IMAGINE what dreary times majority of Nigerians are going through as they are locked down because of the Corona Virus. Their complaints of hunger, anger, and deprivations are worsened by promises of palliatives that have not arrived after weeks. They contemplate the uncertainties of the days ahead.
Our Governors are possibly having worse times. They have food to eat. They live in palaces that have been made comfortable often without considerations for the resources of the State. These servant leaders, as many of them ridiculously call themselves, are suffering from a worse form of hunger – they cannot travel abroad.
If there is one thing our Governors share in common, it is the inexplicable urge to travel. They travel, it does not matter where, if they can put a distance between them and their responsibilities. Those who were not frequent travellers before being promoted by votes above their people have courted the habit. The ones you think would have become wearied by too many foreign trips are piling up the kilometres.
Travels form the most competitive sphere for our Governors. There must be Senior Special Assistants (Special Duties) whose brief could be to find the most exotic places on earth for His Excellency. The brief is taken with enough seriousness that manufacturing a reason for a trip is not difficult. Where the funds would come from, how the trip would hinder more pressing matters in the State are secondary, if ever they are considered.
Itineraries of most Governors show that the past six weeks of the lockdown are the longest stretch they have been in their States. They are bored. They are burdened by being in their States for so long, with the people. They cannot understand why a virus should tie them down. They are restless.
Their holiday plans have been shattered. The truth though is that they are mostly on vacation otherwise known as economic missions. In and out of season, they know the holiday islands to suit their dynamic tastes.
Corona Virus has burdened our Governors with having to solve a problem beyond bland boundary disputes and cheap chieftaincy titles. The Governors Forum cannot meet for a few days in Abuja. What is a Governor’s life without jetting in and out of Abuja or deciding to knock off a few weeks there? Nothing, outside elections, has tortured Governors like the virus.
They would have amassed in Abuja for the burial of the President’s Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, with whom many of them now claim a personal relationship. we never knew. The long queue of Governors paying their condolences would be in order. It would not late for the Chairman of the Forum Kayode Fayemi to lead his colleagues when social distancing is abolished .
It was not surprising that some Governors had asked the Minister of Aviation to permit special flights for them. They were heading abroad, away from the disruption they create at home.
Had they made the application after last week, they could have stated that they had scheduled foreign investors from Madagascar, to develop a Nigerian version of the Corona Virus remedy since the Madagascan President is promoting one. They will still make that trip; it is important for national peace and tranquility. Just watch how they would rush once travel restrictions are removed.
Nigerians do not understand the importance of these foreign trips to our Governors. A concession should be made to Governors that they alone understand the purpose of the visits which is often different from the reason. If the trend continues, a governorship candidate may include in his manifesto that he would not make foreign trips.
Those who believe in curses say trips are one major curse our Governors bear. It might as well be generational and general. Trips are the only enduring tradition and culture of our Governors. For some of them, it is also a religion. Foreign trips, in particular, and Abuja in general, delight our Governors. Most of them rule their States from Abuja. When the Governor travels, he shuts down the State. Not even the most minimal step can be taken in His Excellency’s absence.
Plaint State Houses of Assembly, peopled with politicians who are grateful when Governors pay their allowances, as if the resources are the Governors’, cannot make Governors accountable hence they go and come as they please.
Myths surround the place of foreign trips in the agenda of our Governors. Decades ago when banking in Nigeria was in its ancient format, some alleged that the trips were economic to the point that they permitted Governors to keep their loot abroad. Banks in the era of digital financial transactions are filling that void. So why do our Governors still go abroad with such frequency? Their accusers say they travel to ensure that their transfers were secure and accessible.
There is no doubt that if the thousands of trips our Governors have made since 1999 were for the economic development of our States, Nigeria would have been running its economy without the stranglehold of oil and gas. Our Governors have never found the right investors hence the trips must continue.
On the other hand, Abuja is like a resort, a refuge, a haven from the prying eyes of those who never appreciate the labours of our Governors. Someone made a strong argument for the Governors that in an era of digitalisation, governments can be run from anywhere the Governors are. The missed point is that once they travel, governance travels with them, and they are mostly unreachable. In most cases, other members of the government, including the Deputy Governor, may not know that His Excellency has travelled.
When our Governors travel in this manner, their itinerary is top secret. The clearest evidences of their absence are cessation of financial approvals, cancellation of the State Executive Council meetings, low flow of visitors to the Governor’s Office. Since most Governors hardly keep appointments or are late to meetings, it takes a series of activities to defect that His Excellency is unavailable.
From then speculations would taken a flight on when His Excellency would return. The state of the Governor’s becomes another point of speculation. The trips are so deceptively executed that the protocol teams are often sent short notices that His Excellency was arriving the nearest airport soon. They would spend the day there. They dare not leave until a benevolent associate of the Governor, if he knows.
They would be lucky to get a message that the arrival had been delayed. It must be noted that they have no idea of where the Governor has been. They would not know where in Nigeria he is.
Most Governors use chartered flight or private jets that many suspect actually could be theirs. The discreteness around these trips are admissions that they were for some opaque reasons.
Whatever informs the trips, Corona Virus has taught our peripatetic Governors that they can stay in their States, and that contrary to their fears, they would survive.
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