By Palladium
Edo governor Monday Okpebholo is less than two months in office, but he has raked up controversies some older governors would probably envy. He started with appointments, which seemed desultory, and which ignored the structured pattern many governors pursue and Nigerians are familiar with. Then he dived full length into a budget reading fiasco that provoked scorn and laughter, as he struggled to make sense of the figures millions and billions. Traipsing through governance as if previous and damaging controversies mean nothing to him, he has chalked up another miracle: the suspension through the Edo State House of Assembly of Edo’s 18 local government chairmen and vice chairmen for two months for gross misconduct and insubordination. Fourteen of the lawmakers sanctioned the suspension, while six opposed the move, and three abstained. Edo has a majority Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) assembly. If Edo people love to see their governor keeping several balls in the air, they have not voiced it; but they could be wondering privately what other hard bones he would throw to the dogs before he completes six months of his first term in office.
Predictably, a legal brouhaha has ensued, with the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi, insisting, though a little obliquely, that the governor lacked the constitutional backing to ‘remove’ the chairmen. It didn’t seem like the AGF had time to examine the matter before going public with his perspective. But Edo insists it followed the law, never intended to undermine the Supreme Court judgement on LG financial autonomy, and had only suspended the chairmen for two months, not remove them, by petitioning the House of Assembly. The states’ action, he said, was in line with Section 20, of the Local Government Law of Edo State, 2000. The PDP has mocked Mr Okpebholo and sided with Mr Fagbemi, but in 2019, former governor Godwin Obaseki of the PDP, using the same law, suspended LG chairmen and left a vacuum for two years in the LGs. In the view of the state, the suspension of the chairmen is also in line with Section Seven of the 1999 Constitution.
Regardless of the position of the AGF, Mr Okpebholo is unlikely to back down. It is not in his stoical nature to back down from anything. He can sometimes be self-deprecating, such as when in exasperation he admitted during his budget presentation that figures confused him, or exhibited blasé indifference when the public raised eyebrows at his first set of unstructured appointments. He seemed to say that he would be so focused that he would not allow distractions to destabilise him as he sets about rebuilding a state hobbled by Mr Obaseki’s long-running antidemocratic policies and actions. Until the constitution is debated, it may be difficult to determine who between Mr Okpebholo and Mr Fagbemi is right. Meanwhile, while the Edo governor has hit the ground running as it were, he obviously needs a little more circumspection than he is showing. Governance is not just about good intentions, or even good policies; it is also about methods, and to some extent about style. So far, he does not appear to have handled his appointments with aplomb. He needs to get better, and must demonstrate better judgement in recruiting his cabinet and staff, judging their character if he can, and determining how to measure their competence and productivity. What is even more evident is that he has not seemed to assemble a kitchen cabinet to help him meet minds on appointments and policies. Without that close support staff, he will continue to flounder, moving slowly and sluggishly, and sometimes reversing himself and expending valuable time correcting mistakes. He needs an inner caucus of very competent and courageous advisers who can debate him and act as a sounding board before he goes public with any policy or idea.
Mr Okpebholo may be right about the suspension of the LG chairmen. For after all, he is acting on precedent, has not violated the Supreme Court judgement on LG autonomy, has neither sacked the chairmen nor dissolved the LGs, and has followed due process in line with the state’s laws. More importantly, the Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly is PDP, and a majority of Edo lawmakers, who are PDP, also sanctioned the two-month suspension. But whatever the outcome of the controversy and debate on the suspension of the LG chairmen, it would not harm his reputation for studiousness nor stifle his innocence and honesty. Those virtues seem engaging, even entrancing. It’s rare to see him smile, let alone laugh. Yet, to some observes, his stoicism does not smother his capacity for empathy. He is ambitious, in a hurry, wants to make an enduring name, and possesses the innate belief that a governor, warts and all, can and must remain a public servant in contrast to the hubris and imperialness of his predecessor, Mr Obaseki.
But if Mr Okpebholo does not already know, those he has positioned around himself must remonstrate with him that no matter how ready he is to make a difference, and no matter how sound his policies are, his administration and legacy can be profaned by a lack of circumspection and methodicalness. The indispensable virtues of sense and method help cement legacies. He has inspired some good policies and shown a lot of earnestness in governance, but until he brings circumspection to bear on policy enunciation, he risks undermining the good work he appears determined to do. Worse, he risks being dismissed as schoolboyish if in some instances he abjures a scientific approach to governance in preference to running an administration purely led by instincts. He is less than two months in office, so he must let the tentativeness and awkwardness of the past few weeks constitute a learning curve from which he takes correction. And let those who sponsored his campaign and backed him to the hilt before he won election and assumed office appreciate the value of giving him enough elbow room to experiment and mature, and occasionally offering him sound and contemplative reasoning and ideas rather than breathing down his neck over payback.
Credit: The Nation
