The main political news in Nigeria in recent times was the impeachment of the former Deputy Governor of Edo State, Mr. Philip Shaibu. I was particularly interested in this news as any news about Edo State excites me because of my nine-year happy sojourn in Benin-City the capital of the State in the seventies.
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The Edo State House of Assembly on Monday 8th of April at its plenary, overwhelmingly voted for Shaibu’s removal from office following the adoption of the report of the panel instituted by the Chief Judge of the State Daniel Okungbowa to investigate the allegation of gross misconduct levelled against him. The panel found Shaibu guilty of the allegations levelled against him by the Governor, Godwin Obaseki. With a rather lightning speed, the Chief Judge sworn in Omobayo Marvellous Godwins from the same Edo North Senatorial district as Shaibu to replace him. The choice of Omobayo as the new Deputy Governor baffled many political observers in the State because he was never known to be a member of PDP which is the party of the Governor. Infact, it is on record that Omobayo was the candidate of the Labour party at the Akoko Edo Federal constituency at the 2023 election. However, like most politicians, it is always difficult to decipher the mind of ever calculating eloquent Governor Obaseki who decamped from APC with Shaibu in 2024 to contest for the Governorship election.
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From my little observation of the political acumen of Philip Shaibu, I thought he was politically astute enough to know that he would incur the wrath of his Principal, Godwin Obaseki immediately he expressed his desire to contest the Edo State Gubernatorial election slated for September 21, 2024. Before he expressed his intention to contest the election, the relationship between him and the Governor was cordial. Infact, many people felt that he was the most favoured Deputy Governor in the present dispensation as he had more responsibilities than his contemporaries in other states. Together he and Godwin Obaseki fought Adams Oshiomhole and they trounced him and his favoured candidate badly in the last Edo State Governorship election in 2020, Oshiomhole has just recovered from the shock after winning the Edo North Senatorial seat in the 2023 election.
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The center could not hold between Obaseki and Shaibu because Obaseki felt that under the novel Nigeria political arrangement of ‘turn by turn’ (apologies to Adams Oshiomhole), the next Governor of the State should come from Edo Central belonging to the Esan people, instead of Edo North where Shaibu comes from. This appears to me to be reasonable because it is the only Edo Central Senatorial district that has not produced an authentic Governor in the present political dispensation that started in 1999. Governor Obaseki’s stand did not go down with Shaibu, but the Governor has now had his way by using all the government and party machinery against the ambition of Shaibu. Through his political maneuvering he has succeeded in installing Asue Ighodalo as the official PDP candidate in the coming election. Philip Shaibu is now high and dry politically. It has been reported that he is already making moves to reconcile with his estranged feisty Godfather, Adams Oshiomhole. However, as of now the political future of this flamboyant politician is foggy.
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In all the razzmatazz surrounding the removal of Philip Shaibu as the deputy Governor, and the installation of Omobayo Godwins as the new Deputy Governor of Edo State, I was taken aback by the speech of the new Deputy Governor after he had been sworn in.  The 38years Akoko Edo born Omobayo in part of his speech excitedly said, ‘whatever he ( the Governor) said I should do is what I will do.’ Much as I believe that the Deputy Governor should be loyal to his Principal, I think this part of his speech was unfortunate as it has inadvertently given the impression that he is going to be ‘boy-boy’ of the Governor. This means he would just carry out the order of the Governor like Zombie, and certainly this should not be the situation at that level of governance. However, regrettably this is the norm in Nigeria after twenty-five years of democratic dispensation. In present Nigeria, it is not off the mark to say that State Governors have turned themselves into dictators in their States. They usually have a firm and suffocating grip on legislature, judiciary and local governments in their States. Unfortunately, they make all these organs of governance to carry out their biddings without any dissent.
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In Nigeria, Deputy Governors have been made into disposable materials which can be discarded at the whims of their Principals , the Governors. This situation is at variance with what happens in the USA where we copied the presidential system of governance. In that country, the Lieutenant Governor in any state is equivalent to that of Deputy Governor. It is the highest office after that of the Governor, The Lieutenant Governor stands in for the Governor when the officer is absent from the state or temporarily incapacitated. In the event of the Governor leaving office through death, impeachment or resignation, the Lieutenant Governor automatically becomes the Governor. In some states, the Governor and the Lieutenant Governor are elected on the same ticket ensuring that they come from the same political party. In some states they are elected separately, and they may come from different political parties. Lieutenant Governors unlike our Deputy Governors are given specific duties such as presiding over Upper House which we don’t have in our states or they are made to head state boards or commissions. In Nigeria, the constitution does not give specific role to the Deputy Governor. The Deputy Governor in our situation is at the mercy of the Governor who may not be well disposed to him and may just cosign him to a dingy office to read daily newspapers.
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In view of our rife political intolerance and greed impeachment, is now a veritable instrument in the hands of the Governors to get rid of their Deputies. At presidential level so far, we have not seen the use of impeachment to get rid of a Vice-President, although President Obasanjo would have loved to impeach his Vice, Atiku Abubakar during his second term. He tried to remove him, but the court thwarted his move. In the past twenty-five years of political dispensation, we have had series of impeachment. However, before this period, the first classical use of the instrument of impeachment was during the second Republic between 1979 and 1983, when the Kaduna State House of Assembly controlled by NPN impeached Balarabe Musa of PRP and was replaced by his Deputy. Nigeria did not have a case of the removal of Governor by impeachment until January 2006 when Governor Rashidi Ladoja was impeached by the Oyo State House of Assembly. The impeachment was orchestrated by the then so called political strong man of the State, Lamidi Adedibu with the active connivance of the then President, Olusegun Obasanjo. Ladoja was replaced by his Deputy Christopher Alao Akala, However, Ladoja was later reinstated by the court to his post in December ,2006.
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In the present political dispensation, seventeen Deputy Governors have so far been impeached. The states where impeachments of Deputy Governors have taken place include Lagos, Oyo, Ondo, Osun, Edo, Ekiti, Bayelsa, Taraba, Imo, Kogi, Zamfara, Enugu, Bauchi and Akwa Ibom. Recently, in Ondo State, Lucky Aiyedatiwa the erstwhile Deputy Governor of the State and who is now campaigning to be elected to the post of Governor of the state, was almost impeached before the death of his Principal, Rotimi Akeredolu just because some Akeredolu’s supporters did not want him to take over from Akeredolu.
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In view of the prevalence of gale of impeachment directed mainly at the holders of the office of Deputy Governor in our country, I think it is now time to have a critical assessment of this post in our political setting. The Committee set up by the House of Representatives should consider giving specific roles to the holders of this post as it is done for Lieutenant Governors in the USA. The Committe should also put in place stringent measures that would curb the Governors from removing their Deputies at their whims, In the extreme case, the post should be abolished and in case of a vacancy in the office of the Governor, the Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice in the State should be made to act as Governor pending the election of a new Governor. The country has had enough of these unmerited and ego inspired impeachments going on in the country. It is becoming a political foolery as impeachment is now an instrument of coercion in the hands of the Governors so that their Deputies can continue to be ‘boy-boy’ to them.
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Prof. Lucas writes from Old Bodija, Ibadan