system of government, but what we practice is the opposite of what we copied. From the over-concentration of power in the centre to the disturbing increase in spineless and sycophantic governors, what we have here is not an aberration and bastardisation of the American system we copied, but a sickening lack of circumspection and introspection among our leaders.
The proliferation and pervasion of timorous, spineless, weak-willed and wishy-washy politicians in our political space is a relatively new phenomenon. We used to have fearless, truculent and belligerent governors and lawmakers who refused to be part of a heinous and destructive attempt of a president to consolidate power, who did not let themselves be browbeaten by the tyrannical shenanigans of a president, who refused to be a plaything of the president. They exert their authority and also let the president know that they are equal partners in the Nigerian project.
The prolonged Lagos local government areas allocation imbroglio sparked a long-standing standoff between former president Olusegun Obasanjo and President Bola Tinubu, when he held sway as Lagos governor, which was widely documented. The story of how former governor of Bayelsa state, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, had a heated argument that nearly led to physical confrontation with Obasanjo after the Odi massacre has been widely told. The tales of how federal lawmakers stood up to Obasanjo and blocked his third-term agenda were well documented. These men were bold and audacious. They had a gut, oomph and spine. They are corrupt but they did not cower to the eccentricity and heavyhandedness of an overbearing president.
But that era is long gone. What we have now are these pusillanimous, small-minded, fearful and uncharismatic figures who believe they serve at the pleasure of the president and they owe their position to him and not the people who voted them into office. Nobody embodies this troubling seismic shift in the psyche and character of the current batch of politicians like Edo State governor, Monday Okpebholo. Of course, no one expect a brilliant, visionary, productive and growth-driven governance from him as he left no one in doubtful from the get-go where his allegiance and how he plans to lead the state, but what many did not envisage is the length he is willing to go to ingratiate himself with Tinubu, what many did not anticipate is how much and far he was willing to plumb the depth of slavishness and subservience.
On Friday, he directed the 18 Local Government chairmen to erect 360 campaign billboards for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s reelection across the State. According to him, the erection of the billboard across the 18 Local Government areas is to ensure that the Renewed Hope message of President Tinubu reaches grassroots communities, religious institutions, churches, and mosques. He added that Tinubu was performing and it would be difficult to replace him because his bold and courageous reforms are already transforming Nigeria.
This is not the first time he has indulged in this cringe-worthy obsequious flattery and distasteful defence of everything Tinubu. In October last year, he directed members of his cabinet to openly show their support for President Bola Tinubu by wearing branded outfits bearing the president’s insignia. This kind of intemperate sycophancy tears into the fabric of our democracy. It undermines the concept of checks and balances and lays the groundwork for despotism and authoritarianism.
This is not about supporting your party or the president, you can support the president without turning him into an unquestionable cult hero or demigod. Another tragedy of Okpebholo’s hero worship of Tinubu is that it shifts time, resources and public funds that should be channelled into projects that benefit the people into activities that idolise and canonise Tinubu, depriving already impoverished and immiserated people of social amenities and infrastructural facilities that improve their lives.
A nation where an elected public official sees hero-worshipping of, and excessive deference to another elected public official as a norm, aggressively and obsessively coopts others into this troubling ritual, is not only chipping away at its democratic foundation but also headed for disaster. Someone must tell the governor elected that he was elected into office, albeit controversially, to manage the affairs of Edo State and improve the lives of the state residents. He was not elected to shamefully idolise Tinubu, abandon the critical task of governance and undermine the structure that underpins civil service because he wants to, by any means necessary, engineer the victory of the president at the next polls.